King Gary gets to reign again | BBC orders a second series © Shiny Button/Ollie Upton

King Gary gets to reign again

BBC orders a second series

BBC One has commissioned a second series of King Gary.

The sitcom stars Tom Davis as hapless Essex building boss Gary King, Laura Checkley as his social-climbing wife Terri and Simon Day as his no-nonsense dad.

The show launched with a modest 1.4million viewers last month – compared to 5.4million who saw Grantchester on ITV at the same time and reviews were generally lukewarm.

But the BBC has been encouraged to order a second series by the numbers watching on demand on iPlayer, according to trade magazine Broadcast.

The show is co-written by James De Frond, who directs, and is made by Shiny Button Productions.

When the first six episodes were commissioned  Shane Allen, the BBC’s controller of comedy commissioning , said: ‘King Gary is big on laughs, big on heart and big on talent. Landing a mainstream family sitcom with a modern tone is a tough nut to crack but these scripts are bursting with great lines and well-earned set pieces.’

However  The Guardian called the show ‘patchy’ but ‘watchable’, while  Chortle said it ‘feels like a sitcom [still] trying to find its feet’.

Click here to read an interview with its creators.

Here's a clip from the latest episode:

Published: 10 Feb 2020

Live comedy picks

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.