Episode #1.1

I never really watch what they have on BBC4 and was surprised to find anything this enjoyable. Incredibly funny performances and situations, love the music, the idea - this is British sitcom at its best. Hugh Bonneville and the beautiful Elizabeth Mcgovern have great chemistry and I especially love Tom Hollander as the agent Leon. It is definitely the Brits answer to Curb Your Enthusiasm but in many ways I think it is better. I heard they are putting more on BBC2 early 2008 and I cant wait - this may become my favourite new show. I haven't liked a British comedy since the office ,but this is something that made me laugh out loud. I really hope they make it into a proper series - there are so many ways they can go with this - keep up the good work. LOVE THE SHOW.

Have to admit I only watched the start of this on our lovely BBC 3 while waiting for the paint to dry on the bathroom wall...

Why is it that our contemporary sitcom writers (note for overseas readers, the whole genre has been practically moribund in the UK for some time now, except for this thing called 'My Family' which is just about as inspired as the title suggests)think they can get away with just copying whatever has recently been successful overseas without anyone noticing? All 5 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm are available to buy in pretty much any HMV or Virgin store no matter how hard the schedulers have tried to hide it away on regular TV. What this pale, pale, imitation is lacking is Larry David. And pretty much everything else. The lead character (whose name I can't be bothered to check so for argument's sake I'll call him Not Larry David) is for some reason married to the US actress Elizabeth McGovern who seems to be playing herself. Wow, what a coup for the BBC - Elizabeth McGovern!! Why not stump up the whole hundred quid and get Ally Sheedy for cripes sake! Other seen-better-days celebrities flit ind out of the (in)action.The rest of the set-up isn't even worth going into. It looks dull, it smells dull, and by God it is dull! That paint on the wall is looking more and more enticing. Back in the late 90s our beloved BBC(further note to overseas readers; each owner of a TV set in the UK pays over £100 pounds per year to the BBC whether we choose to watch their channel or not, this is called a license fee and is mostly spent on hallucinogenic drugs if their output is anything to go by) made one season of a very amusing sitcom called Hippies. It wasn't widely admired but it was written by the guys behind Father Ted and it starred a young Simon (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) Pegg. At the end of its 6 episode run the Announcer informed us that a second series would follow the next year. It never did. I'm an unforgiving sort of guy. What's the betting that 'Freezing' (Larry David, you're richer than God, you don't need to sue but please, don't let that stop you) will be hailed as the new 'Cold Feet' and run and run and run........

Matt's publishing firm decides to downsize and let him go. This sees Matt able to spend more time at home working on his novel. At the same time, Matt's wife Elisabeth McGovern is also struggling to find work as an actress despite being previously Oscar nominated. While she tries to get work through her agent, Matt stresses over writer's block and the work of a new sci-fi writer.

Bloody Curb Your Enthusiasm has a lot to answer for. When it first arrived in the UK and the BBC had it for a while before losing the later seasons to another channel, but with Lead Balloon and now Freezing, BBC4 are doing their best to cover up for its loss. Of course this is not a bad thing in all cases (I quite enjoyed Lead Balloon for example) but here I did much of value other than throw some famous faces into the mix but forget laughs and substance. The plot is very simple and is supposed to be a few days in the life of Matt and Elisabeth, who live in the "real" world. Matt struggles with mistakes and his feelings in this world, causing all sorts of "hilarious" occurrences; so far, so derivative. And sadly it doesn't move beyond this approach to actually produce anything that is clever or funny. Indeed it crawls forward with very obvious material with everyone involved just seeming to think that by being awkward, making mistakes and having famous people playing themselves that somehow it will all just work.

Well, unfortunately it doesn't and I got very bored with it very quickly. It is telling that the trailers for it used the Richard E. Grant cameo to sell the film – a fine example as it obvious and unfunny. The cast are all very starry though and it did make me wonder how so many of them read the script and figured it was worth their time. Bonneville was much better in Five Days recently and here he just resorts to an English version of Larry David – stuttering where the latter rants. McGovern does little with the little material she has to work with. Richardson, Grant, Yentob and others line up for cameos and don't really add much more than their faces (although embarrassingly the script has Matt identify Yentob just so the audience do know he is famous).

Overall then a rather pointless and unfunny English comedy that shamelessly imitates Curb in several ways but sadly forgets to imitate its success. It has almost no laughs in it and the material lacks any wit or intelligence and just plods its way through an obvious narrative. God knows why it got the stars it did or the push from BBC4.