Greg Davies kicked off yet another starring role sitcom this weekend (18th October 2013) with his latest venture, Man Down on Channel 4, and if the opening episode is anything to go by it’s a banker for over-sized trousers and guffaws. It’s random and a bit surreal, which gives it a unique feel despite some of its more well worn constructs, but most importantly it’ll have you smiling and laughing the whole way through, especially if you’re a fan of Greg, Rik Mayall or bizarre sitcoms in general.
Written by Davies, and building on the success of his first sitcom outing Cuckoo, there’s clearly a lot of love for Graham Linehan in his style of writing with shades of Father Ted and Black Books scattered throughout Man Down. There’s also a sort of perverse homage to the slapstick anarchy of Bottom too, which adds to the genius of Mayall’s presence in the show.
The story centres around primary school teacher Dan (Davies) who’s a bit of a mentalist and lives in a little flat attached to his parents’ house. When his girlfriend walks out on him because of his childish big buffoon way of life, including the aforementioned proximity to crazy parents, a long standing missing light bulb and a complete lack of grown-up trousers, he’s left pretty devastated, so he formulates a plan to change his ways and win her back.
With the plan scrawled on a bit of paper he turns to his friend Jo (Roisin Conaty) for songs and moral support and his financial adviser Brian (Mike Wozniak) for a potential mortgage. However, as you’d expect, nothing really goes right for Dan, but more than that, everything goes anarchically wrong ranging from a beating from a transvestite hating tailor to a broken driving seat in his car that leaves him leaning out of the back window as he steers.
All of this is compounded by random attacks from his crazed father, who’s played hilariously by Rik Mayall in a role that reprises elements of his former characters in The Young Ones and Bottom and combines it with a sentimental drive for misplaced demonstrations of paternal affection. We don’t want to give too much away, but the bear attack scene is genuinely genius.
In a move of equal brilliance, Rik has been teamed up with Gwyneth Powell for his on-screen romance (AKA Dan’s mam). The name might not necessarily mean a great deal to a lot of the younger kids out there, but for anyone born in the late 70s, early 80s you’ll probably know her better as McCluskey from Grange Hill.
There have been more than a few class room sitcoms in recent years with Jack Whitehall’s Bad Education and David Walliams’ Big School, but Man Down is definitely not a sitcom about teaching or even a comedy set in a school. The “curriculum” element of the series is a bit-part player in the bigger picture of Dan’s difficulty to grow up, the nut bag people in his life and the surreal twists and turns of his no-hope existence.
While the series of surreal events that make up each of the six episodes are completely ridiculous there’s also a familiarity to them that most people will be able to associate with on some level, which is why it works so well. Take all of the events and string them together and you’ve got an effed-up new comedy, split any one out individually and you’ve got a cue to one of your very own memories of a similar time.
Man Down Series 1 review: 4/5
The first episode of Man Down aired on Friday the 18th October 2013 at 9:30pm. There are 6 episodes of Series 1 and they air each Friday at the same time in the following weeks. Check 4OD to catch up on the series. You can also read our Man Down Series 2 review to find out more about how the second series shaped up following the death of Rik Mayall in 2014.
