I don't think moving a fucking cake tin is going to cut it, grandma

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.  

#8 : Alma's Not Normal

Sophie Willan’s autobiographical show about the childhood she describes as being “the baby in Trainspotting, if she’d lived” won a comedy Bafta for the pilot alone. So this six-episode series, which saw her move from a job in a sandwich shop to becoming a sex worker and finally joining a theatre troupe, was an absolute riotous delight.

I've heard this is good and was looking forward to something I could have a giggle at because they've been a bit lacking on the list so far - although we're about to start a run of four comedies, three of which I have high hopes for, so maybe I'll be chuckling for a month or two.

And yeah, as you may be able to guess from the above, this basically follows Alma on her less than normal life - which is populated by many larger than life characters, most of whom have a nice line in "telling it how it is".  But the dialogue is actually quite a subtle combination of obvious jokes, blatant insults and subtle observations, so sometimes the laughs come quickly and sometimes they sneak up on you pleasingly slowly - it's all very well written.  And it's rude, but it's very good natured rude - it does feature several more vulnerable sections of society but in my opinion it generally punches up rather than punches down (or, maybe more accurately, punches at the system within which everyone is struggling to get by)

For the most part, this isn't a challenging watch and it's all the better for it - each half an hour flies by with characters you engage with (if not exactly care about) and there one or two proper laughs in each episode.  But there are moments of pathos and politics which give you pause for thought and humanise the comedy.  It does, however, have a very downbeat last episode considering how motherhood and poverty can act as a recurring trap across the generations - it's thoughtful, well written stuff but not exactly a barrel of laughs.  It does manage an upbeat ending though - featuring two uses of the c word.  On a BBC sitcom - crikey!

Sophie Willan as Alma is really engaging - and not in the slightest bit normal.  Which, given the autobiographical nature of the shown probably isn't that surprising!  And the rest of the cast fit around her well - Jayde Adams gets the main shout out as her mate Leanne, but she's definitely been watching Ruth Jones in Gavin And Stacey.  It was also nice to see Siobhan Finneran pop up in the second program in a row on the list - she has a good "worn in" face for women of a certain age (for those of you with very long memories, she was Rita in Rita, Sue and Bob Too - from all the way back in 1987!)  And Lorraine Ashbourne completes the Willan family as Alma's grandma - she's appeared in many things over the years but I couldn't tell you one of them.  And it was nice to see Dave Spikey in there as well - the man's 70 now and is still amusingly dry with his side swipes at life and others.

I enjoyed this - it's well written, well acted stuff with some engaging characters and some good laughs in each episode.  I can see it won't be everyone's cup of tea and I'm sure some people have moaned that the male characters aren't exactly well fleshed out, but it's not their story - and other comedies featuring men are available, I'm told.

#7 - impressive, but hard-going drama
#9 - Utterly charming television