Vicious series one & two (Kudos)

An incredible cast, headlined by Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, Frances De La Tour, and Iwan Rheon, heightens expectations of this British sitcom. The first couple of episodes epically fail to meet such expectations, with genuine laughs few and far between. This makes what sounds like canned laughter a real irritation, but the series was filmed with a studio audience, which perhaps explains its excessive theatricality. Fortunately matters improve, with more laugh out loud moments and even some belly laughs later in the season. Some very old-fashioned sitcom tropes seem pathetically pantomime at first, but they gain the status of an in-joke as the series progresses and are occasionally used to good comic effect. McKellen and Jacobi seem to be having a ball hamming it up as Freddy and Stuart, a couple together for 48 years, who snipe at each other viciously more often than they show their affection. In what could have been a caricature role, Frances De La Tour provides breadth and depth as desperate friend Violet, while Rheon demonstrates his versatility as their naïve neighbour. Memory-challenged friend Penelope, played by Marcia Warren, actually gets the most and best laughs, largely because her moments of clarity are unexpected and unpredictably hilarious. Series two is less strident and over the top, more emotional, less actually vicious than the first. It abandons the tropes and follows more of a dramatic arc. Georgia King seems slightly miscast as the new girlfriend as she literally dwarfs Iwan Rheon. Perhaps that is meant to be funny; it’s not. In episode five there is a quite lovely black and white flashback to when Stuart and Freddie first moved in together. Once again Marcia Warren gets the funniest lines, prompting full on belly laughs. Extras include a Q&A at the end with McKellen and Jacobi, which is touching and funny.