7.4 /10 1 Votes
7.2/10 TV Country of origin United Kingdom No. of episodes 12 Network BBC One | 7.6/10 IMDb Created by Simon Nye No. of series 2 Final episode date 13 April 2004 Genre Sitcom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Directed by Jonathan Gershfield; Juliet May Starring Dawn French
Catherine Tate
Bill Bailey
David Bradley
Stewart Wright
Sean Foley
Richard Mylan
Robin Weaver (second series only)
Anne-Marie Duff (first series only) Cast Dawn French, Catherine Tate, Richard Mylan, Anne‑Marie Duff, David Bradley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wild West is a situation comedy screened from October 2002 until 2004 (12 episodes) starring Dawn French and Catherine Tate. It was described as a dark comedy from the pen of Simon Nye and was filmed on location in Cornwall. Set in the hamlet of St Gweep, Wild West observes the strange goings-on in the local Cornish community. Shop owners Mary Trewednack and her life-partner Angela are the main focus but there are many other characters in this sitcom.
The first series of the sitcom was scheduled to appear on prime-time BBC1 where its eccentricities met with a poor critical and popular response, but a second series was commissioned and both series have received retrospective praise.
Most of the sitcom was filmed in the village of Portloe in Cornwall.
Plot
The action centre's around Angela (Tate) and Mary (French), a lesbian couple who run the local town store and post office. Though self-avowed lesbians, halfway through the first series Mary comments that the only reason they are a couple is because they were the only two people in town who weren't already in a relationship when they met. Some plots of first series episodes revolve around both of them pursuing romances with men and the jealousy the other partner experiences; by the second series, all mentions of a lesbian relationship are completely dropped, including a recurring gag during the opening credits that showed them in bed together. This is resolved in the final episode of the show.
Mary and Angela are friends with the village locals, including Holly (Duff/Weaver), owner of the local witchcraft centre; Harry (Mylan,) a young local hippy; Old Jake (Bradley,) who runs the local boat tour; Jeff (Foley), a swinger and sexual deviant who owns the local pub with his deaf wife Daphne; and PC Alan Allen (Wright), the somewhat bumbling policeman who becomes Mary's major romantic interest in series 2.
Each episode centers on a new situation that has come into the lives of the characters and how they deal with it, generally with a focus on the different ways in which Mary and Angela meddle in everyone's lives.