Camping

For those like me who remember the much underrated Mike Leigh classic Nuts In May. Then Julia Davis Camping brings it back to life kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The plot is simple three middle age couples meet up to celebrate a 50th birthday by going on a camping trip. Whilst they may be friends each couple has in one way or another reached mid life crisis. One recently divorced brings along a younger sex mad girlfriend. The other two miserably unhappy with there dull lives, one a recovering alcoholic the other a neurotic mother who is convinced by listening to the right music and eating the right food will prevent her son from being gay! Add to the mix a randy pubescent teenager a creepy landowner who looks after his dieng mother while serving sausages and you have the mad black comedic genius that is Julia Davis. A classic

Absolutely loved this series.... Julia Davis does it again. Just watched the re-run and enjoyed it as much the second time! Those giving this low scores are clearly aged Victor Meldrew types as this is so cleverly scripted with brilliant characters and very original...loved it and will surely watch it a 3rd time also !

Julia Davis is a fearless, constantly hilarious writer and performer. Her observations are so familiar there were times I swore she had read my mind.

The second episode is where this show really starts to take off. Tom and Faye bargaining with the shopkeeper in the "covered arcade" was so well done. Tom is such a fraud. From his head-to-toe denim, to laughing at someone else for not knowing what dubstep is, to when a reference to The Cult is made he replies "Oh wow! Well, I don't know their music but I'm aware of their impact".

It was then, I knew that Julia Davis was able to read my mind.

Davis has been at the forefront of barely watchable comedy for over a decade.

When I say "barely watchable", I mean it in the most complimentary way possible. Camping, like Nighty Night and Davis' other work takes you through an emotional experience similar to a horror movie. You bite your lip, brace yourself for scares, and peek from under a blanket... all with a big childish grin in expectation for the slap in the face of comedy the monsters.

Vicky Pepperdine deserves a standing ovation, she's so perfectly painful to watch - each line delivered is like fingernails scraping across a blackboard. Similarly Rufus Jones somehow envelops the body of a new-age-hipster-loser-wannabe with bizarre excellence, his intonation and physical movements a constant source of belly laughs.

Not to say the rest of the ensemble isn't wonderful, in fact they all embody their cringey characters with effortless grace - the casting director deserves a medal.

Davis has brought a slightly more mature subtlety to this one than some of her previous more in your face brutal works, and if you are a sucker for punishment and love dry, pitch black humour, this is the show for you.

Fully enjoyed this series, albeit a couple of saggy middle episodes, the transformation from first to last episode is amazing, so dark at times and so funny, David Bamber's character especially stood out, painfully awkward to a degree not seen before, taking cringe-com to a whole new level. Big fan of Julia Davis, best woman in comedy, always pushing it forward. If you enjoyed her previous work please stick with this. I have read some other reviews citing how bad this is, this is simply not true, at first the viewer is unsure if Julia has lost her touch but I assure you she hasn't! you cannot take your eyes off the screen in the last couple of episodes, very strong finish.