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The Delivery Man had a fair bit to live up to, following on from the first new episode of Newzoids, and ITV’s track record of sitcoms shows that for every The Job Lot, there are several instances of Babes In The Wood, Brighton Belles and Duck Patrol…
The premise is that Matthew Bunting (Darren Boyd, right) has had a mid-life crisis and changed careers from being a cop to being a midwife (cue lame jokes about the fact he’s a man but the job role is a ‘wife’). Twice, his police ex-partner Ian (Paddy McGuinness) turned up for no apparent reason, confirming the suspicion that the police do as little work as possible.
Apparently, there was a plot in this episode about a teenage dad who tries to visit his pregnant girlfriend without her parents knowing and Matthew has to choose whose side to take. There might have been other sub-plots going on, but I was on the verge of falling into a coma.
Darren Boyd tales the lead in the comedy role he’s moost assocated with, fresh from the disastrous Fortitude as Norwegian feeder teacher Markus.
Every single member of the cast behaved precisely as you’d usually expect them to do in their individual programmes (Fortitude, excepted), but unfortunately, no-one bothered to write a funny script. Then again, the two writers here (Robert Harley and James Henry) were also partly responsible for Green Wing. I never rated that, so perhaps that’s why I didn’t go for this, too. And Victoria Pile also directed an episode of that.
I’ll give this episode 2/10, partly for a joke where whale music inadvertently gave way to hearing whalers shooting at them, and also for Alex Macqueen (below) coming out of it best as sarcastic senior consultant Mr Luke Edward. Think of him as Scrubs‘ Bob Kelso, here, and it’s good to see Mr McQ’s talents recognised.
And Paddy McGuinness as a policeman? No likey? No watchy! I won’t be back for The Delivery Man episode 2’s arrival.
The Delivery Man continues next Wednesday on ITV at 9.30pm.
Overall Score: 2/10
Director: Victoria Pile
Producer: Victoria Pile
Writer: Robert Harley and James Henry
Music: Rob Jones and Joe Da Costa
Cast:
Matthew Bunting: Darren Boyd
Caitlin: Fay Ripley
Ian: Paddy McGuinness
Pat: Llewella Gideon
Tash: Jennie Jacques
Lisa: Aisling Bea
Mr Luke Edward: Alex Macqueen
Linda Fisher: Kerry Godliman
Gary: Sammy Williams
Claire Fisher: Holli Dempsey
Dave Fisher: Dominic Coleman
Camcorder Dad: Thomas Newton
Alexa: Natasha Joseph
Mrs Khilnani: Sona Vyas
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.