Two Doors Down
Rating: 
It’s funny how things can slip by your radar. Two Doors Down (BBC2) was something I watched a number of times.
A half-hour sitcom about a married couple from Glasgow who have to deal with their awful neighbors. The cast is great.
Especially good are Arabella Weir, as long-suffering Beth, her husband Eric (Alex Norton) and Doon Mackichan, who plays brassy, snide, leery, poison-tongued Cathy — all leopard-print tops and plastic stilettos, like Billy Connolly impersonating Bet Lynch.
I find the scripts sharp and have a few lines that make me giggle. The comedy is wide, with exaggerated reactions as well as painful embarrassment. It’s also very inventive.
It’s funny how things can slip by your radar. Two Doors Down (BBC2) was something I watched a number of times.
Although the setup is usually the same, Simon Carlyle, Gregor Sharp, and others rarely change it.
In more than two dozen episodes (all available on iPlayer), there’s always something different happening — a barbecue, a wake, a visit from relatives.
Last night, the shocking Cathy (Jonathan Watson), and her husband, Colin, gatecrashed a dinner for Beth (Jamie Quinn), and Eric (Kieran Holson) to mark their fifth series.
In all these ways, Two Doors Down is several cuts above Mrs Brown’s Boys — that other domestic comedy where family and friends are forever calling round.
The Beeb’s most popular comedy is Mrs Brown, which has two specials for Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.
Its festive episode attracted more than seven millions viewers in 2019. Two Doors Down fails to attract even close to 2 million viewers, despite having won numerous awards. It’s not just me who forgot it’s on.
Flat filming is part of the problem. One camera can switch from one side to the other.
The results are scenes that look dated and dull — you could easily imagine you’re watching a repeat of some series you missed first time around, 30 years ago.
This is also due to the absence of an audience. Mrs Brown creates a fun atmosphere.
Two Doors Down has an awkwardness that makes it seem as if it can veer off into melancholy drama. But it never does. That doesn’t dampen the entertainment.
Ragdoll
Rating: 
Ragdoll, the manic crime thriller Ragdoll from Alibi wanders all over but doesn’t have time for melancholy as London detectives chase a serial murderer with a terrifying trademark.
The hitman sews six bodies together and leaves a Frankenstein-esque sculpture for the police to mock.
He then begins to hunt down those who paid him for the murder of six.
Phil Davis played the role of a London Mayor who was obviously a copy of Boris Johnson. His shaggy, blonde, and plummy voice were just a few examples.
Ragdoll (Alibi), the manic crime thriller Ragdoll (Alibi), is unpredictable but not prone to melancholy as London detectives search for a serial murderer with a disturbing trademark.
When the camera zoomed into his fag package warning that’smoking kills’, we knew the mayor was not going to be around for long.
Indeed. Phil took one more puff from his asthma inhaler and lit a small ciggie. It combusted as a sofa.
My guess is that this inhaler was fueled with petrol. Although this adaptation was based on Daniel Cole’s first novel, the name of the star detective is unambiguously changed.
Henry Lloyd Hughes plays DS Nathan Rose. William Oliver Layton Fawkes is the main character of the novel. He’s also known as Wolf by his initials.
They are nearly as violent as the murders. Rose (Thalissa Tixeira), arrives at the crime scene and asks DI Emily Baxter (Thalissa Tixeira) if it is a good one.
One uniformed copper jokes, “They’ll turn this into a podcast.”