Review of Sian Gibson's new BBC One comedy

The recent-ish past has long been a boon for mainstream sitcoms. There’s enough distance to be able to mock now-unfashionable mores, while simultaneously evoking fonder feeling nostalgia.  

Into this tradition slots 1990s-set The Power of Parker, as neatly as a VHS cassette into a top-loading Rumbelows VCR machine. The script uses plenty of references like that in lieu of actual jokes – creators Sian Gibson and Paul Coleman have clearly learned at the knee of their Car Share colleague Peter Kay – but the wistfulness is backed by hugely watchable characters and an absorbing soap-opera-style plot.

Gibson also stars as Kath, the long-term mistress of Martin Parker (Conleth Hill), the carefully-coiffured owner of a small regional chain of electrical retailers which he advertised with cheesy, low-budget TV ads. He egotistically thinks his minor business empire gives him huge standing, able to treat people like dirt yet command respect from his community. The Donald Trump of Stockport.  

The analogy goes deeper as his company and his lifestyle full of upper-middle-class status symbols is built on debt – in his case from the loan sharks of a local criminal gang – that he is in no position to pay back.

So the seeds are planted for his downfall. When he callously dumps Kath – despite what seems like a genuine, playfully loving relationship – the scales fall from her eyes about what a terrible person he really is. And when Martin's  wife Diane (Rosie Cavaliero) learns about the betrayal, she too becomes dead-set on delivering his comeuppance.

Characters are archetypes, but with nuance and heart. Broadly, Kath is the romantic, emotional free spirit in contrast to Diane the more gimlet-eyed social climber, but there are more layers in the writing and performance than that. Even Martin is more deluded than evil, buying into his own myth.

The script has many lines of quotidian whimsy, in the style of Victoria Wood or Alan Bennett – with plenty of brand names dropped in –  if not quite up to those comedy legend’s impeccable standards. ‘I might have a Teasmade for you next week, Winnie Owens is on her last legs’

It’s a gently witty world evoking contented smiles more than roaring laughs, as reassuring and comforting as a cheese toastie made in a Breville sandwich-maker, just £29 from Parkers now! And the soundtrack is a cracking compilation of 1990s bangers.

But you’ll find yourself drawn in by the story, wanting to know just how the house of cards Martin has built around himself will come tumbling down.

• All episodes of The Power of Parker are now available on iPlayer 

Review date: 29 Jul 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett