Part of the fun of watching new sitcoms is picking out the DNA in them. Mr Bigstuff tries to be distinctive – and is in places – but also seems to be influenced by shows ranging from This Country to Gavin & Stacey to Brassic (which co-star and writer Ryan Sampson has appeared in). It's about working class families and relationships and is very much not set in London.
Sampson, who made his name in Plebs, plays Glen, who works in an Essex carpet shop and is about to marry his fiancee, Kirsty (Harriet Webb), who we first see giving him a hand job in the car. But trouble appears to be afoot when Lee, played by Danny Dyer, who has been known to play a few plebs in his time, seems to be searching for Glen. Is Lee a gangster looking to settle some scores? Is Glen in some kind of Essex witness protection scheme?
No. It turns out - spoiler alert – that they are estranged brothers and Lee wants to reconnect. Obviously a lot of the comedy comes from the fact that they are so different - hard nut meets soft wimp. In fact they are so different Kirsty is not really convinced they are brothers. They have to prove their connection by doing a dance routine while playing the spoons. As you do. They are so in tune – and both have such bad taste – they must be related. Case closed.
It's a nice set up even if it is one that doesn't quite press the originality buttons. Even the dance routine – the clear stand-out scene in the first episode – seems to echo a shamelessly quirky routine in an Inside No 9 episode from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.
But there is plenty to enjoy here. Even if it is tricky to work out at times whether Dyer is sending up his usual gobby persona or just playing a gobby ersona. It does feel as if he has had a hand in the script. He even uses the word "Trotters" which he famously usued to describe David Cameron after the Brexit vote ("He’s in Europe with his trotters up.").
There's some emotional heft to it. In the opener we learn how Glen has been the son who looked after their sick mum while Lee was living the high life. Naturally given Dyer's involvement, there is some criminality along the way too, though he is not alwasy the villain. Mr Bigstuff is not groundbreaking, but it's fast-paced and funny and there are worse ways to spend 30 minutes a week. Put your trotters up and enjoy.
Mr Bigstuff, Sky Max, Wednesdays, 9pm.
Picture: Sly
