A patchy first episode of Sandylands.
It begins with Les Vegas (Sanjeev Bhaskar) an arcade owner in the seaside town of Sandylands going out to sea on a boat.
It then moves to his estranged daughter Emily (Natalie Dew) arriving from London for Les's funeral. He never returned from the boat trip and is presumed dead.
As this is labelled as a comedy it immediately gave me a Reginald Perrin vibe.
Emily sees some odd people in town. An overcharging taxi driver wearing nothing but budgie smugglers and a Hawaiian shirt. He seems to be the only cab driver in town which has not yet heard of Uber.
Emily ends up staying in a guest house run by Derek Swallows (David Walliams) and his wife Jeanie (Sophie Thompson). Derek is a stock Williams character straight out of Little Britain. Both are obsessed by Princess Diana and Jeanie treats Emily like a daughter she could never have.
Tina Taylor (Harriet Webb) is the loud party girl who knew Emily when she was at school, she persuades Emily for a night out with bad karaoke and badly named cocktails.
It ranges from a few nostalgic flashbacks with Emily as a girl to some coarse humour with Emily and Tina drinking Kermit's Mess to Emily suddenly snogging an old acquaintance Nathan (Simon Bird) who is a policeman.
The tone is uncertain, the humour is broad with a predictable revelation at the end.
