Life of Riley - BBC1
Caroline Quentin's New Show Is Short On Laughs
Yet another new sitcom sneaks unheralded into the BBC’s schedules, and from the look of the first episode, it’s not hard to see why. Life of Riley follows in the footsteps of Parents of the Band with the actors trying hard to wring laughs out of a distinctly unfunny script. But the stereotyped characters and hackneyed plot overwhelm any hint of decent acting.
Caroline Quentin, as always the best thing in any show she’s in, plays Maddy, mum to nine-year-old Ted (Patrick Nolan) and baby Rosie, and stepmum to teenagers Katy (Lucinda Dryzek) and Danny (Taylor Fawcett). Recently married to Jim (Neil Dudgeon), the new and of course dysfunctional family is trying to decorate the house they’ve all moved into. Well, the parents are anyway – cue “hilarity” about choosing paint colours and shifting stuff from one box to another instead of unpacking.
Whoops There Go My Bloomers!
Having exhausted these comic gems, writer Georgia Pritchett throws in the next staple of sitcom land, the misunderstanding. In this case it’s “whose pregnancy test is this?” as poor Maddy (who seems to spend approximately five minutes a day looking after a seven-month-old baby) dashes about eliminating the possibilities. Not Katy, who is too busy releasing poor suffering animals into the wild, but conveniently complains of feeling ill while downing a cold Chinese takeaway and custard for breakfast. And not Danny, whose girlfriend has been shoehorned into the script for this very scenario. But before the great mystery can be solved, Jim discovers it as well, and naturally assumes it must belong to Maddy. This really just writes itself doesn’t it?
Do Normal Children Not Exist?
One also has to wonder if Pritchett has actually ever met any nine-year-old boys. Ted moves from one crush to another, always on his Danny’s girlfriends, never on any girls of his own age. He shoplifts from the local chemist just to get a glimpse of his latest love, tries to get his hamster to wee on the pregnancy test (of course it was his!) to see if she’s having babies, and is confident he is a complete babe magnet (“I’m wearing my lucky Doctor Who pants!”). Oh dear.
With luck Life of Riley might improve in future episodes; sometimes a new programme takes a while to hit its stride. Character development rather than cheap laughs would help, as would the removal of the unnecessary and distracting canned laughter. It’s always a pleasure to see Quentin back on the small screen, but she deserves a better vehicle than this.
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