David Farnor | On 27, Jul 2025

Season 4 premieres on 21st July 2025. This review was originally published in March 2024 and is based on the first three seasons.

Diane Morgan joins Daisy May Cooper, Sharon Horgan and Michaela Coel as one of the most interesting comedy talents around today, and after a welcome solo outing for her character Philomena Cunk and a scene-stealing turn in Motherland, she gets a deserving chance to create her own comedy series. The result is Mandy, a series about a chain-smoking underdog who dreams of nothing greater than raising some Doberman Pinschers.

We join her as she tries to get a job – initially at a banana factory where a sequence involving a hammer is laugh-out-loud funny. Things get dafter from there with the introduction of Maxine Peake as an old-school rival, setting the tone (and the high bar) for a first season. Throughout Morgan’s delivery is impeccable, serving up every absurd line and aside with a carefree matter-of-factness and a permanent frown. The inclusion of a voodoo subplot is questionable on first viewing, but Morgan’s character work in crafting a follow-up to Philomena Cunk is undoubtedly something to treasure.

Season 2 builds on that promise to make something truly brilliant, dropping us back into Mandy’s aimless hunting for any kind of occupation – with her reasons (crucially not excuses) for leaving each job becoming increasingly ridiculous while still being absolutely accurate. It takes some wonderfully surprising twists and turns, whether it’s a parody of Who Do You Think You Are? or a full-on Satanic ritual.

Season 3 only gets funnier, introducing a wonderfully offbeat take on a disaster movie, an inspired stint as an assassin and a hysterical outing to see a supposed psychic. The more ridiculous each scenario gets, the more gently scathing the depiction of the gig economy becomes. And longer the show goes on, the tighter the writing becomes, with a precise handling of its own tone – and some technically impressive production flourishes, including some deft editing of Mandy into archive footage that builds to a beautiful pay-off.

Morgan’s deadpan presence is essential to balancing the surreal and mundane. Throughout, she’s backed by a strong cast, including Tom Basden as her vaguely patient benefits officer, and a host of cameos from Tom Courtenay, Anna Maxwell Martin and Nick Mohammed to Konnie Huq, Deborah Meaden, Brian Cox and Graham Norton.

But the show’s secret weapon is its short-form format, with each 15-minute episodes flying by without ever letting things drag. The result is several seasons of absurdity distilled into a few hours of concentrated laughter. You suspect even Philomena Cunk would like it.

 

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