WE ARE FAMILY (THIS WAY UP, SERIES 1)

 

If you haven't been watching Aisling Bea's Channel 4's sitcom 'This Way Up,' you really ought to be.

As the show prepares to air its second series, you really need to binge watch the first which brilliantly walks the tightrope between laugh out loud comedy and touching family drama.

Bea and Sharon Horgan play Aine and Shona, two Irish sisters living in London whose mum, Sorcha Cusack's Eileen was a weather presenter back home.

Their mum found fame in Ireland wearing a different hat on TV every night.

In the first episode, Shona is collecting Aine as she checks out of rehab after suffering a nervous breakdown.

As Aine says her goodbyes, she and Shona complain the facilities were not up to scratch and certainly not as advertised.

Indeed, Aine was expecting more of a spa.

For the rest of the first series, Shona behaves like she is Aine's mother, fretting about her sister's whereabouts, her state of mind and tracking her movements on her smartphone.

Aine, who has a very big heart and a nice line in droll humour, teaches English to newly arrived immigrants - showing them episodes of 'The Kardashians' to help them grasp the words for various family members and role playing being a shop assistant.

The set up feels like an ironic Brexit era twist on those rather dodgy ITV sitcoms of the past like 'Mind Your Language'.

Aine is so big hearted, she becomes involved in helping her students - even accompanying one gruff Bulgarian to hospital after assuming he has been the victim of a post Brexit racist attack.

A conversation between him and a Bulgarian nurse working in the NHS reveals that he actually sustained a head injury in an accident on a building site and is puzzled why an indignant Aine wanted him to involve the police.

Aine is also hired to teach English to  Dorian Grover's 12 year old French boy Etienne in his home.

Etienne has moved to London to live with his emotionally repressed dad, Tobias Menzies' Richard after his mum passes away.

He and Aine quickly bond and Richard also warms to her, holding out the possibility of a relationship.

However Aine's ex, Chris Geere's  smooth talking finance worker Freddie is also lurking and there's also Ricky Grover's emotionally fragile working class bloke Tom with whom she struck a chord in rehab.

In addition to keeping an eye on Aine, Shona is building a career in business while juggling an increasingly intense relationship with Aasif Mandvi's deeply smitten Vish who wants her to move in with him.

Along with Indira Varma's Charlotte, she sets up an organisation to promote women in business with a swanky launch event in the City.

But with Vish preparing to pop the question, Shona is feeling the pressure of wrestling their relationship with her protectiveness towards Aine and a desire to make her new business venture a success with Charlotte who she might also be developing feelings for.

Undoubtedly the biggest strength of the first series of 'This Way Up,' is the dynamic between Bea and Horgan which was always going to be the lynchpin of their sitcom.

As they trade quips, both actresses are extremely credible as sisters - knowing how and when to deftly balance the comedy with the more melancholic moments of the show.

Bea's scripts not only deliver laughs but also sensitively and impressively address mental health issues, as well as family, gender and sexual politics. 

Onscreen Bea, in particular, never puts a foot wrong either comedically or in her astute depiction of Aine's feelings of loneliness and guilt for making Shona worry about her.

Horgan is as assured and sharp as ever delivering a smart quip while highlighting Shona's insecurities.

An episode where Shona, Aine and their visiting mother Eileen go to visit Vish's family to celebrate his father, Jeff Mizra's Hari's birthday is a fantastic blend of well honed comedy and subtle drama.

It is worth watching just for Horgan and Bea's brilliant piss take of The Cranberries' 'Zombie'.

Another episode where Shona arranges for Aine to go out for the night with a bloke who sips beer through a straw has a great final twist.

But not only are Horgan and Bea on song, they are brilliantly complemented by Mandvi, Varma, Geere, Ricky and Dorian Grover, Menzies, Cusack, Mizra and Soni Razdan as Vish's mother.

Kadiff Kirwan shines as Aine's flatmate Bradley as does Shiloh Coke as his sister Clara, Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge as his mate Matty and Ambreen Razia as his bossy on-off girlfriend Emma.

It's easy to see how 'This Way Up' could have been a series of hour long ITV comedy dramas.

However Bea's sitcom is all the better for undergoing the discipline of being a short, sharp, acerbic half hour sitcom on Channel 4.

Roll on series two.

(The first series of 'This Way Up' was broadcast on Channel 4 between August 8-September 12, 2019 and is available on All 4 in the UK)