King Gary

Tom Davis quite explicitly wanted to create a "working class comedy that doesn't punch down" and in King Gary, boosted up to series mode after a charming pilot in 2018, manages the brief quite admirably. Bolstered by a strong cast of comedy legends (particularly the hypnotically mannered performance of Laura Checkley and the evergreen Neil Maskell) the absurd scenarios, cringing observations about contemporary British culture and cartoonish foolishness doesn't always hang together terribly well but the core of it is the relationship between Gary and Terri. It's got a rare amount of heart and character beneath the crass foolishness that keeps me coming back for more.