The Job Lot / Vicious.

No doubt the ITV thought their new Monday night comedy assault would amaze and amuse us like a giant firework display of hilarity, instead we were left with a soggy sparkler and a straight face.

First up was Vicious, a viciously old fashioned comedy about an old gay couple. Apart from a few references to Zac Efron you would swear this was set in the early 70's. One big Gothic set and there is even a swing door into the kitchen, how sit com can you get? The show Vicious reminded me most of was 70's 'classic' ( for classivc read unwatchable) Nearest and Dearest. So instead of Hilda Baker and Jimmy Jewel as squabbling siblings we have Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Derek Jacobi as squabbling partners. And that is where Vicious excels in its cast. Frances De la Tour also turns up as friend of the pair so you can see there is  none of the  am dram of The Wright Way here, this is class acting all the way. But sadly the script just cannot keep up and sags quite a bit of the time.

The first episode centred around the death of an old friend of Freddy (Ian McKellen) and Stuart's (Derek Jacobi ) and their over the top reaction to the event. Also a young man Ash (Iwan Rheon ) comes to rent the flat upstairs. That all sounds very Joe Orton, but Vicious is nowhere near in that class so we get lots of sit com type stuff to fill the time like a wake for the dead friend that I swear was straight out of Nearest and Dearest, all that was missing was a "Have you been Walter?" and a "I must get a little hand put on this watch." Isn't it great to be back in the 70's.

Next clunker off the ITV rank was The Job Lot, where if you believe writers and creators Claire Downes,Stuart Lane, and Ian Jarvis thewackiest place to work in the world is a Job Centre. Mainly because you won't do much work instead you will be running around most of the time like you are in a second rate farce. And the only people wackier than the workers are the unemployed and boy are they a daffy, madcap bunch.  The characters are pretty much tired stereotypes we have seen a million times before and you get the feeling The Job Lot would love to be The Office, but it just comes across as a vastly inferior Trollied. After this I'm sure people will be running to their local Job Centre to be part of the zany shenanigans that seem to go on there.

Over