Skip to content
Living the Dream is a new Sky One ‘fish out of water’ comedy/drama where Mal Pemberton (Philip Glenister) thinks the answer to life’s problems is to move him and his family out to Florida for a life in the sun. Well, as long as that’s his plan, fine.
Alas, wherever you are, you need money. And to have money, you need a viable business, so he takes over the ownership of a the residential Kissimmee Sunshine Park, but since everything that can go wrong will go wrong, the idyll will be anything but, and you know the place will redefine ‘stinkhole’ (that’s the polite version)… plus that the pool, it comes with, will be less than impressive.
On the plus side, Florida certainly does look like the place to head for, plus it’s the perfect time to be broadcasting this series, showing bright sunshine, just as the complete opposite is happening in the UK, now winter’s setting in.
It’s also interesting that Paula Wilcox is playing Lesley Sharp‘s mum when she’s less than 10 years and 4 months older than her! That takes me back to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Sean Connery plays Harrison Ford’s father, whilst being just under 12 years older than him, so we’re in similar territory.
Overall, this feels like the kind of set-up you’d expect from an old National Lampoon’s Vacation movie, albeit with less jokes and more family drama. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly original in Living The Dream, but with two personable leads, it’ll pass for an hour’s entertainment. I’ll be interested to see how further episodes progress, but it will need to step up a gear.
Living The Dream isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but the series begins this Thursday on Sky One at 9pm.
Score: 6/10
Director: Saul Metzstein
Producer: James Dean
Writer: Mick Ford
Music: Oli Julian
Cast:
Mal Pemberton: Philip Glenister
Jen Pemberton: Lesley Sharp
Tina Pemberton: Rosie Day
Freddie Pemberton: Brenock O’Connor
Maureen: Paula Wilcox
Rhoda: Kim Fields
Troy: Kevin Nash
Tom Jerry: Anthony Paderewski
Dean Bootie: Matthew Brady
Paul: Jimmy Akingbola
Aiden: Leslie Jordan
Casper: Randy Havens
Pastor Wilson: Michael Ray Davis
Ryan: John Crosby
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.