Review of Apple's new insomniac romcom

After the success of Trying and Ted Lasso, Apple TV+’s new British comedy Still Up feels like an updated version of Sleepless In Seattle, but written during lockdown. 

Danny and Lisa are friends who may be destined for more as they are both insomniacs who while away the small hours talking about nothing much over FaceTime. 

On one hand, this premise offers an intimacy, the two souls existing together in a parallel world in a normally busy city where everyone is sleeping. But that the whole putative romance is conducted virtually is also a drawback, a constant reminder that electronic contact isn’t as good as the real thing – a fact you wouldn’t have thought a tech giant like Apple would want to highlight.

To add to the isolation, Danny is an agoraphobic, working from his London home, supposedly as a music journalist but more likely to be writing clickbait such as ’10 Things They Haven’t Told You About Vinegar’. 

And to add to the difficulty, Lisa is in a relationship with the dependable but dull Veggie (Blake Harrison, aka Neil in The Inbetweeners), a maker of unboxing videos. Not that Danny’s a paragon of excitement himself, described as having the air of a ‘kindly milkman’ and spending the small hours watching home shopping channels.

Despite never meeting, the two leads, Craig Roberts and Antonia Thomas, have a strong, natural chemistry that makes you root for them getting together despite the sizeable obstacles. In a typically nice line from writers Steve Burge and Natalie Walter, signifying the character’s closeness, Lisa notes: ‘I’m fluent in Danny’. And when she signs her phone buddy up for a dating app, they are 91 per cent match – not that she tells him – and that seems believable.

There is a bit of an odd juxtaposition between this credibility – part of a naturalistic tone reinforced by the moody nighttime cinematography – and the more exaggerated sitcommy elements, such as the obligatory weird neighbour. However, that role is an excellent vehicle for Rich Fulcher’s otherworldly oddness, with his character first seen throwing a birthday party for his cat.

Likewise, the characters make odd decisions no one would in real life: Lisa pretending to be a pharmacist for reasons too convoluted to explain or stripping off on a bus, throwing her clothes into the street; or Danny getting his pizza delivery driver to post individual slices through a crack in his window. 

Yet for their laboured quirks, they remain endearing, especially Danny with all his anxieties. And that is hopefully enough to keep viewers tuning in to their low-key, slow-burn romance, even as it unfolds at a relatively glacial pace. This is no Colin From Accounts, but it has its charms.

• The first three episodes of Still Up are on Apple TV+ now, with the rest being released weekly on Fridays

Review date: 23 Sep 2023
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett