hDo you think the old-school sitcom, with its improbable plots, cartoon characters and clever set-pieces, is fresh and relevant in 21st-century Britain? Obviously, the answer is to leave aside the modern world entirely. Following the devout Lewis family, they all become involved in an evangelical church (and apocalyptic cult) based in Manchester, where misogyny, homophobia and a surprisingly outdated sense of society are alive and well. It's deliberately unrelated material presented in a contrived and ridiculous style with lots of hair styling. As a contemporary joke it shouldn't work, but – by God – it really does.
The brilliance of Everybody's Elise Burns, now returning for a second series, is the result of a dense script peppered with witty jokes, but mainly a cast who are a joy to watch. Pathologically incompetent patriarch David, The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird, is somehow cruelly oppressive and heartbreakingly naïve: a devotee of his faction's misogynistic religion, he doesn't care about being a tabletop dictator, but he believes. (seeing a Sun-Maid woman portends marital infidelity) and Bird's absolutely non-alpha energy means he's more of a fool than a tyrant.
Everyone else is excellent: Kate O'Flynn is horrible as Fiona, David's shakily repressed business wife, who is constantly led astray by the mischievous neighbor Melissa (a great Morgana Robinson). Funny Girl's Arshar Ali makes Samson, the corrupt church leader, a terrifyingly gruff villain, while Katif Kirwan is unbothered and cunning as Andrew, the church elder adored by Fiona. My personal highlight, however, is the (relatively) young and (relatively) hip Abijah, which gives Al Roberts – Stath Let's Flats and Sketch Dry Sheep – the chance to hone his comedic specialty: the pitiful good guys. His Sheep colleague Liam Williams also returns as “fallen sidekick” Joel in Chastity Belt).
The series includes David's thwarted ambition to become a great man, his daughter Rachel's thwarted ambition to become a doctor (it seems those who truly do good don't make it to heaven), and his son Aaron's unfulfilled ambition. become a great man. Biblical characters. This time, the focus is on love and relationships, heralded by Samson's decision to take back the arranged marriage. Rachel, whose university dreams have been ripped out of her hands and piled into yet another pamphlet about God, is paired with Himbo and Christian influencer Jeb (brilliant comedian Paddy Young, his first TV role) after deciding to leave the series. A love interest is Josh (Ali Khan), formerly an outcast from the church, who is Samson's son. Josh gets along surprisingly well with the annoying Heather (Olivia Marcus), whose whispery voice belies his menacing tendencies.
Meanwhile, Fiona pursues the seemingly hostile Andrew in wonderfully geeky fashion, while David is pursued by a mysterious parishioner named Maud (Fleeback's Sian Clifford). The final story, in which the imperious Maud tries to destroy Lewis's marriage because she believes David is “committed,” is a weak link in the show and a reminder of why this style of comedy fell out of fashion. As a character and plot, Maud, who has no discernible background, feels empty; There is a hint of humor in his boss's manipulation, but there is no humorous substance.
Maud exemplifies how perfect everything else is. It may adhere to stylistic tropes (scenes glide through a haze of almost predictable jokes, while established sitcom conventions mean crises are always resolved), but nothing about the setting or the characters seems cynical or superficial. It's almost impossible for new comedy writers to get a TV series. . While the show makes no overt attempt to draw credibility from this fact, it does take into account the sense of empathy woven into the show: characters are ridiculed, but never treated with contempt.
Everyone else is not exempt from Burns's important themes. In one story, Aaron and Andrew fight homophobia in the church, but the tone of the show is an omnipresent comedy. As a satire of extreme conservatism, it embraces the frustration of transgression that comes with David's display of domestic autocracy, but attacks these ideas in a satisfying way, resulting in a strangely progressive but never preachy tone.
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In fact, the only message the show seems interested in spreading is the continued value of its long-running light genre. God may not have been able to save the souls of the Lewis family, but he may have saved the comedy.
