But top of the tree is Colin from Accounts (Monday 7 September, 10pm, BBC Two), a name so bland I almost slipped into medical unconsciousness upon hearing it. There’s an aspect of comedy-tie zaniness to it, a “Look, we’re calling our possibly office-based sitcom the most boring thing we can think of!” tedium. One can imagine the lazy jokes, the stock characters.
Within 15 minutes of watching it, I was genuinely toying with the idea of a CFA tattoo. How did this unpromising Australian import become my favourite? By being a showcase for fearless writing, electric chemistry and delicious comic timing.
Written by real-life partners Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, it tracks the relationship of medical student Ashley and Gordon, a brewery owner and ball cancer survivor. The romance, like their writing, is allergic to schmaltz. Their meet-cute occurs in the street when Ashley flashes a boob at Gordon, causing him to crash his car and permanently disable a stray dog that they unwillingly adopt together. (That’s Colin.
It’s not really about Colin.) If you haven’t watched the show before, you need to do that today. For Colinheads, this final series picks up three years after the cringey climax of the second, when a public declaration was badly handled. I’m impressed when shows do this – jump forward a few years between series.
It shakes the snow globe, jumbling relationships and a world we’ve come to love, coating them in fresh unfamiliarity. Thankfully, the characters are all present and incorrect. Ashley is now dating a pickleball player who works for an inner-city trout farm, and stinks.
Her best friend Megan is a lesbian mumfluencer, having conceived using sperm donated from James, Ashley’s ex. Megan still has a frisson with Gordon’s colleague Chiara, the mother of three whose bisexuality she awakened. Chiara, meanwhile, is having an emotional time disclosing her recent ADHD diagnosis.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
