Ladhood

Compelling, accurate and funny depiction of life growing up in the North of England in the late 90s/early noughties. Brought back memories of a misspent youth and made me laugh out loud.

Anyone saying this is a poor inbetweeners is completely missing the point. I couldn't recommend this more.

I've written reviews for each season of "Ladhood" and posted them on the final episodes of each run but I thought I'd put something here on the shows page too.

Liam Williams criminally underappreciated autobiographical sitcom "Ladhood" arrives at its bittersweet conclusion. I was turned on to the show by the second season being included in the Guardian's top 50 TV shows of 2021 list.

Liam (Liam Williams) is an adult struggling to understand why he is the way he is. Directionless and angry, he explores his childhood in Garforth, for clues as to his mental state. He grew up with three close friends, Adnan (Aqib Khan), Ralph (Samuel Bottomley) and Tom (Shaun Thomas) in the lower middle-class Northern town, where boredom, hormones and existential angst threaten to overwhelm them.

The scenes set in the 90's, evocative of the time, with the Playstation 2's, dial up internet and burgeoning R&B scene could, in the wrong hands, have felt like a milder retread of "The Inbetweeners". What elevates this though is that adult Liam comes with us on these flashbacks, and narrates the storylines, undercutting the rougher moments with 21st century commentary and apologies. It's having its cake and eating it too, a bit - but it's often a very funny aspect of the show. The longer the series runs, the more it plays with its concepts too, as adult Liam is blindsided by forgotten memories, or the truth of a romanticised situation and it may feed back into what's happening in his adult life.

So, it's excellent, but I do agree it's the right time to bring the show to an end, both before the younger cast age out of playing teenagers and the show is forced to start repeating itself. But it's a poignant and funny time and I look forward to seeing what Liam Williams writes next.

Was recommended this by a friend and ended up binging it all in one night. It's not the perfect show by a long means but if you're around your 30s now and grew up in the north it will surely hit a lot of nostalgic notes with you.

It's the funniest show I've watched in a while, each episode has at least one laugh out loud moment. Really hope they make a second series, I am told it is based on a radio show, so the material is there.

Ladhood

Liam Williams again launches some very clever comedy reviewing the human condition. Despite the insertion of characters and some spoken narrative it really is a stream of thought ruminating over one simple topic each show.

Here Liam is a fly on the wall observing his formative moments that defined his future behaviours.

What I particularly like is the variety of comedy employed, from irony, through self-deprecation to farce.

My casual observation is this show is for a very sophisticated viewer and not many of those will be found watching on BBC 3

Series 2

Liam carried on examining his formative years to see if that would improve his present. It really was a brilliant script and the acting all round was great.

Series 3 was a great wrapping up of the series as the lads started to go their separate ways, I really enjoyed this whole series it had a really tight insightful script that was genuinely funny throughout

I shouldn't make comparisons but the style of humour is a little like Ricky Gervais and that is the highest of compliments, I can't wait to see was Liam will do next.

Great writing, directing and editing and simply stunning acting performances from the young cast. Funny, touching and brilliantly observed.