Who is popular today?

Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer’s comedy nails the alchemy of what turns the private into the hilariously relatableI realise this says more about me, but my instinctive response to hearing about a real-life couple doing a comedy show together is usually a rapid sinking of the heart. It’s a scepticism born of too many evenings with coupled-up friends who collapse into spasms of laughter every time someone says “couscous”, and then pretend-apologise by exchanging a special glance and saying: “Sorry, it’s hard to explain, it’s just… we have a thing about couscous.” Yes, hilarious.Frequently, what couples find funny together fails to translate outside that context, and can often feel exclusionary – which, after all, is the point of a private joke: this is our thing, you wouldn’t get it because you weren’t there. So the prospect of that in sitcom form doesn’t inspire confidence. Continue reading...