DVD Times Review

An honest, bitter and funny sitcom. Moffat isn't afraid to reveal the anger and disappointment that comes from a failing marriage. For that, though, this viewer was often quite uneasy with much of Joking Apart. Too often, it veered very close to the kind of farce of which there was too much of during my youth. Click link for full article.

Written by Eamonn McCusker. From DVD Times, 13th March 2008

The performances are spot-on. Robert Bathurst is perfectly cast as the arrogant but suffering Mark Taylor, his desperation evident from the outset. Bathurst is almost too convincing with Moffat's razor-sharp dialogue. But no sooner does the tension build than it is dissipated by a one-liner.

The Latest, 29th February 2008

Joking Apart DVD Review

Despite the fact that it is - on occasion - very funny, Joking Apart is a fairly difficult show to fall in love with. Click link for full article.

Written by Seb Patrick. From Den of Geek, 28th February 2008

Farce that rose from the grave

The Telegraph reports on the extraordinary story behind Joking Apart's DVD release.

Written by Shane Jarvis. From The Telegraph, 8th May 2006

Fool If You Think It's Over

Off The Telly reports on the struggle to bring Joking Apart out on DVD in this excellent article. Includes interviews with Robert Bathurst, Steven Moffat and Craig Robins, the man who organised the DVD release.

Written by Graham Kibble-White. From Off The Telly, 1st May 2006

It took me a while to get into this comedy series. It's sort of an English Seinfeld, the mishaps and accidents and emotional morasses of a stand-up comic with layers of slapstick added.

The star, Robert Bathurst is less convincing as the comic, better at the slapstick. Like the programme itself, he's better at frolicking the half hour away in comedies of embarrassment and farce than he is at being all moody and deep.

David Flusfeder, The Sunday Times, 5th February 1995

I am developing a distinct taste for Joking Apart. Steven Moffat's clever, and anguished black comedy about marriage failure. The pilot, which was shown last year, was a strange, unnerving piece of sitcom. But last night's follow up was exceptionally funny, and it's interesting to see the slight change of emphasis that have obviously been made. One to watch.

Marcus Berkmann, The Daily Mail, 15th January 1993

I've virtually given up looking for a good new British sitcom; they're all too bland, heavy-handed and frankly unfunny. Joking Apart has its problems but possesses a certain dark, mordant wit. But the show has a huge casting problem. Robert Bathurst, as Mark, is a conventionally handsome actor, but not one who can successfully convey the frustration of being a creative writer.

David Gritten, The Daily Telegraph, 8th January 1993

I don't want to get prematurely excited, but BBC2's Joking Apart is distinctly promising as 'a new adult comedy series'.

In other words, this is middle-class sitcom with sex and mild swear-words. Gosh! It took the trenchant Drop the Dead Donkey to show what really happened after office parties (you wake up with your face in a curry at a railway station).

Steven Moffat's Joking Apart hardly aspires to the standard of the divine DTDD, but as an analysis of modern divorce it's quite funny and acute so far. Robert Bathurst and Fiona Gillies are much too pretty and clean to be entirely true to life, but maybe separation will roughen them up.

Maureen Paton, Daily Express, 8th January 1993

If you're a fan of Coupling, or just want to check out a relatively obscure, tightly-written, witty sitcom, get hold of a copy on Joking Apart.

J.A.Knott, Zeta Minor

I sat to watch the first episode with some trepidation, only for the first few minutes to confirm my deepest suspicions, as each show opens with Mark (Robert Bathurst) doing a very poor stand-up routine about the disintegration of his marriage.

With a heavy heart I determined to plough through the first episode, only to discover that I enjoyed it so much I watched the whole season in one sitting and was left very disappointed that I had missed it the first time round.

Charles Packer, Sci-Fi Online

It's a little variable, but when it's good, Joking Apart is both a very high-energy rush and scraping, bitter, quity angry piece. Once you know it's based on the writer's own, real divorce, you're not surprised... but you are surprised that it's not better known.

William Gallagher, UK DVD Review