''Everyone Else Burns'' is a

British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. Most British sitcoms are recorded on studio sets, while some have an element of location filming. A handful are made almost exclusively on location ...

made for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

by JAX Media and

Universal International Studios NBCUniversal International Networks, formerly NBC Universal Global Networks and Universal Networks International, is a part of NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast. History When NBCUniversal was formed in 2004, it owned many entertainment television c ...

, starring

Simon Bird Simon Antony Bird (born 19 August 1984) is an English comedian, actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Will McKenzie in the multi-award-winning E4 comedy series ''The Inbetweeners'' (2008–2010), as well as its two films ...

Kate O'Flynn Kate O'Flynn is a British actress. She is known for her performance in Royal National Theatre, National Theatre's production of ''Port'' for which she received a Critics' Circle Theatre Award in 2013, as well as starring roles in plays ''A Taste ...

Amy James-Kelly Amy James-Kelly (born 15 November 1995) is a British actress. She gained prominence through her role as Maddie Heath in the ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'' (2013–2015). She has since starred in the Netflix series ''Safe'' (2018) and the ...

, Harry Connor and

Morgana Robinson Morgana Robinson (born 7 May 1982) is an Australian-born English impressionist, comedian, writer and actress, who is best known for her comedy sketch programme ''The Morgana Show'', ''Morgana Robinson's The Agency'', appearances on ''The TNT Sho ...

. The six-part series premiered in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2023 with episodes also available on streaming service All4.

Synopsis

coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...

sitcom about a

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

family in a puritanical Christian sect.

Cast

as David Lewis *

as Fiona Lewis *

as Rachel Lewis * Harry Connor as Aaron Lewis *

as Melissa *

Lolly Adefope Ololade "Lolly" Adefope (born 14 September 1990) is a British stand-up comedian and actress, specialising in character comedy. She is known for playing the role of Fran in the Hulu comedy series '' Shrill'', and as Kitty, the ghost of a Georgian ...

as Miss Simmons * Ali Khan as Joshua *

Kadiff Kirwan Kadiff Kirwan (born 3 February 1989) is a British-Montserratian actor. He is known for his roles in several British television series, particularly ''Timewasters'', ''Chewing Gum'', ''Fleabag'', and '' The Stranger''. Early life and education Bo ...

as Andrew *

Arsher Ali Arsher Ali (born 9 April 1984) is an English actor. He has played various TV and film roles, and is a regular lead performer at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. Personal life Ali is of Pakistani descent. He is a graduate ...

as Elder Samson * Liam Williams as Joel * Al Roberts as Elder Abijah

Production

Channel 4 announced the project had been commissioned on 5 May 2022 with the cast in place and JAX Media and Universal International Studios producing from a script written by Dillon Mapletoft and Oliver Taylor, and Nick Collett as director. Speaking about his wig for the show Bird told

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

"My first reaction pon seeing the wigwas laughter, annoyingly, which was pretty much everyone’s reaction. Which meant that we had to go ahead with it."

Broadcast

Everyone Else Burns premiered in the UK on

at 10pm on Monday 23 January 2023. The series consists of six episodes in total, which are also available to on the streaming network All4.

Reception

Writing in

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

Anita Singh said "there is much to enjoy here. It's not a comedy going for cheap laughs about Christianity. It is a show about family, and it has a lot of heart." About the comedy Singh said "Much of the comedy comes from the subversion of norms. David and Fiona are appalled that Rachel has studied for her exams when she should have been out preaching. "Straight As, five out of five for effort. Where did we go wrong?" and "every line has a comic payoff and every character, from the leads down to the supporting players, is well-written… there are truths about family and friends that make it seem like more than a throwaway sitcom."

Lucy Mangan Lucy Katherine Mangan''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian''. A major part of her writing is related t ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

commented "The jokes come thick, fast and funny... The hyper-religiosity is used to look anew at family dynamics and dysfunction; how blind you can be to abnormalities if they are all you know; and the need to break free. Mapletoft and Taylor do this without mocking faith itself... it's simply very, very funny, all the way. I'm a convert." Carol Midgely in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

said "It was a small delight. It wouldn't work half as well without Bird's manic energy as David, a pompous loser narcissist who makes his family do practice runs for the end of the world and has the worst pudding bowl haircut in Christendom." Also adding "it is sharply, wittily written too. The rest of the cast is strong… it is a brave comedy that targets religion, but only a clever one could do it with this much heart and jolliness."

References

External links

* * 2023 British television series debuts 2020s British sitcoms Channel 4 sitcoms English-language television shows Fiction about cults Television series about Christianity Television series about dysfunctional families Television series about marriage Television series by Universal Television Television shows set in Manchester {{UK-tv-stub