TV: Together, BBC3

together

Now there’s a bit of a dream cast for you. The first episode of Together features Jonny Sweet, Alex MacQueen, Vicki Pepperdine, Katy Wix and various other faces you will immediately recognise from previous classy TV comedies. 

And luckily after a very tentative first few minutes Together fulfils its promise. The single camera series, written by Sweet and based on his previous radio version Hard To Tell, finds our incident-prone hero Tom (Sweet) being smitten by headstrong Ellen (Cara Theobold aka Ivy Stuart from Downton Abbey if you watch that sort of thing).

After a few accidental meetings – with the emphasis on accident, Tom finally engineers a meeting when he is mistakenly invited to a party by Ellen. But things still don’t go quite to plan. It looks like these two are destined for each other, but life is determined to get in the way. 

The supporting cast certainly justify their bookings in this scene-setter. MacQueen and Pepperdine play Tom’s parents Ashley and Lesley, who clearly love each other between the bickering. Ashley is a pedantic central casting hoarder who insists on eating his Asda yoghurt at exactly the right temperature, but is finally having a “toss out” – divesting himself of unwanted videos and ponchos. Katy Wix as sister Maeve is also good value, though she does seem a bit too simple-minded – updating the Wiki page for England? – and not a million miles away from her character in Not Going Out to be a barrister.

Stick in a delicious cameo from Tim Key as a badminton-loving copper, a couple of lewd builders and some creepy comedy neighbours and Together can’t really go wrong. It’s a bit twee at times – I was nervously expecting a ukelele to make an appearance towards the end – but I think it is going to grow on me. 

Together, Tuesdays from October 6, 10.30pm.

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