Really Surprised!

Let's be realistic.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

I decided to very belatedly give this series a whirl because (a) I remember it getting some great reviews at the time, (b) it's produced by Steve Coogan's company Baby Cow, and (c) although I'm not too familiar with her work I have found Nighty Night creator Julia Davis funny in a few things i.e. as the co- presenter in the notorious BrassEye Special, and in the excellent Amicus spoofing episode 'And Now The Fearing' from the otherwise patchy Dr Terrible's House Of Horrible.Well I needn't have bothered. Despite being billed as dark, edgy, risqué, dark, twisted, perverse, and dark, Nighty Night is deeply unfunny in exactly the same way that happy-clappy innocuous fluff like Not Going Out and Benidorm are deeply unfunny. Okay the themes and subject matter might be refreshingly uncomfortable for a sitcom, but the humour is laboured at best and patronisingly obvious at worst. The opening scene says it all. "Why me???!!!" squeals wife after doctor reveals cancer diagnosis. But wait. Husband turns to her... "It's *me* that's got cancer!". Get it? Did you get that amazingly dark hilarious twist and see what they did there? It basically carries on with that level of comedy, rinse and repeat. How other reviews are comparing this to a masterpiece like The Office is beyond me, I lasted less than 2 episodes and that was a struggle.

Under details for this Television series it says that the location was Walton-on-Thames, however series 1 was mainly filmed in Hersham, Surrey. UK, The church scenes were filmed in St. Peters Church, Hersham, The hall was the Hersham Women's Institute Hall and outdoor scenes were filmed in Hersham. The restaurant scenes were filmed in Cobham Surrey, while Jill's hairdressers was filmed in Byfleet, Surrey. To my knowledge no scenes were actually filmed in Walton-on-Thames! The second series was filmed in Cornwall, UK where there is also a village called Hersham consisting of six houses while the main Hersham has population of some 18,000 people.

I can understand why some people review this show here and call it "rubbish" because it is not easily watchable. It takes you out of your comfort zone and is not banal safe comedy that often seems to often thrive on television. The main character Jill is a savagely cruel person, when her husband is diagnosed with cancer she drops him off at the hospital and goes to a dating agency to find a new man. When a couple move in next door she thinks nothing of wearing the disabled woman down physically and emotionally to get at her husband. You get the idea. Many of the lines are superbly witty in an outrageous "she can't say that" type of way. Interestingly Julia Davies has both naturalistic supporting characters like Cath and Don the couple next door and exaggerated broad comedy characters that inhabit Jill's world without the mix of the two jarring in any way. It is easier to watch a second or third time if you give it the chance, then you seem to be able to concentrate on the savage humour without feeling too much pity for the put upon characters involved. Superb.

Don't get me wrong I like macabre humour, Little Britain is really funny because it's so bizarre. Now this show isn't even funny. After ten minutes I thought I was watching some reality show! Neither my wife or I had cracked a smile much less falling about laughing. That was when we made the decision to change channels and watch a Lifestyle show about funerals (which was much funnier) This show was on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel and I suspect the mandarins there must have a different sense of humour to the rest of the population. A person would get more laughs pulling out their fingernails with a pair of pliers than watching this crock.