Punch Drunk (TV series)

Punch Drunk ^[1] was a British sitcom created and written by Clayton Moore. It was produced by Colin Gilbert of The Comedy Unit, BBC Scotland.

The show ran for 1 series of 6 episodes in 1993 on BBC1. The first episode was directed by Colin Gilbert and the remaining five by Ron Bain.

It starred Kenny Ireland as Vinnie Binns, the owner of a boxing gym, who discovers a young prospect in Hance Glover (John Kazek) after spotting him perform in a pub fracas.

Both Vinnie and Hance hold a candle for Vikki Brown (Diana Hardcastle), the girlfriend of the head of the Doctors Against Boxing organisation, Norman Banks, played by Jonathan Kydd.

Vinnie's seedy boxing arch-rival is Hunter (Sean Scanlan) whose plooky sidekick is Slug (Gilbert Martin).

Other characters were boxing trainer Neillie (Jake D'Arcy), Hance's mother, Mrs Gordon (Claire Nielson), and Danny, a slow-witted boxer at the end of his career, played by Grant Smeaton.

Critical response

From British Comedy Guide ^[2]

An excruciatingly poor sitcom which stretched to only one series, one too many for some! Although Diana Hardcastle attracted a few laughs, the show nonetheless fared poorly.

References