Stephen Merchant strains every sinew to write funny lines (Image: BBC) Stephen Merchant discusses playing his role on The Outlaws Congratulations BBC, The Outlaws (BBC1, Thursday) was actually funny! What a relief. Yes, the plot – about criminals getting up to a caper while doing community service – was still completely daft. But the hand of Stephen Merchant on the script was more than apparent – and most welcome.
My private LOL count almost reached double figures. In fact, it was so long since I’d laughed at a TV show that I felt rather embarrassed to be chortling away. All this comes after the BBC said it would “Save Our Sitcoms”.
It’s a laudable aim but to be honest I think the fight has been lost. We’re so restricted as to what we can and can’t laugh about that most comedies now simply aren’t funny. It’s no wonder we now have a channel devoted to the heyday of sitcoms – the 70s and 80s – it’s called Rewind TV.
But this hasn’t stopped Stephen Merchant, his stature being what it is, who made jokes about the word “queer” and about Alison Hammond! I was delighted. And yes, I should get out more. Merchant’s character Greg relayed a complaint about noise coming from an adjoining room.
He said: “It was so bad during This Morning, she told me, that she couldn’t hear Alison Hammond laughing!” As for the “queer” joke, actor Darren Boyd’s John did back away from it in the end, saying, “I’m not taking any chances”. It’s the thou.
