Critic Reviews
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Alan Carr’s new autobiographical sitcom, Changing Ends, is that most joyous of things: a smart, inventive, honest and charming coming-of-age story. It’s also, in the case of Carr, the making of a national treasure.
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It is a steamroller of a comedy, open, welcoming and beaming with easy charm.
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It's a fantastic feat to have a comedy series that feels so nostalgic and familiar, while also being thoughtful, considered and funny - but Changing Ends holds up its light tone and delivers a considered representation of the attitudes of the '80s, when being gay and expressive in your sexuality wasn't "tolerated", as Carr says.
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Changing Ends clearly wants to avoid being angst-ridden, but there’s a dark thread here involving historical homophobia towards a spirited, vulnerable boy that keeps wriggling through. Elsewhere, it slips too mechanically, and too often, into Carr’s distinctive standup persona, but Savell is glorious as young Alan and there are proper giggles.
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The lower-middle-class 80s-ness is impeccably rendered. .... The lines are peppy too. But they’re all very obviously written in the voice of the adult Carr, which means laughs comes at the expense of distinctive character credibility. And the bubbly mood sometimes sits uncomfortably atop the bigotry, like froth on a bitter cappuccino.