Gimme Gimme Gimme is one of my all-time favourite comedy series and I highly recommend it to anyone who adores risque but fun British humour. The superb acting talents of Kathy Burke (who plays the disturbed and disturbing character of Linda La Hughes) and James Drefus (the underachieving, self-obsessed actor Tom Farrell) bring Britain's answer to "Will and Grace" to new highs in terms of the amount of belly laughs, and wonderful new lows for naughty jokes and politically incorrect observations.
69 Paradise Passage, Kentish Town, is a hotbed of mayhem and madness as three floors of this not-so-typical row house are inhabited by extremely colourful characters from Beryl the Landlady upstairs - a former prostitute-come-old-age pensioner, to downstairs neighbours Jez and Suze, a nerdy, somewhat snooty but completely sex-mad couple. Each episode leaves you wanting more and the first season seems just a little tame when compared to the rapid-fire insult-fest start of season two.
Along with the six episodes of series two is the Millennium special which immediately reminds the audience of what incredibly sad examples of the human race Tom and Linda are when nobody turns up for their New Year's celebrations and the pair of looser roomies only have each other to console.
"Teacher's Pet" brings back Linda's sister from the previous series, Sugar Walls (played by Elaine Lordan of East Enders fame) who hires Tom to be her acting coach.
"Stiff" brings some of the most laughs of the series when Tom and Linda find a coffin in their sitting room containing the body of Beryl, their landlady and "her pretty gavina"! Watch for Linda channelling her spirit guide when the doorbell rings - side splittingly hilarious!
"Prison Visitor" reunites Linda with Ms. Titch, the domineering ex-con who bullied Linda while she was in juvenile detention. Ms. Titch comes to live with Tom and Linda and brings along her mysterious but sexy lover.
"Dirty Thirty" brings the arrival of Tom's 30th birthday and unexpected visitors - his parents - a swinging couple intent on spending their son's birthday weekend on the town!
"Glad to be Gay?" is another one of the best of the season when Linda wakes up in the arms of a taxi-driving woman after an all-night booze-up. Tasteful (and otherwise), lesbian jokes abound!
"Sofa Man" has perhaps one of the best lines ever written for the series when Tom falls for a pompous sofa advert performer who apparently is a straight man who sleeps with men.
The best thing about this series is that you can watch it over and over and never get bored. If you aren't careful you could become a Gimme Gimme Groupie.
Series two is stronger than series three because the humour never strays off the mark and even though Tom and Linda are seen as sad characters, they still aren't as deceptive nor as despicable as they become in the closing series when they lose some of their wonderful naivete.
If you can find the entire box set for a good price, I would recommend getting it, but this season is quite simply fantastic on its own.
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Average
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Excellent
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![Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - Series 2 - Complete [1999]](http://picnic.ciao.com/uk/65504591.jpg)
