If it’s not enough that the BFG that is Greg Davies will be returning later this year with Cuckoo Series 3 on BBC 1, he’s also just returned to Channel 4 in Man Down Series 2, bringing yet more anarchic and infantile humour to our front rooms. While it’s not going to be for everyone’s taste with the comedy setups and characters being as larger than life as Greg is himself, but if you like your comedy on the stupid side of the equation, without any real concern for where the line might be then then this should be right up your tele-watching street.
Series 2 appeared as if by magic without all that much pomp and anticipatory noise on Monday the 1st June 2015 at 10pm on Channel 4 and with just one episode out it’s already shaping up to be a must watch for anyone that is even vaguely aware of what We Are Klang was all about. It follows up on the first series of Man Down, which aired back in 2013, picking the vestiges of the Mad Hatter comedy up again following the tragic death of Rik Mayall, who starred alongside Greg in Series 1. The remaining five episodes of Series 2 will be airing on Monday nights at 10pm with episode 2 going out on the 8th June 2015.
The story is a solid enough premise to base the show on, but it’s the random details of it that gives it so many opportunities for gags. It centres around Greg’s character Dan, who’s a teacher in a local school who lives alone after his long-term girlfriend left him at the beginning of Series 1. Having picked himself up and done little to sort his life out, he’s now got his sights set firmly on the lovely figure of the new headmaster, Miss Lipsey, who ignores his over-sized and clumsy advances as though they were the wing-beats of an ugly, pot bellied fly.
The random detail comes in the way of Dan’s extremely mental family and friends who do their best to “help” him out in his quests through life, but often just him to set him up for hilarious failure after hilarious failure. His mum and new arrival to Series 2, Aunt Nesta, are intrusive in the extreme and frequently let themselves into his flat to do everything from bemoaning his evident personality limitations to subversively dieing his hair ahead of a date with a much younger woman. If that isn’t enough to content with, he also has the support of friends, Brian, a dull accountant who has little time for nonsense, and Jo, an unemployed nutter who has her own unwaveringly skatty view on life. All of this adds up to anarchy, misery and humiliation for Dan and it’s very funny to see it all fall apart around him.
There are no half measures when it comes to the cast, with each one going to great lengths to make their characters as extreme as possible. Greg leads the way in this, with Roisin Conaty trailing closely behind him like a box of mad frogs on a piece of string as his overly exuberant pal Jo. Mike Wozniak takes the dull, moustachioed account to the nth degree and Gwyneth Powell, who you might recognise as Mrs McClusky from Grange Hill, brings a lot of doting spirit to his well meaning, but ultimately unhelpful mum.
However, for us, the Series 2 prize for best comedy has got to go to Stephanie Cole who makes a very strong entry into the fray of Dan’s life as his Aunt Nesta, a very formidable elder woman who has zero regard for her giant nephew’s personal space, privacy or feelings. She first appeared in the Christmas special at the end of Series 1 and the new series sees her getting even more sharp, direct and prickly in her attempts to point Dan in the right direction from her point of view.
Writers Greg Davies, Stephen Morrison, Sian Harries and Andrew Collins have done a good job in terms of reconstructing the direction for Man Down following Rik Mayall’s death, and while he’s clearly a big loss, the addition of Cole as Auntie Nesta does a lot to ground the show in a different kind of comedy that is quite smart at times. That’s not to say that the puerile sentiment that underpins the comedy has gone entirely, so you should definitely expect just as much physical humour as there is random gags, one liners and humiliating setups. If a comedy series can be judged on the amount of tea and cookies you manage to inadvertently snort and choke on during a particularly surprising joke then Man Down Series 2 is up there with best of them.
Man Down Series 2 review: 4/5
