David Farnor | On 20, Oct 2024

“Are you sure they’re promoting you?” “I’ve staked my happiness on it, so yes.” That’s the sound of a man trying to keep his family together in Channel 4’s Everyone Else Burns. Except, well, the Lewises aren’t your typical family. They’re members of a fundamentalist sect, the Order of the Divine Rod. And they think the world is about to end. Like, imminently.

It’s a wonderfully ripe set-up for a comedy, precisely because the subject matter is so dark. Creators Dillon Mapletoft and Oliver Taylor don’t shy away from the apocalyptic implications of the doomsday cult’s beliefs, but they do so by drilling right down to the consequences of it on a domestic, everyday scale. We first meet David (Simon Bird) as he wakes his wife, Fiona (Kate O’Flynn), son, Aaron (Harry Connor) and daughter, Rachel (Amy James-Kelly), to gather their things for armageddon – only for it, inevitably, not to happen.

The result is a fresh lens through which to explore dysfunctional family dynamics, which are more universal than the Lewises would probably like to admit. But that lens introduces timely layers of truth and denial to the sitcom format, as the members of the family drift between being oblivious to the abnormal, toxic behaviours at the heart of their home and being all too aware but also too obedient and loyal to say anything.

Kate O’Flynn steals every scene going as the put-upon Fiona, who wants to be a faithful wife but also struggles with the growing knowledge that this way of life isn’t fulfilling for her on any level. As she begins a friendship with un-saved neighbour Melissa (the delightful Morgana Robinson), she finds herself starting her own business and discovering a newfound sense of worth and independence – while attempting to ignore her feelings for fellow church member, the smug but charming Andrew (the brilliant Kadiff Kirwan).

Equally heart-wrenching is Amy James-Kelly as Rachel, a teenager who has grown up with no phone and no going out (unless it’s to evangelise), but secretly wants to go to university – both to learn and grow as a person, and to escape her repressive house. Encouraged by her teacher, Miss Simmonds (the always-excellent Lolly Adefope), her burgeoning understanding of her own identity is bolstered by a sparky new relationship she starts with Joshua (Ali Khan), a former member of the Order, whom she is forbidden to speak to.

But it’s Simon Bird’s David who dominates the screen, and the Inbetweeners star is perfectly cast as the awkward would-be religious elder. David is selfish and cruel in almost every situation, putting his own ambitions and importance above other people. And yet Bird never loses sight of David’s humanity, as, on some level, he sincerely believes that he’s doing what he has to so that his family’s souls are saved. He’s somehow well-intentioned and naive even as he’s cruel and oppressive – a wonderfully paradoxical muddle that, thanks to the wider rules of the sitcom, makes him mostly harmless.

That impossible juggling act is the secret to Everyone Else Burns’ success: it never mocks its characters, but invites us to empathise with them while laughing at their hypocrisy. Faith itself is never the butt of the joke, but the way that humans are good at twisting and perverting it to suit their own ends. And so the 25-minute episodes fly by in a thick and fast flurry of hilarious one-liners and physical comedy. Repeatedly skewering the dated values of the sect’s patriarchy, the show balances its morbid topic with amusingly recognisable human traits. Underneath its portentous veil is a warm-hearted story of people just trying to do the right thing, which trusts that, if they make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world.

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