Lowdown: UK reviews

ABC comedy Lowdown, starring Adam Zwar as a tabloid showbiz reporter, premiered in the UK this month on BBC4.

Reviewers liked what they saw. London’s the Daily Mail called it: “A creeper hit. Finally comedic output downunder has raised its game.”

The Times said:
The Australian writer and actor Adam Zwar, is steadily making his mark on TV comedy. First he co-created and strarred in the original version of the surreal comedy Wilfred (his role went to Elijah Wood in the US remake, which was shown on BBC Three last year). He went on to co-create this award-winning sitcom, in which he stars as Alex, the showbiz columnist on an ailing tabloid. As with Wilfred, there’s an underplayed tone that’s constantly peppered with gags ranging from the cerebral to gutter-level (tonight’s script swerves between Tracey Emin and rude sex). An extra layer of irony is added by Geoffrey Rush’s deadpan narration, and Craig McLachlan (aka Henry from Neighbours) is game enough to guest star as exactly the kind of sex-and-drug soaked star whom Alex targets for his pages.

The Guardian said:
Flatmates Alex and Bob (think two Simon Peggs‚ one a little bit Peggier than the other), allow sex symbol Oliver Barry – a certain Mr R Crowe, basically – to crash at their pad in what is essentially Australian television’s riotous answer to Drop The Dead Donkey. Barry wastes no time in noisily getting off with Alex’s love interest, Rita (Alex: “You’re not supposed to go off and sleep with the sexiest man alive!” Rita: “How am I supposed to know that, I can’t read your mind!”), before a satisfying comeuppance is achieved. 

The Stage said:
What is it with Australians and voiceovers? Hot on the heels of down under drama The Slap, which featured a disembodied voice passing God-like judgments over the action, we have the mellifluous tones of Geoffrey Rush providing tabloid sitcom Lowdown with a wholly superfluous running commentary. The show isn’t even filmed in faux documentary style, making the inclusion of a narration all the more baffling. This small quibble notwithstanding, Lowdown is actually rather good. Adam Zwar stars as Alex, an unscrupulous hack journalist hunting for salacious celebrity scoops. If none is forthcoming, Alex, accompanied by his paparazzi partner Paul, is more than happy to personally intervene and manufacture one.

The Arts Desk said:
The most finely judged thing about Lowdown on BBC Four is how it takes the tradition of broad Australian humour and makes it broad enough to cover the Outback without causing a breach in laughter or taste. The taste in this comedy of hacks is, of course, bad, but that’s what makes it so good. The bogan element in Australian culture – it’s their equivalent of the hick – is turned into the comedy of the unspeakable, and is always very, very funny….. There are, of course, no actual jokes. No one cracks wise. It’s instead the modern comedy of people saying and doing inappropriate things without anyone reacting as the audience would – the absence of laughter, even of acknowledging smiles, is what makes it funny. Lowdown doesn’t offer anything original in the form of comedy, but by filling out this form with the broad blasé Australian sense of humour, it manages to offer fresh laughs.

A second season airs on ABC later this year.