I can understand why some people review this show here and call it "rubbish" because it is not easily watchable. It takes you out of your comfort zone and is not banal safe comedy that often seems to often thrive on television. The main character Jill is a savagely cruel person, when her husband is diagnosed with cancer she drops him off at the hospital and goes to a dating agency to find a new man. When a couple move in next door she thinks nothing of wearing the disabled woman down physically and emotionally to get at her husband. You get the idea. Many of the lines are superbly witty in an outrageous "she can't say that" type of way. Interestingly Julia Davies has both naturalistic supporting characters like Cath and Don the couple next door and exaggerated broad comedy characters that inhabit Jill's world without the mix of the two jarring in any way. It is easier to watch a second or third time if you give it the chance, then you seem to be able to concentrate on the savage humour without feeling too much pity for the put upon characters involved. Superb.
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lee-wilson27 June 2006
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Whether you like "Nighty Night" is dependent on whether you like this sort of thing. I will grant you this, it is not easy to watch at times, it is very dark, often unsubtle, heartless and extremely vicious. But there are some very funny parts too, thanks to the stellar performances and the deliberately over-the-top writing that is most likely to shock people with the amount of depth it goes into. Plus it is very unfliching at how cruel the characters can be to one another. There are times when we find the characters unsympathetic, with the exception of perhaps Cathy and Terry but I personally think that was intended.
The performances are stellar. Julia Davis throws herself into this, and gives a genius turn as Jill, an "evil" neighbour and an incompetent hair stylist. Angus Deayton is also superb as Don Cole, who is facing a very difficult situation, as is Rebecca Front as Cathy, a really sympathetic character that we constantly feel sorry for. Overall, clearly this isn't for everyone, but I for one find it entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox -
Clive-Silas30 December 2010(The following review was originally published 20 Jan 2004 as the first review of this title to appear here. Deleted after a user request, it has been edited and re-submitted.)
"Nighty Night" details the life and loves of the most self-absorbed woman on earth, Jill Farrell, played by series creator Julia Davis. In the first scene she sits in the hospital with her husband Terry (the surprisingly normal Kevin Eldon) and they have just been told the test results. She bewails her fate, crying "Why does everything have to happen to *me*!" Her husband turns to her, comfortingly, and says, "Look love, it'll be OK. It's really not that bad. It is ME who's got the cancer!" In the second scene she is at a computer dating service. Not content with whoever they may come up with for Jill to go out with between hospital visits, she also sets her sights on neighbour Don, (Angus Deayton), a doctor whose wife, Cathy (Rebecca Front), is a victim of Multiple Sclerosis.
Davis has specialised in playing these kinds of women in recent years, most notably in Rob Brydon's "Human Remains" and Chris Morris's "Jam". Jill is all entirely her own work and she has really plumbed the depths of the human psyche to create a woman who cares for nothing and nobody but herself, to a psychotic degree. Instead of "Nighty Night" perhaps the programme should have been called "Nicely Nice", because it is people's niceness, or at least their desire that things remain nice, that allows Jill to get away with the most appalling insensitivity and self-regard.
The characterisation of Jill is perfectly done, as are the characterisations of the other people, from poor confused Terry (not realising that he isn't getting any visitors because Jill told everyone he'd already died), Don who is caring for Cathy, but obviously doesn't really "care" for her any more. Particularly brilliant is Rebecca Front's performance as Cathy, caught between dissatisfaction with her straying husband, outrage at Jill's antics but paralysed - not just physically - by her inability to make a fuss. These are fantastically well observed. Other characters, such as Stefan, Jill's putative blind date, and Linda the asthmatic girl in Jill's beauty salon who loves to massage feet, are more exaggerated but well performed.
This is not laugh-a-minute hysterical comedy by any means, but continues the uncomfortable black comedy trend hinted at by Steve Coogan's characters, and more wilfully pursued by Chris Morris and Rob Brydon (with all of whom Julia Davis has previously acted.) -
Eli-5320 January 2004This show is billed as coming from the makers of Alan Partridge, but whilst Alan is a complete imbecile, the awkward situations he finds himslef in are often ones caused by his inflated ego and at the end of the day whilst he is a nasty chap, he isn't evil. Now lets come to Jill, the main character in this wicked (but very entertaining) new dark dark comedy. She is pure evil. Whilst her husband lies in hospital apparently dying of cancer, Jill tells the world he's dead and decided to start dating. In the first episode she meets her new neighbour Dr .Don, played by Angus Deayton ( the Beeb did say they'd find him new roles post the HIGNFY scandal!) who's married to Cath (the brilliant Rebecca Front of The Day Today - a show from the same creators) who happens to have MS. Jills nastiness ensues and you really squirm watching her ( a mix of David Brent and Alan partridge at their worst with a much more EVIL edge). The show is a guilty pleasure as you'll laugh at the nastiness and then feel really bad later on! BBC3 airs these shows and they do eventually come to BBC2 ( like Little Britain) and when it arrives, make sure to catch it. It's not your typical sitcom, but who wants typical??!!??
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ian_karljackson29 March 2007Nighty 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.
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kingprawn-0879217 October 2021This programme is actually a very twisted horror film Jill is the most evel woman on TV extremely funny extremely dark Julia Davis is amazing in this.
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tgtround28 July 2006What do you say about a female character who is utterly selfish and has absolutely no redeeming features? The Guardian newspaper described her as a "t*rd in leather trousers" which is along the right lines.
Julia Davis both as a writer and an actress has gone where many men would fear to tread and has brought us a comedy so black it's positively shiny. A hilariously politically incorrect comedy this series examines the winners and losers in life and suggests that those out for themselves can succeed over the decent and altruistic.
This series is definitely NOT for those of a nervous disposition or who do not wish to enter the belly of the beast that is modern society.
The rest of the cast are excellent and special mention must go to Angus Deayton for playing a doctor with a private life far less interesting than his own and to Ruth Jones for enthusiastically playing a character who is constantly humiliated. -
endless_loop23 September 2020This is such a hidden gem if you like dark comedy ,, the manipulative Jill Tyrrell is played to perfection. Brilliant performances by the 2 leading ladies Julia Davis and Rebecca Front both deserve far more recognition than they get. I suspect this hits far more notes with female audiences than male ones .. big thumbs up !
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daxxafreeman5 August 2022This is one of my favourite programmes to ever grace the BBC - it's so funny and I still often quote it to this day!
It's so awkward, darkly disturbing in parts and sometimes uncomfortable to watch... but I wouldn't have it any other way...
Sorry Jill... -
robertemerald19 December 2019I watched the first series of Nighty Night straight through over an evening and an afternoon. It was addictive. I laughed out loud on several occasions, smiled more often than not and couldn't wait for the next episode. Aside from the humour the show ropes you in just to see how things turn out. It has a brilliant premise, which is how a selfish, yet very attractive, woman can play havoc by threading the needle between her own assumed 'good intentioned' authority and others' political correctness. Night Night is a brilliant satire on British manners. A must see for fans of British humour.
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imdb-161563 November 2006One has to categorise this show as as satirical comedy, and indeed the first season begins humorously and playfully enough. After just a short time however, the personality disorders portrayed must inevitably lead to a rather more uncomfortable experience. Jill is nothing other than a psychopath, blatantly unaware of the extremity of her behaviour. The other characters all incredibly tolerant and unbelievably sympathetic to Jill's activities. Whilst the humour is maintained throughout, it is hard not to feel that genuine personality disorders such as these surely do exist around us in the real world. Of course the events are all extremely exaggerated, and that forms the basis for the humour. Were the show a little more subtle, then it would probably be billed as a psycho-thriller. I personally enjoyed it very much, as I find extreme humour quite entertaining. However, I would not recommend it for the squeamish, or prudish, or the particularly emotional. The second season even surpasses the first in extremity, if not in humour. I have knocked off points for plot, repetition, and incredibility.
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TimeFox88119 June 2021I hear people talk about how much they love "British comedy". So I ask them what shows, specifically and they tell me stuff like Black Books or The Inbetweeners or The IT Crowd. Basic, formulaic, safe sitcoms that aren't inherently British at all, they just have actors with British accents.
Nighty Night is dark, fearless, raunchy British comedy. I think Julia Davis might be a genius or misanthrope of the highest order to have come up with some of these character observations.
And I loved every minute of it. -
GabrielSymes23 July 2020Season I has some genuine laugh out loud moments, it is fun. It is definitely towards the cringe end of the humour spectrum. But... Season II falls flat. It is not even a parody of the first season. It is just unnecessarily grotesque. Season I I'd give a deserved 8/10, Season II a generous 4/10. Hence the average of 6.
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I decided to very belatedly give this series a whirl because (a) I remember it getting some great reviews at the time, (b) it's produced by Steve Coogan's company Baby Cow, and (c) although I'm not too familiar with her work I have found Nighty Night creator Julia Davis funny in a few things i.e. as the co- presenter in the notorious BrassEye Special, and in the excellent Amicus spoofing episode 'And Now The Fearing' from the otherwise patchy Dr Terrible's House Of Horrible.
Well I needn't have bothered. Despite being billed as dark, edgy, risqué, dark, twisted, perverse, and dark, Nighty Night is deeply unfunny in exactly the same way that happy-clappy innocuous fluff like Not Going Out and Benidorm are deeply unfunny. Okay the themes and subject matter might be refreshingly uncomfortable for a sitcom, but the humour is laboured at best and patronisingly obvious at worst. The opening scene says it all. "Why me???!!!" squeals wife after doctor reveals cancer diagnosis. But wait. Husband turns to her... "It's *me* that's got cancer!". Get it? Did you get that amazingly dark hilarious twist and see what they did there? It basically carries on with that level of comedy, rinse and repeat. How other reviews are comparing this to a masterpiece like The Office is beyond me, I lasted less than 2 episodes and that was a struggle. -
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! -
MysteryFilm9 December 2006I 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! -
Vindelander20 April 2022Really cutting edge comedy and I just love Julia Davis' writing and acting. She's definitely OTT but if you persevere to get to know the characters through the first two episodes ( which are very funny anyway) you'll appreciate how dark this. I think British comedy at its best and have watched both seasons several times.
Like with This Country, it's a Marmite moment for most but I'd really recommend it. Great cast, great script and lots of subtlety. -
aussiesurferbloke6 December 2006I love this series. I bought 1 and 2 on DVD and watch them over and over. It never fails to make me laugh. I think it gets funnier the more you watch it. I bought it over 6 months ago and Im still watching it. The character Linda is hilarious as is Glen Bulb and Jill goes without saying. Its not to everyones taste but if you like your humour black and politically incorrect with no canned laughter then you will like this. A few lines reminded a little of 'Kath an Kim' ( the funeral scene), perhaps Julia Davis was a little influenced by them. 1 was better than 2 but I still love both and hope they bring out a third one. The second series was a bit hard to stomach at first but was still brilliant. Many people don't 'get' this show, I think its partly due to the accents, I had to rewind many times to try and hear what they were saying.
"Shall we settle up now otherwise it just gets nasty" LOL -
CraigNewman197310 February 2020Julia Davis is so underrated its untrue..this series garnered 4 awards for crying out loud...It has a medley of the best British comic talent, and yet one reviewer labeled it as a 1 star? They are either American (and don't get it) or morons that don't get it. Julia Davis plays the biggest 'Cant' (if you're British you'll get that) in the world, and is hilarious in her written role (by herself) role as Jill. The sheer audacity when people undermine a talented female writer/actress should be ashamed of themselves What have YOU done exactly? Oh write a negative review on Imdb... You should check out her other work. I don't care if her work is as black as a Black hole. She's incredibly talented, And extremely funny. You go girl!
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ofarrells10 June 2006My favourite scene in series two has to be the last episode where Jill disguises Glenn as a sailor and brings him to the pub where Don and Sue are planning their getaway. Over the radio you can hear Glenn's description being read out as he has escaped from prison and Glenn tries hard to look like his hair isn't curly and his teeth aren't so prominent. Jill tells Glenn that he needs to go to the toilet, he says he doesn't need to but she replies that she can smell him from where she's sitting... she asks Don to go in with him because he wearing a nappy, Don goes in after him, both look awkwardly at each other. It cracks me up every time... I hope there's a third series.
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LordBarrold28 August 2021I can watch most British comedy and as a fan of Alan Partridge, Peep Show, The Office, etc you get the jist of what I can enjoy.
I've never seen an episode of this until 2021 so naturally it's aged a touch but to be honest the problem was the ridiculousness of the second series. The first series was daft but there were funny moments and it felt structured to a degree. The second series was and still is confusing to me. Not sure where Julia Davis was trying to go with it?!
I laughed at some of the gross bits but found myself sleepwalking through the rest of the episodes. First Series was an 8/10 and second probably 4,5/10 so I'll go with a 6 overall. -
clivergreen-14 March 2007Under details for this Television series it says that the location was Walton-on-Thames, however series 1 was mainly filmed in Hersham, Surrey. UK, The church scenes were filmed in St. Peters Church, Hersham, The hall was the Hersham Women's Institute Hall and outdoor scenes were filmed in Hersham. The restaurant scenes were filmed in Cobham Surrey, while Jill's hairdressers was filmed in Byfleet, Surrey. To my knowledge no scenes were actually filmed in Walton-on-Thames! The second series was filmed in Cornwall, UK where there is also a village called Hersham consisting of six houses while the main Hersham has population of some 18,000 people.
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xmasdaybaby196612 January 2020Writing this 15 years after the first series was made, I have seen several dark comedies like this now but only just saw it for the first time. With Henry Normal and Steve Coogan behind it, it was destined to be of a certain style. The characters are hardly credible putting up with the bi-polar actions of the leading lady but, having said that, at around that time, I came across a similar control freak that tried to get between myself and an shy and obliging girl I had started dating. The relationship didn't last and the infiltrator disappeared just as quickly so I can understand that there are people like Jill out there The first series was probably finding its feet and the show benefitted with the move to Cornwall for series 2. Doc Martin started down there at around the same time but has managed to go on considerably longer. Two series left the show with nowhere to go. With the lovely Cornish scenes as well as being 4 months to the day younger than the voluptuous Virgoan writer and star, the similar tastes in music which made up the soundtrack to series 2, helped me through to the end If you like things like The Office, Extras or Alan Partridge then you will love it. The cringing antics kept me watching but the Jones were thin in the ground.
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Rabical-9115 October 2014I 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'.
'Nighty Night' thankfully ended after two series, though how it even got to be commissioned in the first place is a mystery. -
Screen-77 December 2005If you liked the "cringe comedy" of "The Office" but it you could go to even deeper levels of discomfort, try "Nighty Night." Julia Davis is ABSOLUTELY FEARLESS in her role. In my mind, she might be the best comedian on TV today.
Instead of an Office, its Jill's beauty salon which is a perfect setting for someone who is as totally self-absorbed as Jill. If I taught a course in psychology I'd make this series required viewing for the unit on borderline personality disorder.
If you are as infatuated with the actress Jill Davis as I am, you might also want to check out "Human Remains" where she plays a very different character in each episode. She's just amazing.