The bones of the premise are taken from Showtime’s Web Therapy starring Lisa Kudrow: a therapist offers troubled clients short bursts of online video chat counselling. The actors talk straight to camera, and largely, they improvise their dialogue. In place of Kudrow’s venal, unscrupulous Fiona Wallace is Stephen Mangan’s desperate, cash-strapped Richard Pitt. His group practice having failed, Richard has started the new online business as a way to pay off his loan shark debts and contribute to the chaotic household he shares with his successful wife Karen (Katherine Parkinson) and their cohort of teenage children and hangers-on. The set-up allows for a spinning carousel of comedy guest stars, which is this show’s real draw. In addition to the returning cast—Mangan, Parkinson, Grant, Jessica Hynes, Charles Dance, Conleth Hill, Paul Ritter, Karl Theobold—Richard’s clients and colleagues include characters played by Hadland, David Tennant, Lolly Adefope, Kevin Eldon, Steve Oram, Alice Lowe and many more. Take a look at the IMDb cast list. It’s everyone you already like in British comedy (and, because shooting takes up so little time—Richard E. Grant filmed all of his sections in a single morning—the potential for future guest stars and the ability to showcase new comic talent is boundless). Families, relationships, parenting, careers, money… As a therapist, Richard should be the calm voice above the din, but he’s buried right at the bottom of a pit(t) of his own making. He can’t even control the contents of his fridge, let alone the lives of the people who rely on him. Mangan is a specialist in comic exasperation, and is therefore perfectly cast. (As the show’s executive producer and co-writer with brother-in-law theatre director Robert Delamere, Stephen Mangan cast himself—apparently he wasn’t his first choice). With a back catalogue that brought us Peep Show’s first-person-perspective, sketch show Smack The Pony, and the excellently weird world of Green Wing, Channel 4 has a strong background in experimental, energetic comedy that invites variety. As stressful as it is to experience, Hang Ups is a most welcome addition to that list.
