I find myself to be very critical of any TV programme, especially comedy, from my native Scotland, the same with musical acts too in fact. I can think of very few TV comedies from BBC Scotland or STV that really made me laugh, the most celebrated of them, "Still Game" overstayed its welcome, "Gary Tank Commander" was childish nonsense and "Rab C Nesbitt" too crude for my taste. I did enjoy the old Allan Cumming - Forbes Masson airline spoof "The High Life" and much preferred the Ford Kiernan - Greg Hemphill sketch-show "Chewin' The Fat" to the afore-mentioned "Still Game" from the same creators. I'd heard about this series "Two Doors Down" and was just curious enough to look in on it and I've been pleasantly surprised by what I've seen in this, its first series.
There are really only eight cast members, all in differently constituted couples, two middle-aged couples, an apparently single-mother and her grown-up daughter and a young same-sex male pairing. The first three sets all live next door to each other somewhere in the unidentified suburbs while one of the two co-habiting boys is the son of one of the husband and wife duos which explains their connection to the group, as they've only recently moved in together to a neighbouring place of their own.
Central to proceedings are Alex Norton and Arabella Weir as the long-suffering "normal" pair, who the two other adjoining twosomes frequently take advantage of or put down. These are a parasitic, waspish old woman, played by Elaine C Smith and her live-in daughter, forever exasperated and embarrassed by her mum's behaviour. Worse yet are the overbearing married couple on their other side played by Jonathon Watson and Doon Mackichan. Moneyed snobs, they look down on Norton and Weir, but need them as their audience.
The six episodes of the first series I've just watched on catch-up contain plenty of laughs although they're occasionally shot through with vulgarity and profanity. Sophisticated it isn't, and some of the gags and situations are forced and so miss their mark, but many of them do, just about justifying my attention for the duration of its run. This isn't cutting edge or revolutionary humour, and in fact harkens back to retro classics like "George and Mildred" and "The Good Life" but it has its moments and is probably above average in the Scottish comedy stakes. I can definitely see me popping round for another visit to Series 2, in the near future.
