A Gert Lush Christmas (2015) Reviews

• Gert Lush - NOT

  stephenabell2016-12-30

  What a shame about this one-hour special. With the cast and one of the writers being Russell Howard, this had so much going for it... Unfortunately, it fails on so many counts. I loved the idea of a more adult show, however, it seems as though a couple of six-year-old's (who usually do loads of funny things spontaneously, though have no real concept of humour) wrote it. The jokes were immature, which isn't always a bad thing; though, on this occasion, they were just unfunny; and the "sex" jokes were overdone and were pure drivel at it's worst. I would recommend you do anything before watching this garbage. Even the fans of Russell Howard's (which I class myself as) would be better not to watch this, so their opinion of Russell doesn't diminish. Please Mr Howard, no more like this.

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• A Gert Lush Christmas

  jboothmillard2016-01-09

  This was the acting debut for the star of Mock the Week and Good News, and there were plenty of other names I recognised in the cast, I was hoping that for Christmas time it would be a good laugh. Basically Dan Colman (Russell Howard, also writing) lives in London with his girlfriend Lisa (Fresh Meat's Hannah Britland), for Christmas, Dan is taking Lisa to his hometown of Bamford in Bristol to meet his loving but madcap family. The family includes father Dave (Neil Morrisey) who is obsessed with fitness, mother Sue (Sophie Thompson) who is utterly lovely but bonkers, brother Jake (Dougie McMeekin) who is wonderfully inappropriate, sister Julie (Kerry Howard) who is a hairdresser, and Uncle Tony (Greg Davies) who is a party animal. The visit begins an enthusiastic welcome for Lisa into the family, but it ends with Lida running away after Dan makes a kissing mistake following his drink being spiked. Dan feels down having lost the love of his life and regrets having ever introduced his girlfriend to the family in the first place, but the dysfunctional family pull together in their own unique way and crazy way to put things right and in the end bring the couple back together. Also starring Maggie O'Neill as Jade, Felix Hayes as Kevin, Sam Pamphilon as Mark and appearances from Keith Chegwin and Pat Sharp. Howard gives a good gentle performance as well as writing a terrific script, it is a simple story that happens to be set during the most wonderful time of the year, it makes you laugh and feel affectionate in equal measure, just the sort of thing you want to watch at Christmas, a likable romantic comedy drama. Very good!

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• Meet the parents

  Prismark102015-12-30

  Russell Howard takes a stint at acting starring as Dan who takes his girlfriend Lisa to the West Country from the bright lights of cosmopolitan London to meet his eccentric and brash family for Christmas. Dan's dad is fitness obsessed, his uncle is party loving and dope taking. The various females tend to be broad minded and saucy with it and his old friend is a pervert who loves making erotic movies. Gert Lush is a form of praise in Bristol. I doubt it will be applied here. At a party Dan has had his drink spiked and Lisa catches him enthusiastically kissing another girl and breaks off with him. Dan mopes about and tries to get her back. This one hour special is nothing special but is mildly amusing especially as you catch references from other films. A little bit of The Hangover, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Meet the Parents and lots of Carry On. Howard hardly stretches himself acting wise. I guess his fans from his Good News programmes would be slightly shocked by some of the vulgarity which does not make this programme family friendly. I think it was just rather lazily written with West Country folks just being sex obsessed but with a heart of gold.

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