So, we say (ahem) nighty night to Jill and Nighty Night. There was probably a total of three jokes tops in the last episode, one of which was merely seeing Angus Deayton covered in vomit. Admittedly there was a lot to fit in, Jill’s lies had finally unravelled leading her to the logical conclusion that the rest of the series had suggested that she was probably capable – murder. Unfortunately to preserve some degree of suspense in the final episode, the majority of it was in flashback having been set three weeks later.
As a sit-com there was too much story, as a comedy drama there was too much repititon. In the end the six-part sitcom felt wrong for this story. Over the course of a feature film we would have discovered how terrible Jill was, found her funny, then appaled and then been suckered in by the story. A story which after all is a very good one. Bored housewife falls in love with neighbour, at the same time her husband is diagnosed with cancer. Rather than wait for the husband to die, she just tells everyone he has – thus setting up a slight problem when he doesn’t. That the whole thing started getting a bit wooley around the fourth episode mark, and that no-one ever lamps Jill is a miracle. Nevertheless the final episode ha some lovely touches, and even ends with the potential for a sequel. Perhaps what Nighty Night needs is Jill (now a mass murderess) out there, on the run. She is certainly a character to savour, just the presentation did not quite gel.