Man Down: Series 4, Episode 1 - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)
Dan has quit his much hated job as a teacher and is applying his unique work ethic to another, more earthy profession. With Aunt Nesta and his mum now in a retirement village "pissing my inheritance up a wall", Dan is on an increasingly desperate hunt find a new home for his soon-to-be family. Helped by Brian and Jo, can Dan finally grow up to become the man he hopes he can be...?
Broadcast details
Date
Wednesday 25th October 2017
Time
10pm
Channel
Length
30 minutes
Cast & crew
Cast
| Greg Davies | Dan |
|---|---|
| Roisin Conaty | Jo |
| Mike Wozniak | Brian |
| Gwyneth Powell | Mum |
| Stephanie Cole | Nesta |
| Jeany Spark | Emma |
| Ashley McGuire | Shakira |
| Isy Suttie | Ally Clarke |
| Ruth Bratt | Carol |
| Stella Gonet | Mrs Lipsey |
| Michael Gould | Mr Lipsey |
Guest cast
| Michael Cochrane | Doctor Baxter |
|---|---|
| Chris James | Mr Crumbs |
| Micky Cochrane | Geordie |
| Eryl Maynard | Woman in Queue |
| Stephen Morrison | Farmer John |
| Maggie Service | Jenny |
| Trevor Nelson | Self |
| Dennis Taylor | Self |
Writing team
| Greg Davies | Writer |
|---|---|
| Greg Davies | Story |
| Ed Gamble | Story |
| Stephen Morrison | Story |
| Mike Wozniak | Story |
| Mike Wozniak | Writer |
Production team
| Al Campbell | Director |
|---|---|
| Jane Wallbank | Producer |
| James Taylor | Executive Producer |
| Richard Allen-Turner | Executive Producer |
| Jon Thoday | Executive Producer |
| Greg Davies | Executive Producer |
| Mike Holliday | Editor |
| Miranda Jones | Production Designer |
| Julia Duff | Casting Director |
| Marlene Lawlor | Costume Designer |
| Greg Duffield | Director of Photography |
| Lulu Hall | Make-up Designer |
| Chris Egan | Composer |
| Bob Bradley | Composer |
| Trystan Francis | Composer |
| Matthew Gallagher | 1st Assistant Director |
Videos
Demonstrating Childbirth
Dan gets a very messy guide to childbirth...
Featuring: Greg Davies (Dan), Roisin Conaty (Jo), Mike Wozniak (Brian) & Ashley McGuire (Shakira).
Series 4, Episode 1 bloopers
Some of the scenes cut out of the finished episode.
Featuring: Greg Davies (Dan).
Press
Man Down (C4), the sitcom starring and written by Greg Davies, is steeped in the history of TV comedy.
The trouble is, it tries to pay homage to every genre -- and the result is a slapdash jumble that can't decide where to earn its laughs.
Greg plays a useless slob of an ex-teacher called Dan, a 50-year-old who lives like a drunken student. It's a tribute to The Young Ones: in the first series, Rik Mayall played his dad.
But some of the jokes belong in Terry And June. Surveying the residents of his mother's retirement home, Dan sighed: 'They all moan about Marks & Spencer, but they won't buy their blouses anywhere else.'
Sometimes, Greg tries to ape Tony Hancock in his writing. One line, about having 'callouses the size of marrowfat peas', was a deliberate echo of Hancock's classic complaint: 'I've got toes like globe artichokes!'
Man Down needs to decide what sort of sitcom it really is. In fact, it needs to grow up a bit.
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail, 26th October 2017
There is no trouble in Man Down (Channel 4), which is on series four already and still packing in the gags and the grotesques. Like Bounty Hunters, this sitcom is built around the comic persona of its creator-star, sarcastic ex-teacher Greg Davies. Only this man is kept down not merely by his own nincompoopery, but by the collective efforts of a support cast.
This episode features a cameo from Trevor Nelson; the woman in the cafe using a fry-up to educate Dan on the horrors of childbirth (harrowing yet unerringly accurate); and Mr Crumbs, a dungarees-clad giant who lives in lost property storage. As Jo says to a horrified Brian, by way of introduction: "He's one of my best friends! He once held his breath for an hour!" All these characters, however incidental, are fully realised and often gifted with the best (read: filthiest) lines.
Ellen E. Jones, The Guardian, 26th October 2017
The fourth season of a sitcom that's more likely than any other current show to provoke proper, hooting, tearful mirth. Greg Davies and his collaborators have an infectious love of imaginative profanity (this week, Stephanie Cole rolls out the phrase "venison bukkake" with some relish) and a delight in methodically creating big visual payoffs: the way two subplots conspire to produce a single glorious shot of Davies looking particularly absurd is a work of comedy art.