Other People - C4 Sitcom - British Comedy Guide (original) (raw)

Other People. Image shows from L to R: Greg Wilson (Martin Freeman), Rick Parish (Nicholas Burns). Copyright: Company Pictures

Genre

Sitcom

Broadcast

2007

Channel

Channel 4

Episodes

1 Pilot

Stars

Martin Freeman, Nicholas Burns, Siobhan Finneran, Phil Davis, John Fortune, Rebecca Grant, Matt Green, Emma Kennedy and more

Writer

Toby Whithouse

Director

Will Sinclair

Producers

Emma Burge, George Faber, Tom Grieves and Charles Pattinson

Company

Greg Wilson is an ex-child star. At fourteen, he was a child magician. Precocious, smug, very punchable. The pinnacle of his career was the 1986 Royal Variety Performance, when he charmed the audience with his patter about his Mum sewing name-tags into the backs of all his tricks.

One week later, his career is finished. During a phone-in on the Saturday morning kids TV show, Crikey It's Saturday!, someone rings in and calls Greg 'a fucking wanker' on live TV. It's the ultimate humiliation. The caller has articulated what everyone is secretly thinking. It's a blow from which Greg will never recover.

Twenty years later, Greg works in a leather sofa shop. The early promise of his life unfulfilled. He's bored, unhappy, still hurting on the inside, forever wary of other people. In every human encounter lies potential humiliation.

Even his boss, who looks about 13, treats Greg with utter contempt. But then Greg is recognised by a customer and asked for his autograph. It's the beginning of a journey that will pass through a police station and end with Greg in court, facing a year-long prison sentence for assault.

Additional details

Part of

Channel 4 Comedy Showcase 2007

Also known as

Production

Studio

Camera set-up

Single camera

Picture

Colour

Broadcast details

First broadcast

Friday 5th October 2007 at 10pm on Channel 4

Episode length

30 minutes