Dead Boss

Dead Boss
Created by	Sharon Horgan Holly Walsh
Starring	Sharon Horgan Jennifer Saunders Bryony Hannah Geoffrey McGivern Tom Goodman-Hill Lizzie Roper Aisling Bea Amanda Lawrence Edward Hogg Ricky Champ Emma Pierson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	6
Production
Executive producers	Jo Sargent Sharon Horgan
Producer	Caroline Norris
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	BBC Three
Release	14 June (2012-06-14) – 12 July 2012 (2012-07-12)

Dead Boss is a British sitcom which was shown on BBC Three in 2012.

Writing

The writers, Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh met through Jo Caulfield, a stand-up comedian who had a show on Radio 4. Horgan and Walsh both worked on the show, Horgan as an actress, and Walsh as a writer. It was Horgan who thought of writing a sitcom based on someone stuck in prison for a crime they did not commit. She asked Walsh if she wanted to work on it with her and the process from conception to broadcast took over two and a half years.^[1]

Regular characters

• Sharon Horgan – as Helen Stephens
• Jennifer Saunders – as Governor Margaret
• Bryony Hannah – as Christine
• Geoffrey McGivern – as Tony
• Tom Goodman-Hill – as Tim
• Lizzie Roper – as Top Dog
• Aisling Bea – as Laura Stephens
• Amanda Lawrence – as Mary
• Edward Hogg – as Henry
• Ricky Champ – as Frank
• Emma Pierson – as Mrs Elaine Bridges
• Barnaby Kay – as Justin
• Susan Calman – as Fatty
• Ashley McGuire – as Slasher
• Claire Prempeh – as Yvonne
• Golda Rosheuvel – as Lennie

Episodes

Series 1

The series ended with many unresolved

Reception

The series received mixed reviews. It holds a rating of 6.7/10 at the

Terry Ramsey of The Daily Telegraph gave the series a rating of 3.5/5. He stated that "at the start, this looked like another trying-hard-to-be-wacky-without-actually-being-very-funny BBC Three comedy, but by halfway through the first episode it got into its stride, with succinct characterisation, sly humour and a winning main character. On top of the humour there’s a murder mystery developing, plus a fine cameo role by Jennifer Saunders as the prison governor. I watched the second instalment that followed, and really enjoyed it. I can’t stop now, and am desperate for another episode."^[2]

Jack Seale of

Sam Wollaston also gave the show a negative review. She said the show was "pretty lame – and tame [...]. I wanted to like it, but couldn't. So I ignored it. Perhaps it needed time to bed in (pah!), and would get into its stride in week two. I told myself I was giving it a chance by deferring judgment, when of course I was really simply bottling it."[4]

Ket Watson of the Metro gave a negative review, in which he stated that "Dead Boss was enticing enough with its stellar cast, excellent writing credentials and intriguing premise, but in the event, this début episode was more Dead Loss than anything else." He also said that "Throttled by a cast of supporting characters cobbled together from left over bits of Psychoville and Prisoner Cell Block H, Dead Boss boasted bonkers eccentricity by the slop-out bucketload but none of it felt remotely original", and "At the centre of it all there’s Horgan, working her socks off as the 'normal' one. But she’s fighting a losing battle, because the script is a bit of a stinker – and she co-wrote it. This is hard to admit for a Horgan fan but thus far Dead Boss is a bit of a dead loss."^[5]

References

External links

• Dead Boss at BBC Online
• Dead Boss at British Comedy Guide
• Dead Boss at
  IMDb