Human Remains

It's such a shame that this comic gem has passed under the radar slightly but it's probably for the better as Human Remains holds itself better as a "cult" show.

The writing of Human Remains, all done by Julia Davis and Rob Brydon, is superb and the accuracy of the observation is spot on. Chances are, you will have met at least one of the characters they play sometime in your life. They also manage to hit the mark with their performances which variate so much with each character it is a true showcase of their acting and comic talents.

The comedy is very dark in places and sometimes quite sick, but if that's the kind of humour you like then you will love this. But you would also love this if you appreciate great comedy.

Wonderfully understated black humour, as only the Brits can do it.

There are a few misses along the way, but for the most this is top notch stuff and highly recommended. The second (?) episode about the couple that run the Bed and Breakfast is pure comic heaven.

The reason i have done this review now is because i was watching the comedy awards the other night and one of the series that had won thanked the makers of it for giving them the chance in the first place.

The makers were the company baby cow (steve coogan) who also made human remains an absolute classic of a series and in my opinion never received the credit it so deserved. At the time this was made both brydon and davies were not the household names they are today and i just thought to myself what an eye for comic genius coogan must have.

The writing and performance in all six episodes just shows how talented brydon and davies really are. One of the best British comedy series ever made and should be up there with the likes of python and milligan.

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There was a lot more I didn't like about it than I did. For the most part it's filled with meandering nonsense, it has the "beating a dead horse" style of British comedy that I never really liked, it's basically the same gag done over and over in different scenarios or circumstances. There are some good bits in there but you really have to have patience to get there. Looking back at this series, I think they should have just picked one or two of these characters and did a fully fleshed out series and made sense of those particular characters and told a well crafted story with them. I even noticed there was a short scene in one of these where it fades in offering nothing to the story and fades out and just looks like it was added to fill time. There are plenty of dud scenes that could have been left out. And also what stands out is just how much better some episodes are than the rest. If your a fan of these actors you'll probably just want to watch for the sake of seeing more of them and that's pretty much the reason I bothered watching.

Human Remains is an odd name for a comedy series and thats because its a bleak comedy told in a fly in the wall documentary style and it only lasted one series.

The series stars and was co-written by Rob Brydon and Julia Davis. It was scrip edited by Henry Normal and Steve Coogan was one of the producers.

Each of the six episodes documents a different couple all played by Brydon and Davis and most of the episodes showed that relationships being unhappy and the humour black. Both actors are also heavily and at times bizarrely made up.

Death, violence and depression seem to feature in each of the episodes. For example in the episode 'More than Happy' Brydon plays the optimistic shopkeeper Les while Davis plays his wife Ray, she has suffered the loss of children, business worries, battles with depression and her only solace is to give her husband prolonged anal intercourse through an object she purchased second hand which he finds deeply uncomfortable but she finds immensely pleasurable.