SUBURBAN NIGHTMARE (SEMI DETACHED)

 

For someone who has one of the sharpest comic minds on panel shows, Lee Mack has had a patchy record when it comes to otgher comic vehicles.

Mack is at his spontaneous best on shows like Channel 4's 'Eight Out of Ten Cats' and 'The Big Fat Quiz of the 90s' and especially as a team captain on BBC1's 'Would I Lie To You?'.

However he has not quite convinced as a fictional version of himself on BBC1's 'Not Going Out,' a hit sitcom which has run for 10 series despite only delivering moderate laughs.

In addition to his popular stand up career, there was a brief stint as the host of the BBC1 sports comedy quiz 'They Think It's All Over' before it folded.

He rubbed shoulders with Kelsey Grammar on a failed US version for FOX of ITV's 'The Sketch Show' which he had also starred in in the UK with Ronni Ancona and Tim Vine.

In a bid to cement his sitcom credentials, Mack has gone for outright farce this year with BBC2's 'Semi-Detached' - a seven episode real time comedy about the trials and tribulations of a wedding DJ.

Mack plays the put upon and easily badgered Stuart whose ex-wife, Samantha Spiro's Kate is an ambitious Tory who lives opposite him in a house in their cul de sac with their grown up, environmental activist daughter, Sarah Hoare's Madonna.

Stuart also has to endure the taunts of Kate's obnoxious, flashy, arrogant partner Patrick Baladi's Ted.

However he has a new partner, Ellie White's head in the clouds, slightly posher April and a baby daughter.

The house is also shared with his pot smoking, gay pensioner dad, Clive Russell's Willie whose mission to grow old recklessly involves picking up lovers on Grindr and bringing them to his home.

Stuart has to put up with a brother as well, Neil Fitzmaurice's Charlie whose involvement in a Ponzi scheme has meant he is effectively on the run - periodically turning up at the house to leech off Stuart and his family.

Then there is Geoffrey McGivern's neighbour Barry and his wife, Cecilia Noble's Sandy and their colourful sex life to contend with.

With all these ingredients, writers David Crow and Oliver Maltman and director Ben Palmer set about delivering a hectic farce.

Theis means crafting episodes where Ted accidentally cuts off a finger, another where Charlie is terrorised by a victim of his Ponzi scheme, another where Kate's father dies and another where they go on a ferry to disperse the old man's ashes.

Frances Barber turns up for two episodes as Kate's stern mother, Patricia while Christian Brassington is Humphrey, a posh boy obsessed with April.

Yet despite all of these elements, Crow and Maltman's sitcom doesn't quite click.

Part of the problem is too often, the show appears to be screaming "zany" at its audience while not delivering sufficient laughs.

In pre-publicity, BBC Commissioning Editor George Sharp enthused 'Semi-Detached' was one of the funniest scripts he had ever read.

But somehow in the translation to the small screen, it appears to have lost those laughs.

Another problem is Mack's character himself who is a kind of introverted, wimpy, low rent version of Basil Fawlty.

Bad things happen most of the time to Stuart. 

He doesn't necessarily deserve them but he's a stoic.

No matter what is thrown at him, Stuart just seems to go along with it and that's what makes Mack's attachment to the role quite baffling.

It's hard to understand why Mack would have been attracted to do such a limp character.

The eruption of anger or spite you hope occurs never materialises.

All you get is a sigh and some regular mugging to the camera.

While Mack undoubtedly attacks the role with verve, recurrent jokes about Stuart having an irritable bowel quickly run thin.

The sound of anyone's bowel movements just ain't funny but Maltman and Crow seem to think it is an endless source of humour.

Spiro, Baladi, Hoare, White, Russell, Barber and Fitzmaurice also enthusiastically jump at the chance to perform in a farce which never completely satisfies.

Shows like 'Fawlty Towers,' 'Only Fools and Horses' and 'Frasier' are the yardstick by which all TV farce should be measured.

However 'Semi-Detached' barely achieves a fifth of those laughs.

And while Mack's undoubted popularity with the public might just deliver it a second series, the show is really going to have to up its game.

('Semi-Detached' was broadcast on BBC2 from July 26-September 10, 2020)