It’s already won legions of fans down under, and now it’s time for the UK to get a taste. The smash hit Aussie sitcom Colin from Accounts is now waiting to make you laugh on BBC iplayer.
Real life couple Patrick Brammell (Ruben Guthrie) and Harriet Dyer (No Activity, The Invisible Man) star as micro-brewery owner Gordon and medical student Ash, respectively, who have a particularly chaotic meet-cute when a car accident involving the two of them results in an injured and seemingly stray dog. On the hook for some $12000 in veterinary bills (halve that for your local equivalent—it’s Australian money), Ash moves into Gordon’s place to help care for the mutt while she looks for a pet-friendly share house situation. The two are, of course, both single and unlucky in love—Gordon took up unicycling, he’s so desperate to distinguish himself from the pack—and we proceed from there.
Dyer and Brammell also write all eight episodes of Colin from Accounts’ first season, and Dyer’s sister, Madeleine, co-directs an episode, making it a real family affair. That means the scripts are tailored to the performers’ strengths, resulting in an uncommonly sharp and observant look at single life in these here crazy times, only occasionally stretching plausibility for effect (like Gordon, the owner of a brewpub in Sydney’s trendy inner west, being desperate and dateless). The jokes-per-minute ratio is kept high, and while they don’t all land, the blistering pace of the comedy makes up for the odd dud. Besides, as our critic noted in their review, the show is more incisive in its jabs at millennial singledom.
Laughs, love, a cute mutt in a little wheelchair, and a splash of Australian cultural colour—Colin from Accounts has it all. Just don’t ask us who the titular Colin is; that’s for you to discover for yourself.
