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Damned, series 2 episode 1 review: this gentle comedy is a rare gem

Jo Brand in Damned - (Channel 4 images must not be altered or manipulated in any way) This picture may be used solely for
Jo Brand in Damned - (Channel 4 images must not be altered or manipulated in any way) This picture may be used solely for

A dark sitcom about social workers is gloriously counterintuitive scheduling for Valentine’s Day and the opening scene in Damned’s second series, in which an unseen man enticed a young girl into his car, set a particularly bleak and unsettling tone. Yet Jo Brand’s unforgiving, warm and extremely funny series – written with Morwenna Banks and the comedian Will Smith – finds a certain heroic romance to the work, subverting its very serious themes while never mocking the victims or their stories, rooted as they are in real life.

We rejoined the dysfunctional crew at Elm Heath Children’s Services to find Rose (Brand) uneasily reconciled with layabout husband Lee (Nick Hancock), Al (Alan Davies) at war with his estranged partner, Martin (Kevin Eldon) officious as ever following his perhaps premature return from compassionate leave, Nitin (Himesh Patel) hopelessly overestimating his abilities and Nat (Isy Suttie) managing the office with enduring ineptitude. Newly added to the team was student Mimi (Lolly Adefope), her intolerably smug opinions and incessant virtue signaling outnumbered only by her lack of real-life experiences. These were characters transcending archetype, their behaviour and attitudes sometimes excruciatingly recognisable.

Brand and co juggled characters and storylines with Sorkin-esque facility and nuance. The case of the week was the fate of Tiara (the girl from the opening scene) and her brother, whose mother Elena (Andreea Paduraru) had been sex trafficked from Budapest at age 14, and now used her flat as her base for prostitution and her earnings to send them to private school. 

Her previous employment – cleaning toilets on zero-hours contracts – put this decision into sharp relief. Nothing could be taken at face value here: while the higher-ups deemed it an open-and-shut case of children at risk, Al argued extenuating circumstances, noting that the children were well cared for and the mother careful to keep her clients away (that ominous opening turned out to be a neighbor doing a good deed). Within half an hour, Damned did an admirable job of demonstrating that very few cases handled by social workers are entirely straightforward. 

The best TV shows of 2018
The best TV shows of 2018

This opener was a leap forward from the already-enjoyable first series, demonstrating all the benefits of a second run, but none of the drawbacks. The ensemble cast felt settled and confident, the dizzying camerawork less indebted to Brand’s own Getting On, and often difficult material was handled with greater confidence and daring. The latter resulted in often-pungent juxtapositions: in one sequence, Rose counselled the victim of historic sexual abuse while cleaning dog mess from her trainer.. And the scene in which the team debated the welfare of Elena’s children, alternating wisecracks with piercing insights, was challenging in the extreme. 

Bureaucracy, procedure and face-saving hypocrisy won out over empathy and common sense, typical for a show which prefers reflecting the realities of understaffing, underresourcing and basic human frailty to a comfortable, uplifting ending. Only the sight of good eggs like Rose and Al – for all their relatable flaws and foibles – continuing to fight for their charges’ best interests kept the weight of despair from unbalancing the comedy. Although even there, the last shot was of Al applying for a new job. He deserves a break – they all do – but the chemistry feels so well judged that I hope he doesn’t get it. Damned is a rare achievement: noble in his depiction of human weakness, soaringly ambitious while trapped in humdrum surroundings, and deeply empathic in prising laughs from desperate circumstances.