Parks and Recreation.

As we all know the BBC is jam packed with great comedy shows from the subtle nuances of Mrs Brown's Boys and the biting social satire of In With the Flynns to the 'look at us aren't we funny' shenanigans of Not Going Out. So it should come as no great shock that hit US comedy Parks and Recreation is shunted away to the Nordic Noir hinterlands of BBC Four. There are obvious reasons Parks and Recreation cannot be shown on BBC Three (a ) It is not animated. (b) It has characters over the age of twenty one. (c) Russell Howard is not in it.

Parks and Recreation  stars the excellent Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, an overly optimistic, overly enthusiastic mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. The show is filmed in a mockumentary style much like The Office and its American counterpart, but don't let that put you off Parks and Recreation is  very funny. But the show is not just about the try hard Leslie, as with all good American comedies it is all about the ensemble. The supporting characters are excellent, and acted to perfection, from the wildly inappropriate Tom Hungerford (Aziz Ansari ) who if he can say the wrong thing he will, to the apathetic, can't be arsedintern April (Aubrey Plaza ). But special mention must go to Leslie's boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman ) he is a man who believes in small government, so goes out of his way to put as many spanners in the works as he can; mostly by indulging  Leslie's schemes, which aim to make Pawnee a better place but usually end in disaster. Parks and Recreation is now in its fifth season in the US, so we have a lot to look forward to. 

So if you are a little tired of Miranda and Not Going Out, why not wander over to the Nordic wasteland of BBC Four and have a good time with Parks and Recreation.

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