PrimeWire

Not owning a television for years, I tend to play catch-up when it comes to shows on terrestrial UK TV and so it was with ‘Back’ which I only discovered when a kind soul posted it here on PW a week ago. I was a huge fan of Mitchell & Webb’s Peep Show series from the start, so with some trepidation I dived into season one of Back. Having now caught up, it left me with the same feeling when I watched The Detectorists -it was OK, funny in places but really the praise lies in the fact that I actually watched it till the end. A glib review would suggest Back is a cross between Peep Show and Dennis Potter’s Brimstone & Treacle (while a pretentious review would suggest Peep Show and Pasolini’s Theorem).
The actors were good, I laughed in places but as the saying goes, the centre no longer holds - I can remember the total anticipation and joy when a new episode of Peep Show was broadcast and that lasted till the last series whereas with Back, it doesn’t really bother me I’m three years late to the party.
I know that along with Mitchell and Webb, we’ve all got a lot older and the entire universe of UK TV comedy (and the UK itself) has changed completely but something has definitely been lost along the way and what’s replaced it is ironically, no laughing matter. Now, when’s the next episode broadcast…