Mammoth

As a retired PE teacher I was able to relate to a lot of the material in this new offering from the BBC. I've actually worked with people like this in UK schools. Sporting dinosaurs straight out of the "Kes" playbook.

This comedy series has potential but it tries too hard to be nostalgic, sarcastic and obnoxious all at the same time. Tony Mammoth is a mix of David Brent and Mike Bassett, with outdated views on everything (women, cars, education, fashion etc). He's arrogant , rude and belittling to everyone else in the cast and this is where the comedy fails.

He's just not very likeable. It's all too cruel and silly at times, and the main character just carries on regardless, trampling over the cast whether they be family, old friends or work colleagues.

And let's not forget, to engage with this show, you have to blithely accept the "frozen in ice for 45 years" concept. I'm all for time travel and the supernatural but this is a bit daft.

I've watched 3 episodes and that's it for me. Mildly funny in places but by and large, a messy, toe curling cringefest.

I love the Unexplainers on BBC radio and the podcast so was chuffed to see Mike Bubbins in this and he's a PE teacher again :) Hopefully it will a get a series and we can see more of his story and more of his Capri!

Mammoth looks like a pilot. Creator Mike Bubbins is a former PE Teacher, rugby player and a superfan of the 1970s.

He plays Tony Mammoth, caught in an avalanche in 1979 and thawed out. He is adjusting to life in 2021 where everyone thought he is dead.

Tony is back teaching at his old school. His old friends such as Roger now live in an old people's home. Tony even has a therapist trying to help him adjust to the 21st century.

Tony is a dinosaur or a woolly mammoth. He his in a world of mobile phones and health & safety.

This is basically Life on Mars in reverse. A comedy and not a crime drama. Also Tony is no Neanderthal. He might use Hai Karate aftershave but he comes to the aid of a school kid who cannot afford a sports kit. He makes the rest of the class play topless.

It might work as a series but you do wonder how long can Tony hold off from the benefits of modern life. I mean has no one told him just how much porn he can download on his mobile phone!

Arriving largely without fanfare, I caught this show on iPlayer. Interesting show which plays to a large extent as a drama with the 'back from the dead' storyline largely in the back ground. Indeed you see nothing of Mammoth's return from the dead but catch up with him a few months later. The 'fish out of water' plot has been done many times before and this show offers no real new twists. However, it does have heart and offers a few laughs along the way. Hopefully it will get a series.

Toby Mammoth is caught in an avalanche in 1979, he's perfectly frozen and preserved, untill he's brought back to life in present day, Toby has to readjust to a whole new life.

Think of a spoof version of Life on Mars, I think this really work, very funny. I'm so glad to see that a full series followed, it deserved it, it certainly built on it. It certainly has a relevance in today's climate, it's Inoffensive, but definitely pokes fun at 1970's attitudes.

I can't wait to see further episodes, great seeing what Tony gets away with, such as hitting on mums at parents evening and running over a pupil.

This had me chuckling from start to finish, it was well made, and very well acted, Mike Bubbins did a cracking job here, as did Sian Gibson and Joseph Marcell.

Welsh humour at its finest. At a time where it seems that sitcoms have died, this cut through.

8/10.