Friday's best TV: Home From Home, Lethal Weapon and Our Wildest Dreams

Laughs on the Lakes: Johnny Vegas, centre, as newsagent Neil, with Niky Wardley as his wife and Oscar Kennedy , right, and Harvey Chaisty as his sons
BBC/James Stack
Alastair McKay27 April 2018

Here are two simple ideas at the heart of Home From Home, the BBC sitcom set in the Lake District. The first is the popular misconception that the agonies and insecurities of class are always hilarious. They can be, but it’s not the law. The second is Johnny Vegas. He can be funny too, but that is not guaranteed.

Here’s the situation. Vegas plays Neil Hackett, a newsagent from Stoke-on-Trent who has achieved his dream of owning a holiday lodge in the Lakes. Unfortunately his neighbours are posh but downwardly mobile. Well, you can imagine the scrapes!

Let’s pull back a bit. What is the thing that is funny about Vegas? It is captured in his name. Vegas is the comic character inhabited by Michael Pennington. He is not glamorous. He is, or was, borderline drunk, un-athletic and prone to moaning in a high voice. He did a good turn with a monkey in the PG Tips adverts. He never strays far from the comfort of his discomfiture, but he seems to have had a comedic haemorrhoidectomy.

In Home From Home (BBC One, 9.30pm) he’s not dissolute. He looks quite healthy, considering. But the vocal whine remains, and his character is powered by the foolish pride of the idiot underdog. The comedy comes from him not knowing his place.

Home From Home: Johnny Vegas stars in the new comedy
BBC/James Stack

Writing the plot down would not require many beer mats. This week: a hill walk up Helvellyn, by Striding Edge. Why? Because Neil didn’t have change for the honesty box in the shop, took a map to make up the difference, boasted about his experience to his posh, sporty neighbour and before you know it most of the cast is going up the hill.

The posh neighbour knows what he’s doing, so he leads the less idiotic members of the company to the summit. Neil, unable to dispense with his lovable simplicity, goes his own way, accompanied by the equally reluctant, rather posher Penny (Emilia Fox), who would rather be getting waxed in Keswick. Fox plays the fruity twit rather well. Vegas, as ever, aspires to underachieve, though he does capture the poetic resonance of the phrase “Jaffa Cake protocol” well enough.

Funnier, but still not funny enough, is Lethal Weapon (ITV, 9pm), a series loosely inspired by the film franchise starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Clayne Crawford plays Riggs, Damon Wayans in Murtaugh. They are odd-couple cops in LA. Riggs is white with a funny moustache and a lot of emotional baggage. Murtuagh is black and happy to redirect the resources of the police department to find out why his daughter’s boyfriend is tagging another girl on Instagram. The best jokes are about the police procedurals: “We got champagne, we got coke, we got a bloody gaping hole in the side of the head,” says Murtuagh. “Is it a crime of passion?” The forensics guy shines his ultraviolet light on the messed-up bed-sheets. “A lot of passion.”

In Our Wildest Dreams (Channel 4, 8pm), Mari, 52, from south London, moves to Amazonia and learns to entertain herself by blowing darts at a banana. “If you’re going to live in the rainforest,” she says, “you’ve got to expect rain.”

@AHMcKay

Pick of the day

Nashville - Sky Living, 9pm

This episode of the Music City soap was the US mid-season finale in, so the cliffhangers are more dramatic than usual, as the show lays the foundations for its final episodes.

Much of the attention focuses on Daphne (Maisy Stella), who auditions for a place on Nashville’s Next Country Star, a talent show on which the executive producer is Brad (Jeffrey Nordling), the grim ex of Deacon’s new lady friend Jessie (Kaitlin Doubleday).

Deacon (Charles Esten), who never has his troubles to seek, does not take the news well. “The show that I’ve told you you cannot be on?” he chides. “That one?” Yes, Deacon, that one. So it’d be wise if you didn’t square up to Brad when he comes to your house to taunt you. Oops.

Facing the music: Daphne tells Brad
Lionsgate Entertainment

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Scarlett (Clare Bowen) has decided to take Sean (Jake Etheridge) to the Bluebird, because she believes he should be sharing his music with the world and not just drinking to soothe his post-traumatic stress disorder.

Avery (Jonathan Jackson) is flying home from Bolivia, having left Juliette (Hayden Panettiere) to pursue her interest in a mad cult. And Will (Chris Carmack) is feeling dizzy after Googling steroid abuse.

Screen time

Bobby Kennedy For President - Netflix

This four-hour documentary series is released to coincide with the 1968 presidential campaign of John F Kennedy’s younger brother, which ended in tragedy with his assassination on June 6.

Directed by Dawn Porter (who made Gideon’s Army, about public defenders in the Deep South), it aims to go further than the story of his death, looking at his work from 1961 onwards.

The focus on career means that family members are not interviewed, but there is extensive archive footage and a focus on the importance of Kennedy’s visit to Mississippi,

where he found Americans were starving. The disenchantment of the Sixties feels familiar, as does the longing for a politician who embodies hope.

What to Watch/Capital Conversation - Sunday, London Live, from 5pm

Romance is in the air in What to Watch, as Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn discuss their new psychodrama Beast, while Emmett Scanlan is careful to not let a spoiler slip about new Netflix mystery series Safe.

Then there’s a Brexit special in Capital Conversation, featuring Gina Miller.

Miller Time: Gina discusses exiting the EU
Getty Images

The Entertainer - Sunday, London Live, 8pm

A rage, rage against the dying of the footlights is what consumes ageing music hall star Archie Rice (a landmark role for Laurence Olivier) as he scrabbles for the slightest fingerhold in showbusiness, his career fossilising before his eyes.

John Osborne adapted his own play for the screen, along with Nigel Kneale, this story of personal decay tied to Britain’s own post-war decline as soldiers headed to the Suez Canal in 1956 for the Government’s ill-advised campaign. Broke and clinging onto past glories, Rice scrabbles around for money to fund his next show and his desperation morphs into manipulation when he dates a beauty pageant contestant (Shirley Anne Field) to wheedle cash from her wealthy parents.

Catch up

Barry - Sky Atlantic

In this super-dry comedy Bill Hader plays Barry Berkman, below, a Midwest hitman who is sent to LA on Chechen mob business and stumbles into an acting class, causing him to question the value of his chosen career. Co-created by Hader and Seinfeld writer Alec Berg, Barry also features a great turn from Henry “The Fonz” Winkler as a polo-necked acting coach.

Set the box

One More Time With Feeling - Sky Arts, 2.45am

A very late-night slot tonight for Andrew Dominik’s extraordinary film about the recording of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ album Skeleton Tree. The record was completed nine months after the tragic death of Cave’s son Arthur and offers a close-up view of the singer’s creativity at its rawest. Cave’s thoughts were recorded on iPhone and added after filming.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in