They kept us waiting long enough! Four years after the original series – and with any momentum it generated long since dissipated – Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou are back with the second series of their acclaimed sketch show.
Yet despite the sizeable pause, the pair are as relevant as ever, with a menagerie of mostly very identifiable characters, mocked mercilessly but quietly.
Of course, the Internet Nails girls Donna and Nikki return with another litany of seriously low-rent business ideas, including a sports bar club night run in their modest flat off the North Circular, as well as a hilariously cheesy baby glow-up venture, inspired by White and Demetriou making the three-part series while they were both pregnant.
These are not the pair’s only creations drawn from the online world, which proves to be fertile ground as they skilfully prise open the gap between the image people desperately try to convey online, usually from slavishly copying others, and their actual personality, far from the ideal.
Performative clichés abound, such as entitled podcasters earnestly considering the most anodyne or nonsensical life advice to be profound. ‘Love that,’ they intone ponderously, in place of any real thought. Surely Meghan will be a future guest on this fictional show…. Meanwhile, Demetriou’s character dons increasingly elaborate headgear, underlining the absurdity and low-energy weirdness that hums throughout Ellie & Natasia.
The social media inspirations may also be a savvy move given that it’s pretty cheap to replicate a down-the-camera shot within the restrictions of a 2026 BBC comedy budget.
Other caricatures include the women reviewing supermarket white bread from their car – ‘god that is funny I can’t stop laughing,’ remarks one, deadpan – a couple of soft-porn creators whose hearts aren’t in it, and a ‘day in the life’ videos with an inane tone but a dark underbelly.
In contrast to the army of influencers they portray, White and Demetriou are much more sympathetic to characters who remain authentic, however odd their personalities may be. The delightfully bonkers Scottish women running a shop selling tiny items is the best case in point.
Demetriou’s brother Jamie helps out in the Internet Nails scenes, as he did in series one, while his partner’s father, Steve Coogan, pops up in a very unexpected place for his briefest of cameos. Sian Clifford, Asim Chaudhry, Matt Berry and Kiell Smith-Bynoe all swing by, too.
Not that White and Demetriou need to borrow any star power. Their combination of the stupidly surreal and the cringe-inducingly accurate, with gags in every detail, is a winning formula. In the words of certain podcasters: ‘Love that.’
• Ellie & Natasia is on BBC Two at 10pm tonight, or all episodes are now available on iPlayer.
