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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 351668" data-attributes="member: 23">Yes - that sums it up perfectly. So much of my enjoyment has come from anticipation because of knowing what each character's "thing" is. On the surface it appears almost lazy and by-numbers (and sometimes it is), but if anything it's probably more difficult to make this funny than if the characters were more nuanced, because the audience feels they know how the character needs to react.Watching some of the "around the room" scenes where different characters in turn are asked questions about grammar or life in general is akin to feeling giggly when witnessing an  conversation where someone puts their foot in it and it doesn't go down well. It seems funnier because it's so awkward, but also because you can see it coming and you know them well enough to know it's going to go down like a lead balloon. What's really struck me in this series is how perfect he is to ground the series. Every single character around him is larger than life, but Barry plays Mr Brown for truth and feels very much like an actor playing situations that happen to be funny rather than a comedy actor.He does have great comedy delivery (for example those times where he starts to correct Su-Lee but ends up muddling up his "L" and "R" sounds himself and has to quickly correct himself), but it never feels like he's "doing" comedy.Compared with everyone else he's underplaying it, and that truthful performance helps make the series funnier because it seems more believable.As you said, he does have a very likeable quality to him and I'd happily watch more of his work should I come across it in due course.Oh gosh. I imagine that would have been frustrating for him, and it's a waste that he wasn't better appreciated.</blockquote>

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