Siblings
ABC 2, Tuesday 10pm
IMAGINE the worst people you could possibly think of, with no redeeming features.
Obnoxious, lazy, self-centred, under-achieving and incompetent – and those are our “heroes” in this mildly funny BBC3 comedy.
The siblings played by Charlotte Ritchie (who has just joined the cast of Call The Midwife and is a member of the group All Angels), and Tom Stourton – these two are two siblings that Young Ones were to university students but not as funny.
Each week, through their own selfishness and idiocy, they spectacularly wreck the lives of those around them, from old friends to love interests and even family members, and any other people unlucky enough to cross the paths of this flat-sharing brother and sister team.
Dan and Hannah are beyond shallow and you shouldn’t like them and you probably don’t but you never quite know what they are going to do next and it’s hard not to cringe at everything and anything they do.
And yet there are enough laughs and silliness to keep you coming back for more.
Last week they wrecked the lives of a yuppie couple who seemingly had it all – Hannah getting her old university buddy beyond drunk and Dan going to work for her fiance and pretty much destroying his vet practice (letting the animals free).
This is not a polished laugh track comedy and has a lot more in common with the Worst Year Of My Life and The Young Ones than The Big Bang Theory and yet as much as you don’t want to see what they get up to next – this is car crash TV and you can’t look away.
And every now and then a little car crash TV is okay, however being British they know they know the value of “a little going a long way” and so Siblings is, thankfully, just a six-episode series. But don’t worry if you do get hooked – BBC3 have just announced a second series.
– Tania Phillips
