Reviews

I stumbled across this early in series 1 while late-night channel hopping and rapidly grew to love it, other members of the family have accumulated along the way and it's now (early series 3) become required viewing. The sharply observed writing careers recklessly across the full range of comedy styles while a solid cast of identifiable characters bicker and connive their way through a lethal tour in some miserable outpost. The unsentimental approach leaves you with a strong suspicion that any member of the cast might be explosively written out at any time (probably in a blackly hilarious way), giving it a tension the likes of MASH and Dads Army would never have aspired to (although the description of this as "Dads Army for our time" is spot on).

For my money series 3 has faltered a little at the start, hopefully it will find its footing again and maintain the standards of the first two.