TV review by Steve Bennett

In People Just Do Nothing, Lily Brazier plays Mich, the unselfaware, pushy mum trying to make her daughter Angel a star.

And her own sitcom Wannabe, which lands on BBC Three today, is not that far from the same territory, as she plays the ambitious ‘manager’ of a hopeful girl band, Sweet Gyal,  impervious to the fact her every embarrassing suggestion is detrimental to their career and their art.

Her character, Maxine, clearly wants to live vicariously through them, She was in a Noughties girl band herself, Variety, but their flash of fame was so short-lived she’s long been dumped back in suburbia. Even the nostalgia tours and reality TV shows don’t seem to be calling, so she’s trying to keep a flame of interest in her career alive with web videos, at the expense parenting her twin sons.

She is, it has to be said, not a very sympathetic character. Even comedy monsters like Basil Fawlty and David Brent were motivated by the desire to be respected and liked. The vacuous, self-centred Maxine just wants to be famous again, to the extent she tries to relaunch her unlamented career by inventing a new genre, Mum Pop. 

And her lack of empathy for anyone around her – including husband Neil (played by Nathan Barley himself, Nicholas Burns)  a former boy band member who’s now the breadwinner though his advertising jingles – tends to be more annoying than funny. 

We are in very familiar territory with the premise: the useless wannabe is a common comedy trope and the twist in having Brazier – who co-wrote it with Ben Murray – as a slightly older figure who should know better isn’t really enough. Meanwhile the contradictory clients’ instructions to Neil and his voiceover pal is pure Toast Of London, just not as inventive.

There is, perhaps, a comedy to be had about how the briefly famous readjust back into ordinary life once they are forgotten, which Wannabe hints at. But by focussing on the talentless Maxine’s ill-judged efforts to get back into the limelight makes this a rather predictable sitcom of irritating cringe, despite a smattering of wry lines.

Review date: 29 Mar 2018
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett