Our Ex Wife

Note: This review is from 2016

TV preview by Steve Bennett

For a while there was the concept that sitcom characters had to be sympathetic and relatable.

Well, that idea’s gone out of the window with Our Ex-Wife, a bitterly antagonistic new comedy being piloted as part of the BBC’s Landmark Sitcom series.

Robert Webb stars as divorcee Jack, finding happiness with new love Sara but being plagued by the demands of ex-wife Hillary, his unhinged nemesis.

Played by Victoria Hamilton, she is spiteful, shallow and vindictive. The opening scene, set in a failed a marriage guidance session, establishes her as a money-grabber who caused their relationship to fall apart when she had an affair.

Fuelled entirely by malice, she’s one of the most unsympathetic comedy creations in years … and actually rather difficult to watch because of her one-note character, hell-bent on destroying Jack’s life and using their poor children (Ava, played by Holly Earl, and Max, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst’s lad Archie) as pawns.

Jack, a wealthy interior designer, can be insensitive too; but Webb’s had years of experience making the unlikable likeable, thanks to Peep Show. But you only feel sorry for him in comparison with his harridan ex.

Meanwhile Melanie Lynskey – who played Rose in 63 episodes of Two And Half Men – is full of winsome American optimism as Sara, convinced she and Hillary would be besties if only they got to know each other.So she organises a dinner party from hell to clear the air, and Jack bribes Hillary to come along and at least try to play nice Though of course she doesn’t…

It’s been written by Julie Thacker Scully, who penned three episodes of The Simpsons (and is the wife of that show’s producer Mike Scully), and features a few cartoon-style tricks, such as fantasy sequences in which the divorcees imagine unspeakable violence to each other.

The star of the show, though, is Peter Egan, making a welcome return to sitcom as Jack's indifferent father (and boss) George, with his delightfully wry understatement. He’s a pleasant contrast to the shrill shouting of Jack and Hillary, which spouts some pungent lines, but is tonally very harsh.