After You've Gone: Series 3

Nicholas Lyndhurst has done a fair bit of time travelling in his career.

There was Goodnight Sweetheart, of course, and more recently he played his own father in the John Sullivan-scripted Rock & Chips. With After You’ve Gone, he goes the simple route of jetting back to a sit-com that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the mid-1970s. Mother in Law? Check. Dippy best friend? Check. Wise cracking landlord? Again, check.

That this comedy shares a lot in common with other BBC hit My Family is at least partially due to the fact that it’s scripted to within an inch of its life (nine writers, two writer’s assistants, plus the script editor). That it doesn’t look all that similar to other stable sharer Not Going Out (also littered with gags, rather than dialogue, people simply not talking in a naturalistic way) owes a great deal to the charm of the central performers - Lyndhurst is always a genial host, and Celia Imrie has the pleasing sense that she’s not taking any of it too seriously.

There’s not one storyline here that will test your attention for too long (although, maybe your credulity), and there’s the sense that each character will be rebooted back to blank at the start of the next episode, but after a decade of smarter-than-you comedies such as The Office and People Like Us, something as unashamedly old-fashioned as this is nothing short of comfort food. True, it’s reasonably unlikely that you’ll check the listings for it, or indeed, rush to buy the DVD (unless there’s a mother in law, or an ex-Tracy Beaker fan you’ve forgotten to get a gift for), but this is comedy that can be enjoyed with anybody in your family.



Released on DVD on 18th January 2010 by 2Entertain.

Written by Andrew Allen.