Lee Mack so well known for his funny zingers in Not Going Out has been enticed for this comedy pilot.
Mack plays Stuart, a middle aged wedding DJ who is about to have an harassed half hour. His much younger girlfriend April is about to give birth.
His ex wife Kate lives over the road with her new husband Ted. She is standing to be a Tory candidate, he is a smarmy flash git. It is also his daughter's birthday but she has little time for Stuart.
Semi-Detached is a farce. Events pile up on Stuart as April goes into labour. The Uber he has ordered to take April to hospital has not arrived because of some cows on a rampage. His dad is in bed with some bloke he had met in the pub. Suddenly his brother turns up as he is on the run for the police. Ted accidentally slices his thumb off.
With all the goings on, it does have some funny albeit some crude humour. The actors are also required to be physical to make the situations come across as hilarious. Patrick Baladi wriggling naked in agony as Ted after losing his thumb in a DIY accident.
It might not always be original. The weak link was the spoilt stroppy daughter who had shaven her head on her birthday.
Stuart's dad Willie who discovered later in life that he liked drugs, willy and wild living reminded me of Bunny from Extras as well as the transsexual Val from Uncle.
You have to applaud the writers David Crow and Oliver Maltman. Too many times an intended pilot comes across as uncertain and lacks humour.
Here they throw everything in for this episode as well as gags.
