Vicious (TV series)

Vicious is a British sitcom shown on ITV. The series stars Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as Freddie and Stuart, an elderly gay couple who have been together for 48 years but endure a love/hate relationship.[1][2] The series premiered on 29 April 2013[3] and garnered 5.78 million viewers.

The first series ended on 10 June 2013, and was released on DVD on 20 November 2013.[4][5] On 23 August 2013, it was confirmed that Vicious had been renewed for a second series, to air in 2015.[6] Starting in late June 2014, the first series began airing in the United States on various PBS stations.

Contents

 * 1 Series overview
 * 2 Cast and characters
 * 3 Episodes
 * 3.1 Series 1 (2013)
 * 3.2 Christmas Special (2013)
 * 3.3 Series 2 (2015)
 * 4 Reception
 * 5 DVD Release
 * 6 References
 * 7 External links

Series overview[edit]
Vicious tells the story of ageing partners Freddie and Stuart, two men who have lived together in their Covent Garden flat for 48 years. Freddie was a budding actor and Stuart worked in a bar when they first met, but their careers are pretty much over and their lives now consist of entertaining their frequent guests, making sure that their aged dog Balthazar is still breathing, and hurling caustic insults at each other.

Cast and characters[edit]
(back row), Frances de la Tour,Iwan Rheon, Philip Voss, (front row)Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi, andMarcia Warren.
 * Derek Jacobi as Stuart Bixby – A former bar manager with an aged mother named Mildred who (until the last episode of series 1) was clueless as to her son's relationship with Freddie. It was revealed in the Christmas special that Stuart did have a fling with Penelope.
 * Ian McKellen as Freddie Thornhill – An over-the-hill actor whose career consisted mainly of bit parts. Although his career never really took off, he insists on behaving as if it did and still does.
 * Frances de la Tour as Violet Crosby – A close friend of Freddie and Stuart, who has designs on Ash, their young, handsome neighbour.
 * Iwan Rheon as Ash Weston – Freddie and Stuart's handsome but heterosexual 22-year-old new neighbour whom they befriend after he moves into the flat upstairs.
 * Marcia Warren as Penelope – A dotty old friend of Freddie and Stuart.
 * Philip Voss as Mason – Another elderly friend of Freddie and Stuart, often as sharp-tongued as they are.

Series 1 (2013)[edit]
† Overnight ratings only include live viewing figures at the time of broadcast plus recordings viewed on the same night (up to 2am). The other numbers in this column are consolidated viewing figures, which include all recordings up to a week after transmission. The overnight figure has been used when the programme does not rank in ITV's Top 30 consolidated ratings for that week.

Series 2 (2015)[edit]
Recordings for the second series began on 21 December 2014 and are expected to conclude on 1 February 2015. Six episodes will be recorded for broadcast later in the year on ITV.

Reception[edit]
Vicious was met with generally positive reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 80% "Fresh" rating based on ten reviews which are all from American critics in 2014.

Keith Watson of Metro wrote a favourable review, calling Vicious "nostalgic fun".[10]

Christopher Stevens of the Daily Mail also wrote a favourable review, calling McKellen and Jacobi "the Steptoe & Son of the gay and Thespian community".[11]

Morgan Jeffery of Digital Spy wrote a mixed review, finding the show an "uncomfortable blend of coarse humour and '70s sitcom-style cosiness".[12] Describing the script as "lazy", he thought that the show couldn't "decide if it wants to be edgy and rude or traditional fun for all the family", but praised the "strong" cast, ultimately awarding the series two out of five stars.[12]

Kevin O'Sullivan of the Sunday Mirror called it a "horrible half-hour of 1970s-style net curtain cosiness" in a negative review of ITV's Monday night comedy offerings.[13] In a 29 April 2013 review in the Telegraph, Benjamin Secher claimed it is "the least funny new comedy in recent memory", giving it 1 out of 5 stars. He also wrote that "the script fell disastrously flat".[14] Writing in the London Evening Standard, Brian Sewelldescribed the series as "a spiteful parody that could not have been nastier had it been devised and written by a malevolent and recriminatory heterosexual".[15]

DVD Release[edit]
The first series of Vicious was released on DVD in the UK on 20 November 2013 by 4DVD.