The British Sitcom Guide

Plus One PLUS ONE

Programme: Comedy Showcase: Plus One
Broadcast: 19th Oct 2007   (C4)
Strand: C4 2007 Comedy Showcase
Episodes: 1 episode - Five new episodes commissioned. Will be broadcast in September
Starring: Rory Kinnear, Duncan James, Miranda Raison, Ruth Bradley, Laura Haddock
Written by: Tim Allsop, Stewart Williams
Produced by: Kate Crow
Exec Producer: Derek Wax
Directed by: Simon Delaney
Production: Kudos More info
Synopsis:

Sitcom pilot written by Life on Mars writers Tim Allsop and Stewart Williams.

What do you do when your girlfriend leaves you to marry Duncan from boyband Blue (Duncan James, appearing as himself)? You decide to outshine them on their wedding day, that's what!

Plus One follows the best efforts of Rob Black (Rory Kinnear) as he tries to secure a beautiful woman as his date to the wedding in an attempt to get his own back on his ex-girlfriend.

Struggling to restore his self-esteem after his girlfriend Linsey (Miranda Raison) left him and a freak sewage pipe explosion wrecked his flat, Rob can't help comparing Duncan's life to his own miserable existence. Even his family and friends think that Duncan is better than him.

But when he receives an invitation to Duncan and Linsey's wedding, Rob sees an opportunity to get his own back: "I'm single, homeless, sleeping on my sister's couch and everything I own smells of shit, but the invitation says 'plus one'. So, while I'm never going to be as impressive as Duncan from Blue, I'll take a date along who is. I'll be fighting fire with fire. Sexy fire."

Ludicrous as this sounds, Rob strikes gold when his colleague Laura (Ruth Bradley) suggests he has a date with her gorgeous flatmate Nicky (Laura Haddock). Rob takes a purely platonic approach in his mission to secure a beautiful date for the big day, but Nicky's interest in him makes Rob deviate from his original plan: maybe there could be something more there... A disastrous second date nearly ruins everything but Rob reckons that with a bit of top-rank grovelling he could still walk into Linsey's wedding with the most beautiful girl in the world. Unless of course he screws up badly...

Full Series Details (coming this September):

Rob is still struggling to restore his self-esteem after his girlfriend Linsey left him to marry a boy-band pop star, and he is still on a mission to secure a beautiful girl to take to the wedding, hoping he'll be able to get his own back by outshining the happy couple.

Even Rob's family and friends – brother Rich, best mate Paul and sister Rebecca - all think that Linsey is better off with Duncan than with Rob. Over the five new episodes, with the wedding date fast approaching, Rob becomes increasingly desperate to attract a date that will restore his pride.

Note: As Rory Kinnear has been forced to pull out (because of commitments at the National Theatre) Daniel Mays takes over the main role. Sarah O'Gorman will direct.

BSG Review:

This sitcom pilot, which derived most of its humour from farce and fantasy dream-sequences, was a lot of fun. It reminded us a bit of The Worst Week of my Life, in that the main character was very unlucky to find himself at the centre of some terrible mis-understandings.

We laughed a lot at the very funny 'hot chili incident' that occurred during the episode!

The flaw of Plus One is that, overall, the central character of Rob was probably a bit too spiteful and smug to win our affections - as a result we didn't feel as sorry for him as we probably should have when the police came to take him away at the end.

That said, we could see a comedy built around the unfortunate Rob Black and his annoying friends so it is perhaps not that surprising to hear that C4 have indeed given the go-ahead for a full series based upon this pilot.


See also: interview with star Rory Kinnear

 © 2008 British Sitcom Guide. No reproduction without permission.