Parents (TV series)

Last updated

Parents
Parents cast.jpg
Genre Sitcom
Written by Lloyd Woolf
Joe Tucker
Directed bySimon Delaney
Starring Sally Phillips
Darren Strange
Tom Conti
Susie Blake
Jadie Rose Hobson
Christian Lees
ComposerSamuel Karl Bohn
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time30mins (inc. adverts)
Production company Objective Productions
Original release
Network Sky 1
Release6 July (2012-07-06) 
3 August 2012 (2012-08-03)

Parents is a British sitcom starring Sally Phillips as Jenny Pope, a middle-class woman in her forties who moves, along with her husband and their teenage son and daughter, from London, to live with her parents in Kettering. The show ran for one series, broadcast on Sky 1 from 6 July to 3 August 2012. On 5 March 2013, Sky confirmed that Parents would not return for a second series. [1]

Contents

Cast

Episodes

No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions) [2]
1"Episode One"Simon Delaney Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker 6 July 2012 (2012-07-06)538,000
Fortysomething Jenny asks a favour of Mum and Dad: Can she and her family move in with them?
2"Episode Two"Simon Delaney Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker 6 July 2012 (2012-07-06)445,000
Nick tries to work his persuasive powers on Len to get some office space; Jenny has an awkward encounter with an ex.
3"Episode Three"Simon Delaney Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker 13 July 2012 (2012-07-13)<382,000
Alma attempts to cheer Jenny up with a surprise visit from one of her London pals, but the visitors aren't exactly welcomed with open arms.
4"Episode Four"Simon Delaney Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker 20 July 2012 (2012-07-20)363,000
Feelings of resentment towards Alma flood back when Jenny stumbles upon her old diary; the first test batch of Nick's energy drink X-Celsior arrives.
5"Episode Five"Simon Delaney Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker 27 July 2012 (2012-07-27)260,000
Valentine's Day brings out the best and worst in the Pope-Miller household. Alma is unimpressed with Len, and Jenny is preoccupied by the auction of her house.
6"Episode Six"Simon Delaney Lloyd Woolf, Joe Tucker 3 August 2012 (2012-08-03)257,000
It looks like the Popes could be back on track when Jenny lands a promising job interview.

Home media

The complete series was released on DVD on 29 July 2013 by Channel 4 DVD. [3]

Reception

The show was met with a generally positive critical response, becoming increasingly positive throughout its run. The Independent called it "a broad family comedy, both funny and 'now'". [4] Heat Magazine described the first episode as "good fun" [5] whilst The Telegraph said it "shows some promise and boasts a good cast" [6] and praised the writing, saying "the script is sharp, zeitgeisty, and just the right side of cloying". [7] The Guardian was more critical of episode one, saying it "fails to make the leap from paper to screen" [8] but responded much more positively to subsequent episodes, calling the show "an utter pleasure" [9] and "beautifully written". [10] The Mirror also praised the series, calling it "very funny" [11] and saying that "as well as a great cast, Parents also has a great big heart and it's this that could keep it beating into further series". [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Phillips</span> English actress and comedian

Sally Elizabeth Phillips is an English actress, comedian, and television presenter. She co-created and was one of the writers of the sketch comedy show Smack the Pony. She is also known for her roles in Jam & Jerusalem as Natasha "Tash" Vine, Miranda as Tilly, I'm Alan Partridge as Sophie, Parents as Jenny Pope, Set the Thames on Fire as Colette in 2015, Zapped as Slasher Morgan, and her guest appearances as the fictional Prime Minister of Finland Minna Häkkinen in the US TV series Veep. Phillips also co-starred in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies as Mrs Bennet and in the role of Shazza in all three films of the Bridget Jones franchise.

Sarah Anne Akers, known professionally as Suranne Jones, is an English actress and producer. Known for her numerous collaborations with screenwriter Sally Wainwright, she rose to prominence playing Karen McDonald on ITV's Coronation Street between 2000 and 2004. Upon leaving, she furthered her television career in drama series such as Vincent (2005–2006), Strictly Confidential (2006), Harley Street (2008), and Unforgiven (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Pilkington</span> English comedian and television personality (born 1972)

Karl Pilkington is an English presenter, actor, voice-artist, producer and author.

Lloyd Woolf is a British comedy actor and writer.

Life's Too Short is a British mockumentary sitcom, created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and starring Warwick Davis, about "the life of a showbiz dwarf." Davis plays a fictionalised version of himself, and both Gervais and Merchant appear in supporting roles as themselves. The show began airing on BBC Two on 10 November 2011. Premium cable channel HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC, has the US rights and aired the series from 19 February 2012.

<i>This is Jinsy</i> British TV comedy series (Sky Atlantic, 2010–14)

This is Jinsy is a British comedy television series. The pilot was first broadcast on 1 March 2010 on BBC Three. The programme is about the bizarre residents of the fictional island of Jinsy which is based on Guernsey, where the two writers are from. The show was written by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb who also play the leading roles. Although the pilot episode was made for the BBC, the full series of eight episodes was picked up by Sky Atlantic. The first series began airing with a double bill on 19 September 2011 and ended on 31 October 2011. A second series was commissioned and was first broadcast on 8 January 2014.

<i>An Idiot Abroad</i> British television travel documentary series (2010–2012)

An Idiot Abroad is a British travel documentary comedy television series broadcast on Sky One, as well as a series of companion books published by Canongate Books, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and starring Karl Pilkington. The ongoing theme of both the television series and the books is that Pilkington has no interest in global travel, so Merchant and Gervais make him travel while they stay in the United Kingdom and monitor his progress.

<i>Mad Dogs</i> (British TV series) British black comedy and psychological thriller television series

Mad Dogs is a British psychological thriller television series, written and created by Cris Cole, that began airing on Sky1 on 10 February 2011, and ended on 29 December 2013 after four series and 14 episodes. It is produced by Left Bank Pictures, and co-produced by Palma Pictures. The series stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Max Beesley, and Philip Glenister as four long-time and middle-aged friends getting together in a villa in Majorca to celebrate the early retirement of their friend Alvo. After Alvo is murdered, the group find themselves caught up in the world of crime and police corruption.

<i>Trollied</i> Television series

Trollied is a British television sitcom about employees in a fictional supermarket named "Valco", which debuted on Sky One on 4 August 2011 and ended on 23 December 2018. The series was filmed in a purpose-built replica supermarket in the Bottle Yard Studios in Bristol throughout April and May 2011 for the first series with the second series being filmed in June and July 2012.

<i>Mount Pleasant</i> (TV series) British television comedy drama

Mount Pleasant is a British comedy-drama which first aired on Sky 1 on 24 August 2011. The show moved to Sky Living in 2012, before moving back to Sky 1 in 2015. The show ended in a 90 minute special on 30 June 2017.

<i>Spy</i> (2011 TV series) British TV series or programme

Spy is a British situation comedy created and written by Simeon Goulden. The first series aired on 14 October 2011 on Sky 1 in the UK, as well as on the online video service Hulu in the United States. A second series began airing on 19 October 2012, ending with a Christmas Special on 26 December 2012. On 1 March 2013, Darren Boyd announced that the show would not be returning for a third series.

<i>Being Eileen</i> British TV series or programme

Being Eileen is a BBC comedy-drama which began as a six-part series on 4 February and ended on 11 March 2013. It began as a one-off Christmas special titled Lapland, broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 24 December 2011. A full series was later announced, with the title Being Eileen, consisting of six 30 minute episodes, due to the success of the single episode, which was viewed by 6.9 million viewers upon its original airing. The series also aired on BBC Two as part of Sign Zone, which features sign language throughout. The series was released on DVD on 1 April 2013.

Derek is a British comedy-drama television series starring, written by and directed by Ricky Gervais. The pilot was produced by Derek Productions Ltd. for Channel 4 and aired on 12 April 2012. Channel 4 describes the show as "A bittersweet comedy drama about a group of outsiders living on society's margins".

Starlings is a British comedy-drama written by Steve Edge and Matt King who also play the roles of Fergie and Uncle Loz. It is one of the few recent television comedy series commissioned and aired on Sky 1. In September 2013, Sky1 announced it was cancelling the show after two seasons.

<i>Sinbad</i> (TV series) British television series

Sinbad is an action-adventure fantasy family saga television series that aired on Sky1 from 8 July to 23 September 2012. It was produced by Impossible Pictures, the same company who made Walking with Dinosaurs and Primeval. The series stars Elliot Knight as the eponymous hero Sinbad.

<i>A Touch of Cloth</i> British TV series or programme

A Touch of Cloth is a British television comedy series created and written by Charlie Brooker and Daniel Maier, shown on Sky One. A parody of British police procedural dramas, it stars John Hannah as Jack Cloth, a police detective with personal problems, and Suranne Jones as Anne Oldman, his colleague. The title is a play on the title of the detective series A Touch of Frost and the British euphemism "touching cloth". The DVD of the first series was released in the UK on 3 September 2012, and the second and third series were released on 1 September 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Carroll (comedian)</span> English comedian and actor

Jack Carroll is an English comedian and actor. He competed in the seventh series of Britain's Got Talent at the age of 14, finishing as the runner-up. As an actor, he appeared in two series of the CBBC series Ministry of Curious Stuff and from 2014 to 2018, he starred in the Sky sitcom Trollied. Carroll, whose cerebral palsy is often a subject of his act, won a Pride of Britain award in 2012.

Yonderland is a British sitcom television series that was broadcast on Sky One from November 2013 to December 2016. It was produced by Sioned Wiliam, and was created by, written by and starred the main performers from CBBC's series Horrible Histories.

<i>Inside No. 9</i> BBC TV dark comedy series

Inside No. 9 is a British black comedy anthology television programme that first aired on 5 February 2014. It is written by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton and produced by the BBC. Each 30-minute episode is a self-contained story with new characters and a new setting, almost all starring Pemberton or Shearsmith. Aside from the writers, each episode has a new cast, allowing Inside No. 9 to attract a number of well-known actors. The stories are linked only by the number 9 in some way, typically taking the form of a door marked with the number 9, and a brass hare statue that is in the background of all episodes. Themes and tone vary from episode to episode, but all have elements of comedy and horror or perverse humour, in addition to a plot twist. Pemberton and Shearsmith took inspiration for Inside No. 9 from an episode of Psychoville, a previous project, which was filmed in a single room – this in turn was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.

<i>Agatha Raisin</i> (TV series) British comedy-drama television program

Agatha Raisin is a British comedy-drama television series, based on M. C. Beaton's book series of the same name about a former PR agent who solves crime mysteries in the Cotswolds village of Carsely.

References

  1. Munn, Patrick (5 March 2013). "Sky1's Comedy Series 'Parents' Cancelled After One Season". TVWise. Archived from the original on 8 March 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2013.
  2. "Weekly Top 10 Programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  3. "Parents [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  4. Craig McClean (1 July 2012). "Quirk ethic: Sally Phillips finally lands a lead role after 20 years of playing oddballs" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  5. "Over on Digital: Parents, Sky One, 8.30PM". Heat Magazine. 26 June 2012.
  6. Simon Horsford (5 July 2012). "TV Highlights". The Telegraph.
  7. Smith, Patrick (6 July 2012). "Sally Phillips on Sky1's Parents: 'Please God, let it not be like My Family'" . The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 August 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  8. Stubbs, David; Mueller, Andrew; Mumford, Gwilym; Verdier, Hannah; O'Neill, Phelim (6 July 2012). "TV Highlights 06/07/2012". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  9. Julia Raeside (13 July 2012). "TV Highlights 13/7/2012". The Guardian.
  10. Raeside, Julia; Stubbs, David; Mueller, Andrew; O'Neill, Phelim; Skegg, Martin; Catterall, Ali (3 August 2012). "TV Highlights 03/08/2012". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  11. "Parents tonight is not just very funny but heart-warming too". The Mirror. 13 July 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  12. Jenny Eclair (14 July 2012). "Have I gone soft on sitcoms? Blame the Parents". The Mirror. Retrieved 22 September 2012.