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Happiness (British TV series)

Field	Value
genre	Comedy drama
starring	Paul Whitehouse
Fiona Allen
Mark Heap
Clive Russell
Pearce Quigley
Johnny Vegas
country	United Kingdom
language	English
num_series	2
num_episodes	12
list_episodes	Happiness (British TV series)#Episodes
runtime	30 minutes
channel	BBC Two
first_aired
last_aired

Fiona Allen Mark Heap Clive Russell Pearce Quigley Johnny Vegas

Happiness is a British television drama written by Paul Whitehouse and David Cummings, with Whitehouse starring in the lead role.

Two series were broadcast on BBC Two in 2001 and 2003. Whitehouse stated that there would not be a third.

Synopsis

Whitehouse plays Danny Spencer, a successful voice artist for a popular cartoon bear called Dexter. Spencer is trying to come to terms with the death of his wife, though much of his concern is that he finds he isn't feeling the loss as deeply as he should.

Approaching his 40th birthday he is independent and single and the programme's themes are largely bound up with the opportunities and problems that this situation creates. His friends are a disparate group, ranging from the strait-laced Terry and Rachel (Mark Heap, Fiona Allen), through the down and outs – Charlie and Sid (Johnny Vegas and Pearce Quigley), to the archetypal man in a mid-life crisis, Angus (Clive Russell). To varying degrees these friends offer Spencer inspiration and cautionary tales as to how Spencer can fill his life.

Episodes

Series 1

#	Title	Original air date
1	"Personality Crisis"	20 March 2001
2	"I'm Doing It for Me"	27 March 2001
3	"Chained to an Idiot"	3 April 2001
4	"Desperate Dan"	10 April 2001
5	"Celebration"	17 April 2001
6	"Forty'	24 April 2001

Series 2

#	Title	Original air date
1	"A Little Bit of Love"	14 January 2003
2	"A Nice Person"	21 January 2003
3	"Real Dancing"	28 January 2003
4	"Perspective"	4 February 2003
5	"Old Bloke at the Door"	11 February 2003
6	"People Move On"	18 February 2003

Awards

British Comedy Awards, 2001
- Won
  - Johnny Vegas, best newcomer for his role as Charlie.
- Nominations
  - Best TV Comedy drama.
British Academy Television Awards, 2002
- Nominations
  - Situation comedy award.

Critical reception

Simon Hoggart described the series as "part of that newish genre, the situation tragedy", and Andrew Billen criticised it for the "emptiness at its heart and not enough going on peripherally to make up for it". Nicholas Barber described it as "an impressive leap from catchphrase-heavy sketch comedy" with "topnotch supporting actors". Many reviews identified Johnny Vegas's performance as being the strongest among the cast.

References

(20 September 2001). "Limited Happiness: Second series 'probably the last'".
Hoggart, Simon. (24 March 2001). "Upfront misery". The Spectator.
Billen, Andrew. (26 March 2001). "Upstaged by a prop: Television: ANDREW BILLEN is less than happy with Paul Whitehouse's new comic creation". New Statesman (& Society).
Barber, Nicholas. (12 January 2003). "DVD & Video: IMPRESSIVE COMEDY (HHHHI) Happiness DVD/VHS retail". The Independent on Sunday.
Gilbert, Gerard. (14 January 2003). "(TV) Pick of the Day". The Independent.
Hyland, Ian. (19 January 2003). "Ian Hyland's TV week: Happiness". Daily Mirror.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

2001-british-television-series-debuts 2003-british-television-series-endings 2000s-british-sitcoms bbc-television-sitcoms bbc-comedy-drama-television-shows british-english-language-television-shows television-shows-set-in-england

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