Ever since Ricky Gervais did the funky chicken dance right off BBC’s The Office and the lads from The Inbetweeners bowed out with a hilarious puke ridden final episode, there’s been something of a lull in quality British comedy sitcoms. Yes Misfits and Shameless have their audiences, but the content just isn’t quite as universal and belly-achingly funny as the likes of The Royal Family or Only Fools and Horses.
So when I heard that The Office’s Ash Atalla had made himself comfortable in the producer’s chair of new Sky 1 show Trollied, I couldn’t help but get a teeny bit excited.
For anyone who’s ever worked in a supermarket or in any retail store, it’s obvious that’s there’s a minefield of comedy gold out there, just waiting to be snapped up and made into a sitcom. When I saw the whimsical adverts for Trollied, it finally looked like someone had actually made an attempt at capturing the frustrating customers and nattering colleges seen all too often in retail and transformed them into a well crafted, intelligent sitcom. Sadly Sky has missed the mark with Trollied and instead of foreseeing the show soar to the top of the comedy pile, sadly my premise is that it will end up on the reduced shelf beside Trinny and Susannah’s questionable skit show they did for Channel 4. Oh the shame.
Luckily it’s the first of half a dozen comedies to be shown on Sky 1 this year, so there’s hope yet. Trollied is set in a supermarket called Valco (“Serves You Right”) where the characters are eerily uncanny to those in The Office and no one seems to do an ounce of work.
Jane Horrocks plays Julie, your typical deputy manager, who craves acceptance from her colleagues and is constantly on the lookout for love. While the show serves up its fair share of chortle inducing moments from time-to-time, there’s no one who produces more cringeworthy statements than Julie. Between a drawn out distasteful joke to a clichéd birthday disaster, perhaps without Julie, I might give the show a chance.
Nick Blood saves the show
With the bad always comes the good though and thankfully, Nick Blood injects some much needed spontaneity and well-acted humour into the script. Playing the rather dozy young butcher Kieran, who although is already in a relationship, he seems head-over-heels for cashier Katie, played by Chanel Cresswell (some might say it’s quite similar to Dawn and Tim in The Office). With his great comic timing and good looks, he’s definitely set to become the star of the show.
Mark Addy, best known for his role as Detective Constable Gary Boyle in The Thin Blue Line, also impresses as a butcher. There’s just something about the butchers. While it’s hard to picture him as the loveable butcher, that he is. With these two showing the cast how it’s done, it begs the question whether or not they should just scrap the rest of them and give the two butchers a spin-off show of their own.
Pretty craftily, producers decided to let us watch one episode and watch another one for free last night. Unfortunately, it didn’t change our mind on the underwhelming and extremely disappointing show. With more character developments came more unrealistic and disillusioned statements, followed by crude and unpleasant gags. With a lack of any particular storyline, perhaps the show just needs time, but with only eight episodes in the series, how much time do they have?
To say it was a disappointment is an understatement. Back to re-runs of The Inbetweeners, The Office and Faulty Towers I go.
Sarah Carty
