Scarborough episode 1 review: a coastal mix of Peter Kay's Car Share and a Victoria Wood off-cut
Who needs sunny Spain when we’ve got blustery North Yorkshire? Scarborough (BBC One) was the new sitcom written and directed by Derren Litten, best known for creating ITV’s “oo-er, missus” hit Benidorm. Litten seems to specialise in comedies named after seaside resorts. Where next, I wonder? Tenby or Torremolinos, maybe? Frinton or Fuengirola, perhaps?
This warm and frequently wicked ensemble piece followed the faltering romance between arcade manager Mike (Jason Manford) and hairdresser Karen (new Strictly Come Dancing contestant Catherine Tyldesley).
These refreshingly unglamorous, careworn late thirtysomethings - in some ways, this was a coastal remix of Peter Kay’s Car Share - were trying to make a go of their relationship, despite it being derailed by Karen catching Mike drunkenly snogging another woman behind the seafront crab stall.
Could our fish-scented hero explain himself and win Karen back? Cue a cheerfully old-fashioned romp involving a vengeful member of the local ice cream Mafia, a customer dying on the hair salon’s toilet and an unexpected thriller-ish twist.
Litten’s writing, thankfully, was way less one-note than in Benidorm, which had descended into Costa Del Carry On by the time it limped to a close last year after a decade on air. Scarborough was gentler, wryer and more observational, like a Victoria Wood off-cut.
The sense of place was well-realised, the details lovingly rendered. This was a world of penny arcades, chips on the prom and karaoke nights in the local pub. A town that ran on tea, slightly stale biscuits and scurrilous gossip behind frilly net curtains.
The breezy Eighties soundtrack (Aztec Camera, Phil Collins, UB40, The Beautiful South) was aimed squarely at nostalgic mid-lifers, as were references to Tommy Cooper and Mork & Mindy. Litten even managed to slip in a Jimmy Savile gag without it being too off-colour.
Manford, normally a comedian-cum-presenter, got to deploy his acting skills, as well as his sideline in crooning. Coronation Street alumnus Tyldesley was highly likeable, while Claire Sweeney hammed it up Dynasty-style as the local man-eater, all hairspray, leopardskin and cat-clawed one-liners (“I might be a slag and a home-wrecker but I’m very good at both”).
The supporting cast contained two Open All Hours stalwarts in Stephanie “Mrs Delphine Featherstone” Cole and Maggie “Mavis” Ollerenshaw.
This opener wasn’t entirely successful. The generic northern whimsy grated at times and a few characters verged on cartoonish. However, Scarborough was a huge improvement on BBC One’s other recent attempts at primetime sitcom: the execrable Hold The Sunset, the equally excruciating Warren and, of course, the mystifying phenomenon that is Mrs Brown’s Boys.
Not an unqualified success but a promising start. As the folk ballad goes, Scarborough: fair.
