Carrie & Barry - Series One

"Don't worry if you weren't impressed with the sleepy first run of Simon Nye's domestic comedy. This second series has a much more confident vibe to it. Kicking off with an episode that sees taxi driver Barry (Neil Morrissey) caught for speeding and his missus Carrie (Clare Rushbrook) trying to trace her family tree, there are more laughs in the first 10 minutes than Ben Elton's Blessed has so far managed in two episodes.

Despite the gentle, cosy set-up, this is everything a good sitcom should be - sufficiently grounded to be recognisable, but never afraid to spiral into gleeful bouts of clever one-liners and nifty slapstick when the occasion demands it. There's none of the desperation to force laughs that scuppers the likes of My Family, just a charming, laidback assurance that if the characters and dialogue are good enough, the chortles will come.

And come they do. Barry taunting a hungover Carrie with gives about female binge drinking, Kirk (Mark Williams) explaining about his Gran's holiday to Malmo ("She hasn't seen that many blonde people since she flirted with the Hitler Youth in her twenties"), Michelle (Michelle Gomez) experimenting with fake breasts and a genius sequence with a sarcastic traffic cop are just the highlights of a mainstream comedy wasted in the limbo of Saturday night."
(Evening Standard)

"There are big changes afoot as this fun-filled study of married life and family foibles returns for a second series."
(News of the World)

"Quiet moments of genuine wit and nicely played one liners."
(Time Out)

"Carrie and Barry are love's young dream. They slap one another awake from hangovers, use pillows for weapons, and utter endearments like 'nutter'... Neil Morrissey and Claire Rushbrook bring plenty of fun to their modern couple roles... this sitcom is packed with silly laughs that hark back to Neil Men Behaving Badly - and no wonder. It's by the team behind that hit show. But after all the opening boozing, cabbie Barry will also be taking a serious lane change this series, as will the others."
(Daily Mirror)

"I hate to think how Carrie and Barry would get on without their loopy friends as foil; the excellent Mark Williams and Michelle Gomez as Kirk and Michelle respectively."
(Daily Telegraph)

"Neil Morrissey's Barry takes a new direction as the hit sitcom returns... The comedy still retains its warmth and the dialogue is as sharp as ever."
(Total TV Guide)

"Simon Nye's engaging sitcom returns for a second series... It's a charming, downbeat, don't-try-too-hard slice of life, with the much-loved Neil Morrissey at the heart of it as suburban cab driver Barry... Both Barry and his beautician wife (Claire Rushbrook) have challenges to cope with in this series... The setbacks lend an edge to the show and give it a sense of being rooted in recognisable reality, not the glib caricature of Sitcomland. For broader comedy, there's Carrie's peculiar friend Michelle and Barry's mate Kirk (wonderful Mark Williams of Fast Show fame)... Nye sometimes hits the bull's-eye; I laughed long and hard at Kirk's description of his grandmother's trip to Sweden."
(Radio Times)

"A welcome addition... in the form of Adrian, Barry's new tenant... played by the excellent Mathew Horne from The Catherine Tate Show."(Time Out)