Review: Lab Rats, BBC2

3:30pm Friday 11th July 2008

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A NEW comedy series, so it’s bound to end in disappointment.

Well, actually, and whisper this quietly but Lab Rats which started on BBC2 last night actually shows some signs of promise.

True it’s very silly, but what’s wrong with that.

The greatest TV comedy ever in my humble opinion was The Young Ones, which was hardly Noel Coward.

Set in a university research laboratory, the writers of Lab Rats have acknowledged what many of us have known for years — boffins are inherently amusing.

Channel 4 have already tapped into this rich seam with The hit-and-miss The IT Crowd but early indications are that Lab Rats could be a better bet.

An added bonus is the presence of Chris Addison who stood out in The Thick of It and once again demonstrates he’s got great comic timing.

The thing that struck me about Lab Rats was that it was just a comedy sitcom in the old fashioned sense.

The laughs were mainly gentle, fairly obvious and no-one was trying to be too clever — how refreshing not to be served up an achingly trendy series that just doesn’t work.

As comedy series appear to have been less effective, last night also marked the return of one of the shows that have taken their place as the better comedy offerings — Mock the Week.

Now that is achingly trendy and topical, but it’s still mighty funny.