Gates press clippings - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)
Press clippings
Gates - Episode 1.5 review
After what I would politely describe as hit/miss episodes, did this last one offer any improvement and leave us on an at least partial high? No. Not in the slightest.
UK TV Reviewer, 13th September 2012
New school-based sitcom Gates (Sky Living) is the creation of five people. I know that can work with slick American shows, but this isn't one of them. It feels like comedy by committee, where compromises have been reached, and middle paths found. The result is it has almost zero personality. It's not awful, it's just a bit bland. Not joyous, not anarchic, not funny.
Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 22nd August 2012
Gates - Episode 1.2 review
The absurdity was mainly - and thankfully - cut out of this second episode. I think in the first one, the writers were being a bit experimental, trying to decide whether Gates is here to depict real-life or surreality.
UK TV Reviewer, 22nd August 2012
This week there's a fight in the playground. Miss Hunter wearily frog-marches the offenders back to her classroom for a lecture while their children look on wide-eyed. Meanwhile, another mum - the over-enthusiastic Aussie - has organised an afterschool "salsa-cise" as part of the head's unpopular fitness drive. Alas, salsa-cise soon turns into a boxing match...
This school gates-set sitcom boasts a top-notch cast, including Sue Johnston as the jaded Miss Hunter, Joanna Page as a harassed mum and the dashing Tom Ellis as a dad who can't understand why an unhappy housewife keeps batting her eyelashes his way.
Claire Webb, Radio Times, 21st August 2012
Sarah (Catherine Shepherd) pass-aggs Helen (Jo Page) into next week when the latter turns up late to collect Chloe from school. The parents are all talking about their feud by the time the bell rings, so Mark (Tom Ellis) goes to sort things out, but the women have their own, more direct form of negotiation. Some sharp writing and brilliant performances make this another solid comedy go-er for Sky, with the uneasy politics of parenthood guaranteeing broad appeal.
Julia Raeside, The Guardian, 20th August 2012
Gates is concerned with the mums and dads, the helicopter parents who clutter up playgrounds with their overprotective faffing, interrupting games and setting back the development of the sportsmen and women of tomorrow.
It's got fewer out-and-out funny lines than Bad Education but there are some nice visual gags and it will probably end up being more truthful. Catherine Shepherd steals the show as the arty, flirty, barking yummy-mummy.