Hang Ups: the British comedy you should binge watch
The chaotic and astute show features a whole host of TV stars
“I should just be focusing on building my own brand and putting out more content,” beams Angie (Lolly Adefope) — one of the first patients for Richard (Stephen Mangan) at his new therapy business — who is more concerned with how the session will look on social media than addressing her problems.
Fittingly, it’s a web-based operation, and Richard must deal with the many neuroses of his clients via video call, against the backdrop of a chaotic family home and a mounting pile of his own issues.
Hang Ups, co-written by Mangan and based loosely on Lisa Kudrow’s show Web Therapy, is a very modern sitcom indeed — its characters glimpsed through the screens of their devices. As a result, it moves at breakneck pace, darting from split-screen therapy session to family drama and back again. That the actors largely improvised their web chats only heightens its hilarious intensity.
“It’s very unwieldy,” said Mangan of the improvisation process. “Inevitably, there’s a lot of stuff that needs cutting, but those moments where somebody says something for the first time, and somebody reacts completely naturally in the moment, it’s what you’re trying to do as an actor.”
Alongside Mangan — whose ability to play someone teetering on the edge of emotional breakdown is unparalleled — is Katherine Parkinson as Richard’s high-flying wife Karen, and their two children, Issy (Bebe Cave) and Ricky (Fionn O’Shea)
Then there’s the many famous faces coming in and out of Richard’s life via FaceTime: Charles Dance is his overwhelming father; Celia Imrie, his alcoholic mother; and Richard E Grant, his own unconventional therapist. Plus there are appearances from David Tennant, Jessica Hynes and Karl Theobald. To say the cast reads like a who’s who of British acting talent is no exaggeration.
What’s great about Hang Ups is its very British nature, blending dark humour with mundane realism that is both laugh-out-loud funny and relatable. For instance, when Richard and his siblings Katherine (Hynes) and Jon (Conleth Hill) discuss their troubled mother the exchange captures the nuances of family relationships with a discerning accuracy
Though the tech that dominates pins the show in the present, the “hang ups” at the heart of Hang Ups are universal, making it compulsive viewing. For all the eccentric characters and Taylor Swift-quoting therapists, Hang Ups has moments of domesticity — warts and all — that’ll have you laughing in recognition.
Hang Ups is on Channel 4 on Wednesdays. Catch up on All 4
To see more Proper TV, click here