BBC3’s newest sitcom offering, Siblings, is an interesting premise marred by its stock execution and detestable characters. Charlotte Ritchie, fresh from another hit sitcom, stars as hopeless office worker and Yorkshire university graduate, Hannah, who lives with her equally as hopeless, unemployed brother Dan (Tom Stour). Together their relationship forms the theme that runs throughout the show – two hopeless early-twenties siblings trying to find their way in the world.

The show takes the well-worn, yet relatable, setting of the flat-share and puts its own spin on it. No longer is it a group of friends who want to live together, instead it is two siblings who have to live with each other. A Friends without the friends.

It’s just a pity that this originality is soured by a paint by numbers script that frequently repeats jokes – a theory that all Keanu Reeves films take place in The Matrix is still not funny the third time it is repeated. This leaves the show feeling like a child’s Lego model, a directionless mess. There’s nothing here you would not have seen before.

Neither of the lead characters are particularly likeable. It seems Hannah and Dan are trying to outdo each other through who can offend the most people in the least amount of time. The second episode offers up a rather crude and offensive anecdote that may leave you never able to watch Three Men and a Baby again without feeling a little sick. Like that anecdote Siblings leaves a disgusting aftertaste in the mouth as it flits between the offensive and detestable.

Frank Jackman

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