Never Better
Encyclopedia
Never Better is a British television sitcom
which started on BBC Two
on 10 January 2008. It stars Stephen Mangan
as recovering alcoholic
Keith Merchant and Kate Ashfield
as his suffering wife Anita. The series is written by Fintan Ryan
for World Productions
.
The series has been described as a dark
sitcom, being compared to other recent sitcoms such as Lead Balloon
and Curb Your Enthusiasm
. However, critics have complained that the show is too similar to these sort of programmes, as well as attacking the character of Keith for not being funny. The series was received poorly by viewers, with the first series attracting an average audience of less than one million viewers per episode.
meetings, but his behaviour often turns meetings into a farce, to the annoyance of group leader Doug (Christopher Fairbank
). He has a family, with his wife Anita (Ashfield) and two children, Tom and Poppy. Whilst he attempts to be a good husband and father, his optimism for his family and attempts to do the right thing tend to lead to even more problems. Outside of AA, he has his friend Richard (Tom Goodman-Hill) for support, although Richard believes that Keith was a better friend when he was drinking.
. Ashfield claimed that on set, "struggled to keep a straight face most of the time." She also said that her part made her more aware of her health. She said in an interview with The Times that she hoped the show would make, "people think twice about binge drinking." When asked if the role made her more abstemious, she said, "I watch what I drink and I try to keep myself healthy."
Mangan has said that he did not attend any AA meetings as part of research saying, "I didn't feel I could sit there and pretend to be an alcoholic, I thought that would be wrong. I also didn't want to stand up and say 'Hi, my name's Stephen, I'm an actor in a sitcom.' These are places where people are trying to work out really difficult stuff. We do touch on some controversial subjects in the series; there's a lad with Down's Syndrome in one episode. There's all sorts of topics that you wouldn't initially think are comic issues."
and Curb Your Enthusiasm
. David Belcher in The Herald
commented on the show positively writing about the lack of a laughter track and the show's making fun of controversial subjects such as Christianity
.
However, people criticised Never Better for being too similar to other sitcoms and it received poor reviews overall. Paul Hoggart wrote in The Times
that, "It is amiably amusing, but may suffer from comparison with last year's Outnumbered
, which covered similar ground with superb dexterity." One critic from the Daily Mirror said, "Stephen Mangan's latest incarnation as recovering alcoholic Keith doesn't land with the same weight as Steve Coogan's Tommy Saxondale [from Saxondale
] or Jack Dee's Rick Spleen [from Lead Balloon]."
A. A. Gill
disliked the show, writing in The Sunday Times
that, "Never Better (Thursday, BBC2) is so poor, so comically bereft, so rigorously scoured of charm, traction, humour or insight, that seeing that whichever sad sap wrote it couldn't be bothered to include an original syllable, neither can I. In America, the aspirational sitcom has, as is its nature, successfully progressed to become Friends
and Sex and the City
, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Frasier
, The Larry Sanders Show
. The recipe for success is simple: more of everything – more care, more commitment, more writers working harder to higher standards, with more discipline, for more money, with a collective understanding of what the genre stands for and, crucially, a belief that it has merit."
Gerard O'Donovan in the Daily Telegraph also attacked the programme. After the second episode had been broadcast, he wrote that, "Sadly, what modest potential the show evinced last week had evaporated in the interim. Recovering alcoholic Keith was again suffering from acute vagueness. Which was fine. But he also seemed to have lost his few remaining booze-free brain cells because he kept getting into scrapes as a result of not being able to use a mobile phone properly. If he'd been Victor Meldrew
[from One Foot in the Grave
], or a man of that generation, this might have been just about credible. But for an educated man in his thirties it was risible and came across as contrived beyond belief. A paper-thin character to begin with, with no job, no friends and no real personality to speak of, Keith was now entirely transparent, revealed as a mere vehicle for lazy situation comedy. Not even Mangan could rescue that."
The series attracted poor ratings. The third episode, broadcast on 24 January 2008, received 900,000 viewers, the lowest of the five main terrestrial channels
that day. The following two episodes broadcast on 31 January and 7 February received 800,000 viewers (4% of the audience). The final episode had 823,000 viewers. This resulted in the series attracting an average audience of 935,000. In comparison, Little Miss Jocelyn
, the programme that was broadcast immediately before Never Better over the same six weeks on BBC Two, attracted an average of 1.1 million viewers.
, as part of the channel's "Thursdays are Funny" line-up. The episodes are scheduled to be broadcast on Thursday nights at 22:00.
. Damon Wayans will play the lead role, with Marc Buckland
directing. The series is to be written by Dave Walpert, with Warren Littlefield
, John Heyman
and Don Reo
acting as executive producers.
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
which started on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 10 January 2008. It stars Stephen Mangan
Stephen Mangan
Stephen Mangan is an English actor, best known for his roles as Guy Secretan in the television series Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge and as Holistic Detective Dirk Gently in the 2010 BBC adaptation of Douglas Adams' book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, as well as Sean Lincoln...
as recovering alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
Keith Merchant and Kate Ashfield
Kate Ashfield
Kate Ashfield is a British actress, best known for her award-winning roles as Jody in the Anglo-German film Late Night Shopping, as Sadie MacGregor in the British film This Little Life and as Liz in the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead.-Biography:Ashfield was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England...
as his suffering wife Anita. The series is written by Fintan Ryan
Fintan Ryan
Fintan Ryan is an Irish comedy screenwriter, best known for writing the BBC Two situation comedy Never Better.-External links:* on the BBC website*...
for World Productions
World Productions
World Productions is a British television production company, founded in the early 1990s by acclaimed producer Tony Garnett. The company's first major series was the police drama Between The Lines , and throughout the decade they went on to produce a succession of highly successful drama series...
.
The series has been described as a dark
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
sitcom, being compared to other recent sitcoms such as Lead Balloon
Lead Balloon
Lead Balloon is a British television series produced by Open Mike Productions for BBC Four. The series was created and is co-written by comedian Jack Dee and...
and Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
. However, critics have complained that the show is too similar to these sort of programmes, as well as attacking the character of Keith for not being funny. The series was received poorly by viewers, with the first series attracting an average audience of less than one million viewers per episode.
Plot
Never Better is about Keith Merchant (Mangan), a recovering alcoholic in his mid-thirties whose life never seems to get better. His problems come from him being self-centred and preoccupied with his own flaws. He attends Alcoholics AnonymousAlcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
meetings, but his behaviour often turns meetings into a farce, to the annoyance of group leader Doug (Christopher Fairbank
Christopher Fairbank
Christopher Fairbank is an English actor best known for his role as Albert Arthur Moxey in the hit comedy-drama series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.-Career:...
). He has a family, with his wife Anita (Ashfield) and two children, Tom and Poppy. Whilst he attempts to be a good husband and father, his optimism for his family and attempts to do the right thing tend to lead to even more problems. Outside of AA, he has his friend Richard (Tom Goodman-Hill) for support, although Richard believes that Keith was a better friend when he was drinking.
Production
The series is written by Fintan Ryan, produced by Helen Gregory and directed by Martin Dennis. The series itself is made by production company World Productions. Mangan and Ashfield had previously worked together early in their careers, providing voices for an animated series of Watership DownWatership Down
Watership Down is a classic heroic fantasy novel, written by English author Richard Adams, about a small group of rabbits. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language , proverbs, poetry, and mythology...
. Ashfield claimed that on set, "struggled to keep a straight face most of the time." She also said that her part made her more aware of her health. She said in an interview with The Times that she hoped the show would make, "people think twice about binge drinking." When asked if the role made her more abstemious, she said, "I watch what I drink and I try to keep myself healthy."
Mangan has said that he did not attend any AA meetings as part of research saying, "I didn't feel I could sit there and pretend to be an alcoholic, I thought that would be wrong. I also didn't want to stand up and say 'Hi, my name's Stephen, I'm an actor in a sitcom.' These are places where people are trying to work out really difficult stuff. We do touch on some controversial subjects in the series; there's a lad with Down's Syndrome in one episode. There's all sorts of topics that you wouldn't initially think are comic issues."
Reception
Never Better has been described as a dark sitcom. It has been compared to similar sitcoms such as Lead BalloonLead Balloon
Lead Balloon is a British television series produced by Open Mike Productions for BBC Four. The series was created and is co-written by comedian Jack Dee and...
and Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
. David Belcher in The Herald
The Herald (Glasgow)
The Herald is a broadsheet newspaper published Monday to Saturday in Glasgow, and available throughout Scotland. As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 47,226, giving it a lead over Scotland's other 'quality' national daily, The Scotsman, published in Edinburgh.The 1889 to 1906 editions...
commented on the show positively writing about the lack of a laughter track and the show's making fun of controversial subjects such as Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
However, people criticised Never Better for being too similar to other sitcoms and it received poor reviews overall. Paul Hoggart wrote in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
that, "It is amiably amusing, but may suffer from comparison with last year's Outnumbered
Outnumbered
Outnumbered is a British sitcom. Airing on BBC One since 2007, it stars Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner as a father and mother outnumbered by their three children...
, which covered similar ground with superb dexterity." One critic from the Daily Mirror said, "Stephen Mangan's latest incarnation as recovering alcoholic Keith doesn't land with the same weight as Steve Coogan's Tommy Saxondale [from Saxondale
Saxondale
Saxondale is a British television situation comedy programme, starring Steve Coogan and co-written by Steve Coogan and Neil Maclennan. The series is directed by Matt Lipsey and produced by Ted Dowd. Coogan and Henry Normal served as executive producers...
] or Jack Dee's Rick Spleen [from Lead Balloon]."
A. A. Gill
A. A. Gill
Adrian Anthony Gill is a British writer who uses the byline A. A. Gill. He is currently employed by The Sunday Times as their restaurant reviewer and television critic and Vanity Fair magazine as a restaurant reviewer...
disliked the show, writing in The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
that, "Never Better (Thursday, BBC2) is so poor, so comically bereft, so rigorously scoured of charm, traction, humour or insight, that seeing that whichever sad sap wrote it couldn't be bothered to include an original syllable, neither can I. In America, the aspirational sitcom has, as is its nature, successfully progressed to become Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
and Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
, The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...
. The recipe for success is simple: more of everything – more care, more commitment, more writers working harder to higher standards, with more discipline, for more money, with a collective understanding of what the genre stands for and, crucially, a belief that it has merit."
Gerard O'Donovan in the Daily Telegraph also attacked the programme. After the second episode had been broadcast, he wrote that, "Sadly, what modest potential the show evinced last week had evaporated in the interim. Recovering alcoholic Keith was again suffering from acute vagueness. Which was fine. But he also seemed to have lost his few remaining booze-free brain cells because he kept getting into scrapes as a result of not being able to use a mobile phone properly. If he'd been Victor Meldrew
Victor Meldrew
Victor Meldrew was a fictional character in the popular BBC One sitcom One Foot in the Grave. Created by David Renwick and played by Richard Wilson, the character was the archetypal grumpy old man...
[from One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave
One Foot in the Grave is a BBC television sitcom series written by David Renwick. The show ran for six series, including seven Christmas specials, two Comic Relief specials, over an eleven year period, from early 1990 to late 2000...
], or a man of that generation, this might have been just about credible. But for an educated man in his thirties it was risible and came across as contrived beyond belief. A paper-thin character to begin with, with no job, no friends and no real personality to speak of, Keith was now entirely transparent, revealed as a mere vehicle for lazy situation comedy. Not even Mangan could rescue that."
The series attracted poor ratings. The third episode, broadcast on 24 January 2008, received 900,000 viewers, the lowest of the five main terrestrial channels
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
that day. The following two episodes broadcast on 31 January and 7 February received 800,000 viewers (4% of the audience). The final episode had 823,000 viewers. This resulted in the series attracting an average audience of 935,000. In comparison, Little Miss Jocelyn
Little Miss Jocelyn
Little Miss Jocelyn is a British TV sketch comedy written by and starring Jocelyn Jee Esien. The show is made up of studio sketches and hidden camera footage in which unsuspecting members of the public become part of a sketch.-History:...
, the programme that was broadcast immediately before Never Better over the same six weeks on BBC Two, attracted an average of 1.1 million viewers.
Episodes
The first series started on 10 January 2008 on BBC TwoBBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
, as part of the channel's "Thursdays are Funny" line-up. The episodes are scheduled to be broadcast on Thursday nights at 22:00.
| # | Name | Airdate | Overview |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keith is worried that Tom is being bullied at school. In order to attempt to make himself and Tom look more aggressive, he buys a 4x4 Four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, 4WD, or 4×4 is a four-wheeled vehicle with a drivetrain that allows all four wheels to receive torque from the engine simultaneously... from Shaun (Neil Fitzmaurice Neil Fitzmaurice Neil Fitzmaurice is an English actor, comedian and writer.-Writing:Fitzmaurice's writing projects include That Peter Kay Thing, for which he received a British Comedy Award, and the critically acclaimed Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights, in which he also appeared as "Ray-Von".Neil has also written two... ), a fellow AA member, and uses it to stand up to the bully's mother. Keith tells Anita that he is taking the car for a test drive, but Anita demands he returns it. Keith later learns that his overheard comments about one of Tom's overweight friends have led to another boy being bullied. Shaun later tells Keith that he is likely to be laid off, because his workmates bully him. Keith advises him to stand up for himself, but this leads him to relapse into drinking. On the way back from AA, Shaun vomits in the car, meaning he cannot return it. |
|||
| Keith is worried about both his masculinity during Tom's football practice. He also worries about some not getting his iron Ironing Ironing is the use of a heated tool to remove wrinkles from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180-220 °Celsius, depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the long-chain polymer molecules in the fibers of the material... back after it is lent to some dinner party guests. He tries to get the iron back by stealing the guest's phone number from Anita's mobile, but she stops him. At AA, he befriends a member who finds it hard to socialise. Keith's friend Richard convinces him to become more masculine by sending each other rude text messages. However, Keith accidentally sends one text to everyone in his address book. |
|||
| Keith has problems at AA with Marianne (Susan Earl), a Christian woman who talks to her cat, Chairman Meow. He is also not wanting to go to a recorder performance given by Anita's nephew Paul, partly because he has Down's Syndrome, but mainly because Paul gropes him. At AA, he is encouraged to help someone, and is asked to take Chairman Meow to the vet. However, they learn that he possibly has cancer. After taking Paul out, his parents eventually think he is having a loving relationship with someone. Marianne then loses her faith, begins drinking and asks Keith to have sex with her. Luckily, Chairman Meow only has a furball and Marianne regains her faith. | |||
| Keith is told off by Doug for holding a side-conversation despite the fact he was trying to help someone. Carl (Phillip Wright), a new member of group arrives after Doug spots signs of his alcoholism. He and Anita hold a surprise birthy party for Anita's father, and give him a plasma screen TV as a gift. However, Anita's brother Rob, a drug addict, has yet to pay his share for it. During an argument, Rob throws a ball which Keith fails to catch, resulting in the TV being broken. An intervention is organised to help Rob, but eventually he breaks down over the broken TV. At AA, Carl leaves the group but Keith welcomes him back in. Carl offers Keith a new TV for £600, which he pays for. It is later discovered that he was a conman, with everyone at the meeting giving him money for faulty electrical goods. | |||
| Keith using his AA meetings as an excuse for not seeing the grandparents. During the meeting, he pretends to yawn to indicate he thinks it is getting boring, but causes offence. A new AA member, Charlie (Nicholas Burns), is in the middle of "First week euphoria" of not drinking. It is then recommended that Keith sits in "The chair", talking to the whole group. Richard says he should talk about using the AA meetings to get away from his family. Keith does this, but everyone is shocked by him. Worried he is not helping anyone, he tries to help Charlie, but he causes more offence and ends up destroying Charlie's "First week euphoria", resulting in him wanting to get drunk. He runs across the road to do so, but is run over and dies. When Keith visits the dead body, he spills coffee over the corpse. Keith swaps his clothes over with Charlie's, but he still causes trouble at the funeral when his mobile phone rings during the service. | |||
| Although at AA he annoys his fellow members by telling a trivial story, Keith tries to befriend a fellow member, Arturo (Matthew Ashforde Matthew Ashforde Matthew Ashforde is an English actor, known for his appearances in EastEnders, Press Gang and Is It Legal?.Ashforde started his professional acting career at the age of ten. He currently lives in North London with his wife and son.... ), whose father got shot. When he is out with his family, Keith is annoyed when his father remembers a story incorrectly about getting a model plane. Keith also worries about some kids hanging around outside his house, who later jeer Anita. She tells Keith to concentrate more on his children than his father. At AA, Keith learns that Arturo's father got shot during a bank robbery and how his father being in jail resulted in a lack of a bond between them, thus inspiring to be a better father. The following meeting, he learns that Arturo and his father have been arrested for robbery. Keith finally confronts the kids outside and ends up being stabbed. In hospital, Richard tells Keith that standing up to the kids is an important step towards his alcoholic recovery. |
Adaptations
An Never Better (U.S. TV series) of Never Better is to be made for ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Damon Wayans will play the lead role, with Marc Buckland
Marc Buckland
- Filmography :*Love Bites - Director, executive producer*My Name is Earl - Director, executive producer*Ed - Director, executive producer*The Jake Effect - Director, executive producer...
directing. The series is to be written by Dave Walpert, with Warren Littlefield
Warren Littlefield
Warren W. Littlefield is an American former television executive.A protégé of Brandon Tartikoff, Littlefield developed Cheers, The Cosby Show, and The Golden Girls as senior and executive vice president of NBC Entertainment under Tartikoff...
, John Heyman
John Heyman
John Heyman is a British film and TV producer, who since the mid 1980s has mainly been involved in film financing. Married to his wife Nizza since 1982, this is his second marriage. He has five children, David , Lil , Gabrielle , Dahlia and Daniel...
and Don Reo
Don Reo
Don Reo is an American television writer and producer. He created such shows as Blossom and The John Larroquette Show for NBC and My Wife and Kids for ABC....
acting as executive producers.
Disambiguation
In 2005, a sitcom script entitled Never Better was published by Matt McHugh. Set in a Hollywood retirement home for aging movie stars, it is currently in development review and not related to the BBC program.External links
- Never Better at World Productions
- Never Better on Radio TimesRadio TimesRadio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...