Review of the new Northern Ireland sitcom starring Vittorio Angelone

It was the sitcom that seemed in jeopardy after its star, Vittorio Angelone, made a rape joke about an assault victim just days before its release. But Rewarding allows the stand-up to show a softer side in his first significant acting role, portraying a care worker in a shabby residential facility in Northern Ireland.

The six-part series is broadly warm-hearted, though not without a little edge. Angelone’s character Francis and his world-weary colleagues Fidelma (Bernadette Brown) and Cyril (Faolan Morgan) make affectionately teasing jokes about their clients, the sort of resigned workplace humour that gets them through demanding jobs in an underfunded institution.

Rewarding features disabled, neurodivergent and learning disabled talent in key roles, but doesn’t treat them with kid gloves – making them rounded characters and acknowledging that their behaviour can be challenging, to say the least. 

Into this situation comes Sinead, as portrayed by Blue Lights star Hannah McClean, a graduate with all the theories but zero first-hand experience. She arrives with her ideals and by-the-book ambitions, rubbing up against Francis’s willingness to bend the rules for the benefit of the clients – and to give himself an easier ride.

In episode one – an extended version of the story released as a pilot under the Green Lit development scheme last year – that means hiring a bouncy castle to make sure the easily enraged Cal (Lee Snodgrass) doesn’t flip out when his dad’s a no-show for his birthday.

The well-meaning Sinead is not portrayed as the villain in this; instead that honour goes to Nicola (Joanne Crawford), a social worker who takes delight in in wielding her power as site inspector.

Rewarding is not a laugh riot, but creator Matthew McDevitt has an ear for wryly amusing comments pithy bon mots. Francis describes working in care as ‘failure as performance art’ – and of the lack of money to repair the damage Beacon Fold’s residents have caused, he quips: ‘Private health care works on the policy of why wipe your arse today when you’re only going to poop again tomorrow?’ And the company’s unambitious motto? ‘Satisfaction is a possibility.’ All these neat lines come in just one scene.

I suspect the sensibilities here will be familiar to anyone working in the care sector, even if the environment seems a little sanitised compared to, say, Jo Brand’s grittier Getting On or Damned. Rewarding is a warmer, more gentle prospect – but without shying away from some of the issues of a broken care system. 

• All six episodes of Rewarding are on iPlayer. Kill Or Be Killed, a comedy pilot from this year’s Green Lit scheme, has also just been released on the platform.

Review date: 15 Nov 2026
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett