''Respectable'' is a British

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

, first shown in six episodes from 30 August to 4 October 2006 on

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

; it was later repeated on

Paramount Comedy 1 Comedy Central is a British pay television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. This channel is specific to audiences within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is aligned with the original US versi ...

and

Paramount Comedy 2 Comedy Central Extra is a European pay television channel that launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2003. Followed by the Netherlands in 2011 were it was visible till 31 december 2022. Between 2012 and 2020 it was also available in par ...

. It follows Michael Price, a man acutely aware of his own dullness, trapped in a loveless marriage. In the first episode, he hesitantly visits a suburban

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

. Terrified of sex, he strikes up a platonic relationship with a young prostitute, Hayley. The series follows the development of this relationship, and Michael's attempts to conceal his visits to the brothel from his wife. This is complicated by the discovery that his builder, Barry, is a frequent and uninhibited visitor to the brothel. The show was written by

Shaun Pye Shaun Pye is an English actor, comedian, writer, critic, television producer, editor, and journalist, known for co-creating the animated sketch comedy ''Monkey Dust'' with Harry Thompson, and for his role as Greg Lindley-Jones on Ricky Gerva ...

Alan Connor Alan Connor (born 1972) is a British writer, journalist and television presenter. First seen on Channel 4's youth entertainment programme '' The Word'' in 1995, he later appeared on ''The Big Breakfast'' and BBC Radio Five Live and was a BBC N ...

and

Harry Thompson Harry William Thompson (6 February 1960 – 7 November 2005) was an English radio and television producer, comedy writer, novelist and biographer. He was the creator of the dark humour television series ''Monkey Dust'', screened between 2003 a ...

. Former ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...

'' actress

Jodi Albert (born 22 July 1983) is an English actress and singer, best known for playing Debbie Dean in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks'', as a member of Simon Cowell's British girl group Girl Thing, and as a member of Irish girl group Wonderland. E ...

plays Hayley, a dumb

hooker with a heart of gold The hooker with a heart of gold is a stock character involving a courtesan or prostitute who possesses virtues such as integrity, generosity and kindness. Characteristics The character type is defined by morally positive traits, which are contra ...

; Kate is a university student, owner Maureen is a more mature lady who claims to be 27, while Yelena is a dominant Eastern European. Of the characters who don't work there, Michael is going through a mid-life crisis, while his friendly builder Barry is a typical "Jack the lad".

Characters

International broadcasters

Bold In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in W ...

- Canada *

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

- Netherlands *

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through ...

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

- Australia

DVD release

''Respectable'' was released on region 2 in the UK on DVD on 9 October 2006 via

2entertain 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

distribution.

References

External links

Paramountcomedy.com info
* * Channel 5 (British TV channel) sitcoms 2000s British sitcoms 2006 British television series debuts 2006 British television series endings {{comedy-tv-prog-stub