DVD Reviews

Plus One

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Daniel Mays
• Details: UK / (15A)

Serialised British comedy has seen a bit of a lull lately. With Ricky Gervias now peddling his wears on celluloid, and the likes of Bottom and Only Fools and Horses but a distant memory, you'd be forgiven for fixing your gaze solely on American laffers. Plus One is hardly in the classic territory of the aforementioned, but it is one of the funniest things to debut on British television in some time. Starring the endlessly amusing Daniel Mays, it plays like a slightly more coarse Forgetting Sarah Marshall, with a sprinkling of Scrubs thrown in for good measure. Mays is Rob Black, a low level record label employee, who is gutted when his missus bins him for Duncan James from Blue ("the cold, calculating, ice-skating bastard"), and invites him to their impending wedding. With the obligatory 'Plus One' on the invitation, Rob sets out to find the ultimate date; someone who will upstage the bride, and fill the groom with jealousy. Filled with tongue-in-cheek celebrity cameos (Lisa Snowdon, Jamelia, Steve Jones), none are more amusing than the ever-present James himself, who sends up his smug, clean-cut image to highly amusing effect throughout the frustratingly short series. Nigel Harmon is also unexpectedly good for plenty of laughs as Rob's obnoxious brother, who'd get up on a piping hot radiator, and shows a genuine gift for comedy. But this is Mays' show, and instead of leaving most of the laughs to the supporting players, he really embraces to sheer absurdity of the character, injecting a likeability in him that couldn't have come from the page. The humour here is often abrasive, but rarely less than laugh-out-loud, while the repetitiveness of some gags (Duncan James is constantly referred to as "Duncan from Blue", and every time he's on screen "One Love" plays in the background) actually makes them funnier on some occasions. A genuinely hilarious series that begs commissioning for another season. RTE and TV3 bosses, take note - this is how it's done.

Review by Mike Sheridan