A Gert Lush Christmas

What a shame about this one-hour special. With the cast and one of the writers being Russell Howard, this had so much going for it... Unfortunately, it fails on so many counts.

I loved the idea of a more adult show, however, it seems as though a couple of six-year-old's (who usually do loads of funny things spontaneously, though have no real concept of humour) wrote it. The jokes were immature, which isn't always a bad thing; though, on this occasion, they were just unfunny; and the "sex" jokes were overdone and were pure drivel at it's worst.

I would recommend you do anything before watching this garbage. Even the fans of Russell Howard's (which I class myself as) would be better not to watch this, so their opinion of Russell doesn't diminish.

Please Mr Howard, no more like this.

Russell Howard takes a stint at acting starring as Dan who takes his girlfriend Lisa to the West Country from the bright lights of cosmopolitan London to meet his eccentric and brash family for Christmas.

Dan's dad is fitness obsessed, his uncle is party loving and dope taking. The various females tend to be broad minded and saucy with it and his old friend is a pervert who loves making erotic movies.

Gert Lush is a form of praise in Bristol. I doubt it will be applied here. At a party Dan has had his drink spiked and Lisa catches him enthusiastically kissing another girl and breaks off with him. Dan mopes about and tries to get her back.

This one hour special is nothing special but is mildly amusing especially as you catch references from other films. A little bit of The Hangover, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Meet the Parents and lots of Carry On.

Howard hardly stretches himself acting wise. I guess his fans from his Good News programmes would be slightly shocked by some of the vulgarity which does not make this programme family friendly.

I think it was just rather lazily written with West Country folks just being sex obsessed but with a heart of gold.