CARR TROUBLE (CHANGING ENDS, SERIES ONE)

© ITV

When you place the words ITV and sitcom side by side, the British TV channel doesn't really have much of a glorious history.

While ITV has excelled at drama, it has struggled to match the BBC's or Channel 4's sitcom output.

Mention ITV sitcoms and it tends to conjure up memories of ropey shows like 'On The Buses,' 'Man About The House,' 'George and Mildred,' 'Never The Twain,' 'Curry and Chips,' 'The Upper Hand' and 'Duty Free'.

Even its edgier shows like 'The New Statesman,' 'Men Behaving Badly,' 'Mr Bean,' 'Brass,' 'Vicious' and 'Benidorm' can't quite hold a candle to the two rival broadcasters' output.

© ITV

However all that could be changing in this era of streaming.

Unencumbered by the need for a studio audience, the channel has scored a success with the first series of Nancy Harris' Dublin comedy drama co-production with Britbox and RTE, 'The Dry'.

And now it has scored another with the Alan Carr and Simon Carlyle semi autobiographical series for its streaming service ITVx, 'Changing Ends'.

Carr, one of the UK's most popular comedians and talk show hosts, starts with that old maxim write about what you know.

© ITV

And so he and Carlyle have created a show about growing up in England's East Midlands in the 1980s where his father Graham was the manager of the lowly football league team Northampton Town.

It's a consistently funny sitcom rooted in the British comic traditions of nostalgic sitcoms and camp humour.

A lot of its success is down to one of the best child performances ever seen in a British sitcom.

Step forward Oliver Savell who plays the 11 year old version of Alan Carr with such high camp and vigour, it's hard to keep a straight face any time he is on the screen.

© ITV

He's captured all of Carr's mannerisms - the facial contortions, the camp, gossipy tone of his voice - to absolute perfection.

And it's all the funnier because the show is a celebration of the young Alan's pre-teen nerdiness.

The set up is simple.

In this recreation of Carr's childhood, he lives with his football manager dad, Shaun Dooley's Graham, his big hearted mum Nancy Sullivan's Christine and younger brother, Taylor Fay's Gary.

© ITV

About to start Upper School, Alan is puzzled in the first episode why his neighbours seem determined to keep him apart from his friend, Rourke Mooney's Charlie.

Harry Peacock's Nigel and Gabby Best's Angela are bigoted neighbours who are wary of Alan because of his campiness.

Denouncing him as a Peeping Tom and a pervert at one point, they are also revealed to be hypocrites.

Angela has a running rivalry with Alan's mum Christine, boasting about Charlie's achievements and always looking to put Alan down.

© ITV

Christine appears to be in denial about her son's effeminate traits.

Alan finds Upper School challenging, with Logan Matthews' and Matthew Stagg's bullies (amusingly called Leslie and Mandy) picking on him when they discover his dad is the manager of Northampton Town and because he is camp.

Also under pressure from his dad and his embittered PE teacher David Mumeni's Mr Chapman to play football, Alan just isn't interested.

He'd rather watch 'Murder She Wrote,' 'Dynasty' or 'Pebble Mill At One,' gossip with the school dinnerladies or dress like Prince.

© ITV

Alan gets a burst of enthusiasm in school when Cariad Lloyd's larger than life failed actor turned drama teacher Miss Gideon arrives, encouraging him to perform 'Romeo and Juliet'.

He plays Romeo using a blouse Angela has donated to charity.

She also stages a disastrous musical production of 'Animal Farm' which results in Alan's first foray into stand up comedy.

While being disappointed at Alan's lack of enthusiasm for football, Graham struggles with the reality of being a lower league manager with a cheap owner, Colin Salmon's Ron and a crumbling stadium.

© ITV

There's a brief moment of glory for "the Cobblers" in the FA Cup but he also has to put up with wannabe George Bests like Michael Socha's player Adam who is more interested in boozing than developing his skills.

Breezily directed by Dave Lambert, 'Changing Ends' doesn't just revel in the Eighties nostalgia of football sticker albums, shell suits, 'Knots Landing,' neighbourhood book clubs that read Jackie Collins' 'The Bitch' and music by the Pet Shop Boys or Kylie.

It also doesn't just rely on an English tradition of camp comedy from the likes of Kenneth Williams, John Inman, Larry Grayson or Julian Clary.

It regularly breaks the fourth wall too, with the adult Alan Carr popping up to provide ironic commentary on his childhood and wince or celebrate his younger self's foibles.

© ITV

Dooley and Sullivan are terrific as Graham and Christine, while Best is a good comic foil as their petty neighbour.

Peacock, Mooney, Matthews, Stagg, Lloyd, Mumeni, Salmon, Socha and Nitin Ganatra's Cobblers obsessed headmaster Mr Robertson deliver plenty of laughs.

Ultimately, though, the show belongs to Carr and especially Savell who manages to make his performance more than just a mere impersonation of a camp comedian.

The young Alan's quirky and naive pre-teen interpretation of the world is what makes the show.

© ITV

Thanks to Savell's performance, it's a world where bird watching and TV ads are more important than football.

Dodging BCG injections and school bullies are part of the art of survival.

The boy done good. 

Here's hoping he gets another series and some silverware.

('Changing Ends' was made available for streaming in the UK on ITVx on June 1, 2023)