Back (TV series)

Back is a British sitcom created by Simon Blackwell and starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb.^[1] It was broadcast on Channel 4 and ran for two series from 6 September 2017 to 25 February 2021.^[2] The programme was filmed and is set in and around Stroud, Gloucestershire.^[3]

Back
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Simon Blackwell
Written by	Simon Blackwell John Finnemore Oriane Messina Fay Rusling Will Smith
Directed by	George Kane Ben Palmer
Starring	David Mitchell Robert Webb
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producers	Kenton Allen David Mitchell Robert Webb Simon Blackwell Victoria Grew Matthew Justice
Producers	Kate Daughton Lyndsay Robinson
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	25 minutes
Production companies	Big Talk Productions That Mitchell & Webb Company
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	6 September 2017 (2017-09-06) – 25 February 2021 (2021-02-25)

A second series of six episodes was announced in November 2017;^[4] filming was scheduled to begin in October 2019.^[5] On 19 September 2020, Webb announced that filming of the second series was complete.^[6] The first episode was broadcast on 21 January 2021 on Channel 4.^[7]

The first series premiered on Sundance Now in December 2017 before premiering on Sundance TV in the US in September 2018. The second series premiered on 31 March 2021 on sister network IFC in the US a week later after it premiered in full on Sundance Now on March 24.^{[citation needed]}

Plot

After the death of his father, Laurie, 42-year-old Stephen is set to take over the family business, the John Barleycorn pub, in Stroud, Gloucestershire. His plans are interrupted when Andrew, a former foster child briefly raised by Stephen's parents, returns to his life eager to renew his relationship with the family. While Andrew quickly charms the rest of Stephen's family – including his mother Ellen, sister Cass, and uncle Geoff – Stephen resents Andrew and views him as "a glib, dangerous sociopath who's about to steal his family, his business and his life".^[8] Andrew fondly remembers the time he spent living with the family as happy, whereas Stephen remembers the same time as miserable.

Cast

• David Mitchell as Stephen Richard Nichols^[9]
  • Sebastian Patterson as Young Stephen
• Robert Webb as Andrew Thomas Donnelly^[9]
  • Caius Luckyn-Malone as Young Andrew
• Penny Downie as Ellen May Nichols, mother of Stephen and Cass^[10]
• Louise Brealey as Cassandra Leslie "Cass" Nichols, Stephen's sister^[10]
• Geoffrey McGivern as Geoff, Stephen’s uncle and Laurie's brother^[10]
• Matthew Holness as Laurie, Stephen's deceased father, who appears in flashbacks
• Olivia Poulet as Alison, Stephen's ex-wife
• Oliver Maltman as Mike, barman
• Jessica Gunning as Jan, barmaid
• Michael Wildman as Tom, Alison's partner
• John Macmillan as Julian, clergyman
• Julie Dray as Juliet, the French chef
• Anna Leong Brophy as Bryony
• Emily Lloyd-Saini as the vet
• Penny Ryder as Wendy
• Clive Francis as Phil
• Julian Kostov as Luca
• Alice Lowe as Joanna
• Shelley Conn as Annie

Episodes

Series	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	6		6 September 2017 (2017-09-06)	11 October 2017 (2017-10-11)
2	6		21 January 2021 (2021-01-21)	25 February 2021 (2021-02-25)

Series 1 (2017)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	U.K viewers (millions)
1	1	"Episode 1"	Ben Palmer	Simon Blackwell	6 September 2017 (2017-09-06)[2]	1.75m[11]
Failed lawyer Stephen's father has recently died, and he makes plans to take over the family's pub, the John Barleycorn. On the day of the funeral there is an unexpected mourner at the graveside: Andrew, who was supposedly Stephen's foster brother from March to August 1987. Stephen is continuously suspicious of Andrew, having very little recollection of their childhood time together. A female stranger leaves a dog named Maurine in a café while Stephen is there. He is forced to take it home with him after the manager of the café refuses to take it.
2	2	"Episode 2"	Ben Palmer	Simon Blackwell	13 September 2017 (2017-09-13)[12]	1.08m[11]
Stephen learns that his father left five percent of his pub business to Andrew. Stephen decides to buy five static caravans to rent out and one is delivered to the field opposite the pub, which Stephen moves into. Andrew organises a trendy outdoor food festival, at which some attendees use Stephen's caravan as a toilet. His ex-wife Alison and her partner Tom are trying for a baby and use Stephen's caravan to have sex; Tom insists that Stephen guard the door to prevent the festival goers entering. The festival is a financial loss. Stephen's mother Ellen grows close with vicar Julian, becomes a Christian, and unsuccessfully encourages Stephen to join her.
3	3	"Episode 3"	Ben Palmer	Simon Blackwell	20 September 2017 (2017-09-20)[12]	1.04m[11]
Andrew suggests many improvements to the pub, including attractive bar staff. Stephen disagrees with the changes, but they go ahead and garner an increased number of customers and many excellent TripAdvisor reviews. Stephen accuses Andrew of creating reviews under fake identities. Stephen makes bad reviews pretending to be customers; Andrew discovers they are inauthentic but after a tense moment of implying he knows Stephen is to blame, claims they were likely done by the new staff, so Andrew brings back the old staff. Alison tells Stephen that she has put her house up for sale, and that she intends to move to a large city. Cass tells Stephen that she is considering having sex with Andrew.
4	4	"Episode 4"	Ben Palmer	Simon Blackwell	27 September 2017 (2017-09-27)[12]	N/A
Cass prepares to travel the world at Andrew's encouragement. Stephen and Andrew visit the pub's suppliers, continuing Laurie's annual tradition of doing so, but find almost none of the suppliers know of Laurie. At the last supplier, who confesses to be Laurie's lover, they discover that Laurie and Ellen enjoyed an open marriage. They remember a friend who suddenly disappeared in 1987, and wonder if they killed him. After Stephen and Andrew return home, Cass tells Andrew that she is not going to travel because she is in love with him. He persuades her to still travel, now for five or six months, and she considers selling her pub shares to fund the trip. The pub catches fire, caused by cigarettes that Geoff allowed the customers to smoke.
5	5	"Episode 5"	Ben Palmer	Simon Blackwell	4 October 2017 (2017-10-04)[12]	N/A
The family repair the pub after the fire. Cass sells her share of the pub to Andrew, and goes travelling. Geoff intends to sell his farm to developers who want to build a housing estate there. Stephen finds a corpse hanging from a tree whilst looking for his dog. With no signal on his mobile phone, Stephen looks for help and finds Andrew is jogging through the forest, and tells him about the situation. Andrew phones the police and gives a television interview, claiming that he found the body and is the pub's landlord, frustrating Stephen. Cass returns after four days with a new boyfriend, having travelled no further than Lille, where she met him. A man falsely claims that he has Stephen's lost dog, and tries to extort money from Stephen by threatening to kill it. Stephen and Andrew meet the extortionist in a car park. Geoff, who knows that the dog has come home, turns up and beats the extortionist with a baseball bat. Alison tells Stephen that the pub will be offered 40% above market value to sell their land for an access road to the new estate.
6	6	"Episode 6"	Ben Palmer	Simon Blackwell	11 October 2017 (2017-10-11)[12]	1.02[11]
Andrew has made the pub successful with its new French chef, Juliet. Cass splits up with her boyfriend. Geoff and Cass test negative for bowel cancer, which Laurie and his father died of. When Stephen considers doing the same, Ellen confesses that he is likely the biological son of one of her flings, rather than Laurie. A gathering is held in the pub for Laurie's would-be 69th birthday, to which Ellen invites her former foster children. One of them, Chris, says that he once shared the same accommodation as Andrew and is unsure that he is the real Andrew. Stephen researches Andrew's history and discovers that Andrew served a prison sentence in France for maiming a child whilst drink driving. Stephen blackmails Andrew; Andrew agrees to leave and sell his pub shares to Stephen in exchange for his crime remaining secret. Juliet reveals that it was actually her mother drink-driving – and Andrew took the blame, serving the prison time. The truth known, Andrew returns. Stephen grows suspicious of Juliet's retelling of the drink-driving "truth" before she returns to France.

Series 2 (2021)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date [13]	U.K viewers (millions)
7	1	"Episode 1"	George Kane	Simon Blackwell	21 January 2021 (2021-01-21)	N/A
Stephen returns from a wellness centre and moves back in the family house to find out that Ellen and Julian have become a couple. After discovering that his time in the wellness centre was funded by Andrew, Stephen suspects Andrew's motives, and swears revenge on Andrew with the help of Alison. A trendy new pub, named P:ub opens as a competitor to the Barleycorn. Stephen is offered a manager position at the new pub, but is forced to reject the offer after Andrew and Alison warn him it is owned by scammers looking for an incompetent manager to scapegoat.
8	2	"Episode 2"	George Kane	Will Smith	28 January 2021 (2021-01-28)	N/A
Charismatic Mike shows up in the Barleycorn and Ellen reveals that he is one of three men who are potentially Stephen's father. Stephen struggles with his feelings on who his potential father is, and suspects this emotional turmoil is Andrew's latest scheme. Alison arranges a paternity test to settle the matter, but upon receiving the results letter Stephen sets fire to it without reading it. Alison is able to confirm via the email copy that he is Laurie's son. Andrew overhears that Alison's parents are increasingly dependent on her support and decides to help the elderly couple without informing Alison.
9	3	"Episode 3"	George Kane	Simon Blackwell	4 February 2021 (2021-02-04)	N/A
Geoff enters a sham marriage with his employee Luca to get him a visa in the aftermath of Brexit, but Andrew suspects Luca is plotting a scam and hires Alison to investigate. Cass moves out while she studies a part time A-level, but finds her "student accommodation" is filled with dysfunctional non-student tenants. Julian and Ellen plan to move to a new parish in Tring. Stephen takes up cycling to focus on his health, but it is a ruse to cover his drinking habit, using vodka hidden in hedges. When he suspects someone else is drinking his stash, he lays a trap by replacing it with Rinse Aid. A jogger almost drinks the tainted vodka, but involves the police due to the attempted poisoning. Andrew starts spending time with Alison's mum while she is busy investigating Geoff's estate.
10	4	"Episode 4"	George Kane	John Finnemore	11 February 2021 (2021-02-11)	N/A
Alison convinces the jogger who Stephen tricked into drinking Rinse Aid to not take it to court. Andrew continues to spend time with Alison's parents, helping with jobs that Alison intended to do. P:ub has to close due to asbestos so they ask the John Barleycorn to host their pub quiz. Stephen is tormented by the memory of Laurie's last pub quiz, in which their team was beaten by the Brights team when Stephen got the jackpot question wrong. Since the topic was law, which Laurie paid for Stephen to study, Laurie was angry at him. The Barleycorn put together a team, as do Cass and her housemates. The Brights are easily winning in the first round. Andrew manipulates Stephen into reporting the Brights for entering the quiz with a minor on the grounds that it is a form of gambling, and their two main members are disqualified. A guilty-feeling Andrew then defects to the Brights. In the tiebreaker between the Brights and the Barleycorn team, Stephen is against Andrew. Andrew lets Stephen win by getting the answer wrong on purpose.
11	5	"Episode 5"	George Kane	Fay Rusling, Oriane Messina and Simon Blackwell	18 February 2021 (2021-02-18)	N/A
Andrew spends more time with Alison's parents, who prefer him to Stephen. Under Andrew's influence, they plan to sell the house and get divorced. Luca has run away after stealing Geoffs savings and auctioning the farm equipment, and later fraudulently makes charges to Stephen's bank. Cass confesses that she was having an "affair" with Luca, and suspects pregnancy. Ellen announces that she is engaged to Julian, and chooses Andrew to walk her down the aisle. Maurine is euthanased at the vets; small traces of rat poison are found in her post-mortem so Alison and Stephen think Andrew poisoned her. They start scheming about how they can get rid of Andrew, bringing them closer together and they sleep together. Later, Alison tracks down Andrew's biological mother.
12	6	"Episode 6"	George Kane	Simon Blackwell	25 February 2021 (2021-02-25)	N/A
Stephen and Alison have restarted their romantic relationship, and arrange for Andrew to meet his biological mother. Though Andrew knows Stephen facilitated the meeting with a bribe, he is thankful. Meanwhile, Alison's parents reunite as her mother is inept as bar staff and her father gets bored of travelling. Cass tests negative for pregnancy. Alison adopts a retired service dog which is skilled at detecting cancer, which concerns the group when it moves towards Ellen. She is later confirmed to have cancer and starts chemotherapy. Due to the diagnosis, Ellen and Julian move their marriage forward, which causes concern in Stephen as he suspects Julian may be attempting to inherit the pub and house. Later, Stephen and Andrew are mourning at Ellen's burial. In a final scene reminiscent of Andrew's introduction in the first episode, they are joined by an unknown mourner.

Reception

Back received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first series has a score of 100% rating based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Intriguing, intelligent, and dripping with searing social satire, Back proves a welcome return for collaborators David Mitchell and Robert Webb."^[14]

The second series received a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "After a long hiatus, Back returns as sharp and irreverent as ever."^[15]

The review aggregator website Metacritic reported a combined score for both series of 85 out of 100, based on reviews from 12 critics.^[16]