Nighty Night

2004

Seasons & Episodes

  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
8.1| NA| en| More Info
Released: 06 January 2004 Ended
Producted By:
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/nightynight/
Info

Nighty Night is a British dark comedy sitcom written by and starring Julia Davis. It was first broadcast on 6 January 2004 on BBC Three before moving to BBC2. Notorious for its dark humour, the show follows narcissistic sociopath Jill Tyrell – who manages a beauty parlour alongside her moronic, asthmatic assistant Linda – as she learns that her husband has cancer. She uses this fact to manipulate new neighbour Cathy Cole, a wheelchair user with multiple sclerosis whose husband Don, a womanising doctor, Jill has become obsessed with. The theme tune used in the beginning of both series and during the closing credits for the first is an excerpt from the spaghetti western My Name Is Nobody, composed by the Italian film composer Ennio Morricone. In June 2006 it was announced that Sex and the City creator Darren Star would write and be executive producer of a US version, which has been commissioned for a pilot script. Steve Coogan and Henry Normal, founders of the production company Baby Cow, were to be co-Executive-Producers.

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Comedy

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Nighty Night Audience Reviews

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
Red-Barracuda Nighty Night truly is an example of black comedy of the very darkest kind. It's a comedy show full of decidedly savage humour that is pretty far removed from treading around the niceties of politically correctness. It features one of the most deliciously amoral central characters ever created for TV in hair stylist Jill Tyrell. She is an astronomically self-absorbed and manipulative sociopath who will stop at nothing to get her own way. She pretends her husband has died of cancer so she can date other men and do other things. She targets new neighbour Don as a future partner and treats his wheelchair-bound wife Cath, who is suffering from MS, atrociously with a mixture of passive-aggressiveness and outright cruelty. Jill is played to perfection by Julia Davis who also wrote the series. Davis achieves the somewhat rare feat of using her sexuality to elicit many of the laughs – which is not something that you see very often for some reason. Despite her characters monumental obnoxiousness this is a somewhat sexy yet hilarious performance. The writing is very good and the talented cast all put in excellent turns. Angus Deayton plays the under-stated Don, Rebecca Front is great as the put-upon ultra-nice Cath, Kevin Eldon is once again very strange as Jill's unfortunate husband, while Mark Gatiss is indescribable as the disturbingly odd Ken Dodd lookalike Glen Bulb. The series is unusual in that some characters are played naturalistically while others are patently absurd.There were two seasons in this series and it would only be fair to say that the first one is clearly the better, although the second is still pretty funny. Season one is far more focused than the more cartoonish season two which went more for gross-out humour a little too often for my liking. The change has probably got a lot to do with the fact that Julia Davis spent three years working on the first season and considerably less time putting together the second one due to the BBC commissioning another six episodes. Season one is a suburban comedy with a more recognisably realistic set of circumstances and characters, while season two goes hell for leather into increasingly more absurd territory set around a health farm.But irrespective of comparisons between the two seasons, this is still excellent stuff. I really wish Julia Davis had been given the reigns to devise more TV comedy on the strength of this quite fearless and inappropriately hilarious series. Despite being definitely an ensemble piece, this is ultimately Davis' vehicle given her inspired central character and the fact she wrote it all herself. In addition, I also was somewhat amused by the use of some decidedly unfashionable 80's tunes from the likes of Marillion and Heart and as for the scene where Jill takes Cath on an unwanted trip up the high street sound-tracked by the metal anthem 'Rock You lie a Hurricane' by the German poodle rockers The Scorpions - too funny!
RaspberryLucozade I have tried on numerous occasions to get into this show. Many a time I would force myself to sit through a repeat on UK Gold but I always end up switching the damned thing off in disgust. I find it both boring and irritating. 'Little Britain' and 'Absolutely Fabulous' were better, and they were dire. Julia Davis plays Jill Tyrell, an evil, twisted bitch of the first order whose husband is dying of cancer. With this, she is eager to find a new man to share her life wife and has her sights set on Don ( Angus Deaton ) a doctor whose wife Cathy ( Rebecca Front ) is suffering from multiple sclerosis. Jill is not averse to using manipulative and sometimes even violent tactics in order to get her way and Cathy is often on the receiving end of it.Julia Davis is one of the most unfunniest women on the planet. I've had more laughs watching a glove puppet perform. Angus Deaton and Rebecca Front both got on my nerves as well. Mark Gatiss had better scripts to work off with Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton in 'The League Of Gentlemen' while sexy Felicity Montagu has appeared in far better things than this such as 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff' and 'Who Dares Wins'.'Nighty Night' thankfully ended after two series, though how it even got to be commissioned in the first place is a mystery.
Ian Jackson Nighty Night is a very unique comedy, combining dark humour, social observation and a large dash of discomfort. The show revolves around a self centred, manipulative female by the name of Jill. We follow Jill as she tries to convince her husband that he is dying and then proceeds to steal the heart of her neighbour. The only problem is his wife, a wheel chair bound, kind hearted lady by the name of Cath, who is more than an easy target for Jill's ways. With superb characters, such as the simpleton Linda, the sensual Sue, and the freakish Glen, and daring but hilarious antics (Jill goes to extremes from pretending to give 'afterlife workshops', to convincing her husband that he is dying, to being 11 months pregnant) Nighty Night is disturbingly funny. If you like shows such as The League of Gentlemen, Little Britian and Strangers With Candy, then i think you will enjoy this show.
MysteryFilm I recently bought the 2nd series of Nighty Night and re watched the first series. I have never laughed so hard in such a long time! This is the darkest or darkest comedies and excellently performed by all cast.Jill Tyrell is one of the nastiest characters ever brought to life and played so well be the amazingly talented Julia Davis. Rebecca Front gives such a great performance as the hapless, suffering neighbor Cath that you genuinely feel for her and then want her to actually stand up for herself against Jill! I really hope that a 3rd series comes along soon and I also hope that the Americans when making their version do not miss the vital comic dark moments!