Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
7.1
The lives and loves of five friends in the Northern town of Runcorn.
匚卂尺ㄥ reviewedFebruary 1, 2025
🍺🍺🥔
Two Pints is an on-going, on-growing comedy sit com broadcast by the BBC (usually BBC3 these days) about the ups and downs of a group of friends living up North in Britain (Runcorn to be exact.) It follows the triumphs and deceits of the friends and captures the warmth and vulnerability of being a twentysomething- and it is ultimately hilarious from start to finish! As a few people have said, I think the marmite argument may apply in the case of Two Pints. If you get it, then you will love it and savor it for the comedy gold that it is. If you don't, then you will probably just find it immature and vile. I love the show and have purchased the boxset for the first reason. I also think, whilst being simple in some places the show carries a deeper meaning under the concept of being in your face. The characters are very real and you actually do come to laugh and cry with them. The storylines are usually bright and funny, but at times the show does capture moments of sensitivity on behalf of the young people. Lets not forget they are hormonal young adults, mostly unemployed and living in a rugged estate!
I don't have a favorite character as I believe they all get their own considerable amount of screen time. Will Mellor as Gaz is a perfect choice in my eyes. He plays the 'sex God womanizer' finely and portrays his character with a tongue in cheek nod to the audience. Natalie Casey plays his on-off girlfriend Donna, who's sensibleness and usually straight-played sense of humor makes her a stand out performance. The trademark couple, Johnny and Janet (Ralf Little and Sheridan Smith) are equally funny, especially when they are on screen together. Janet is vulnerable, with a knowledge which consists mainly of episodes of Trisha and Johnny is a 'pleb' as Louise would put it. The biggest storylines always centre around these two, from pregnancy to marriage to breaking up and even death but they are both very likable and are very likable as a comedic couple. Louise, played by Kathryn Drysdale is a stand alone character but she is by no means a sideline performance. Stuck up, self centred and very arrogant yet enticingly sweet, she often grabs some of the best one liners and her insults are always hilarious. But the absolute genius role here has to go to Beverly Callard, who plays Donnas sexually active man-eating mother Flo Henshaw (You may recognise her as famously playing Liz McDonald in Coronation Street.) Although she is not a main character as such, whenever she is on screen you will find yourself in hysterics. Her constant nagging of Donna and her endless efforts of trying to seduce Gaz are side splitting! Bev Callard should have received an award for her perfect comic timing.
There are also in/out characters who appear regularly throughout the series such as Gaz's ill-fated brother and the raunchy barmaid that is always causing trouble (even these nab some great one liners) but I think the show is very much focused on the characters I have described above. You will either love them or hate them depending on whether you understand their concepts. Two Pints doesn't try to be something it isn't. It doesn't shy away from being crude and in your face (which is why the easily offended may be better off watching Black Adder.) It is very much like a modern-day Young One's revolving around the sexed up booze fuelled lives of a bunch of young people sharing each others lives. It can be heart warming in places, and admittedly grotesque in others, but it always down to earth, funny and includes frequent nods to its loyal followers.