Comedian Diane Morgan’s widely praised BBC series Mandy is imminently returning for another batch of chaos.
The Philomena Cunk star, 49, has written, directed and starred in the sitcom where she plays the titular heroine – the ‘hapless, jobless Mandy’.
‘[Her] daft adventures mostly end in disaster. She’s got Big Dreams, but can she actually be bothered?’ the show aptly describes itself.
The theme tune? Barry Manilow’s Mandy of course!
Each season contains six bite-sized episodes making it the perfect one-week binge in which we see Mandy get up to genuinely bonkers hijinks with Morgan’s quintessential flavour of character acting.
Seriously, one episode opens with her stark naked on a table, save for some sushi adorned around her body, followed by a host of businessmen digging into their dinner.
In another, she is entirely convinced she has eaten an old man’s dog. Essentially, it’s the kind of show that needs to be seen to be believed.
The show also boasts a wild list of guest stars including Maxine Peake, Natalie Cassidy and Shaun Ryder to name a few, if you can believe it.
Over the years it has made a mighty impression on viewers.
‘Absolutely loved this show, so silly! Watched it with my mum and we still quote it haha,’ Mat W wrote on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Stupid, stupid, stupid, predictable, cliche and utterly childish. Loving every minute of it,’ one anonymous user quipped, saying one episode left them ‘crying with laughter’.
‘Diane Morgan is a comic genius: writer, director, comedienne, actress,’ another anonymous user praised in a five-star review.
‘The Quirkiness of Mandy is its best feauture. And its running time of 15 minutes works really well. Diane Morgans performance in Mandy is unique and different,’ another echoed.
Critics are in agreement.
‘It’s bold and ludicrous, but economical too. It don’t mean a thing. It is, however, a glorious release from all those things that do mean a thing,’ The Time shared.
‘This was enjoyably escapist comedy, daft for the sake of daftness, and all the more welcome for it,’ the Daily Telegraph echoed.
Although the humour may not always land with The Guardian warning it is ‘not as tight or laugh out loud funny’ and The Independent agreeing it’s provokes wry smiles rather than belly laughs.’
An official synopsis for the fourth season reads teases that she’ll continue ‘to live hand-to-wonky-mouth, cooking up enough dodgy side hustles and trashy cash hacks to hopefully climb up into the squeezed middle and out of the squashed bottom.’
It adds: ‘Constantly harassed, pursued and persecuted by her benefits officer (Tom Basden), Mandy finds solace in her friend Lola’s (Michelle Greenidge) salon, drinking in the heady aroma of cheap bleach and Minty Pig nail polish.’
Discussing how she settled on the tone of the show which is apparently based on a woman she met once, she once told The Guardian: ‘Most people nowadays are doing downbeat, naturalistic comedy. I wanted to do something mad and silly. I crave silliness.
‘A bit of pure escapism. It’s turned out much weirder than I imagined. It’s quite visual, like a Viz cartoon, but I’m happy with it.’
Mandy is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. The fourth season arrives on BBC Two and iPlayer on July 21.
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