Chickens

Series one, episode two
It’s so slight it’s in danger of drifting away on the lightest breeze. But in a year when the best TV has generally ranged between solemn and devastating, it feels good to have something as blithe, breezy and just plain daft as ‘Chickens’ to provide some light relief. This is one of those TV experiences which manages to be enjoyable without leaving any real mark on your memory whatsoever. To see it is to forget it.

Tonight, the chickens’ water has gone brown. But they aren’t practical types and, with Rittle-on-Sea’s menfolk off at the front, there is every prospect of this hardship continuing. Elsewhere George is going to have to relax his principles and cane a miscreant schoolboy if he wants to stay engaged. But might he get a taste for it? Simon Bird, Joe Thomas and Jonny Sweet share an enviable comic chemistry; this more than anything is the key to ‘Chickens’ transient charms.