White Van Man (TV series)

White Van Man
Format Comedy
Created by Adrian Poynton
Starring Will Mellor
Joel Fry
Georgia Moffett
Naomi Bentley
Clive Mantle
Country of origin United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 6
Production
Producer(s) Saurabh Kakkar
Simon Lupton
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) ITV Studios
Broadcast
Original channel BBC Three
Picture format 16:9
Original run 22 March 2011 (2011-03-22) – present
External links
Website

White Van Man is a British sitcom created and written by Adrian Poynton and first broadcast on BBC Three and BBC HD in 2011. It began screening in March 2011 becoming the highest rated launch ever for a sitcom on BBC3.

Will Mellor plays Ollie, a man with business dreams who has to put them on hold while he takes over the family handyman business from his father Tony played by Clive Mantle. It was filmed in and around Greater Manchester, including the Best Bet betting shop in Cheadle. A second series has been commissioned and is due to air in February 2012.[1]

Contents

Synopsis

Ollie (Will Mellor) has now taken over his father's handyman business and is armed with a old white van and a dodgy assistant named Darren (Joel Fry). Darren displays little enthusiasm or interest in working whilst Ollie is desperate to make his father proud whilst failing to bring in enough money. Emma (Georgia Moffett) who went to catering school with Ollie, also has business dreams of owning a restaurant. Liz (Naomi Bentley), Darren's sister, works in the local hardware store and is regularly visited by Ollie for supplies.

Characters

Ollie reluctantly puts his dreams of running a restaurant on the back burner when his ailing father, Tony, turns to him to take over the family handyman business. Unfortunately for Ollie, the business comes complete with a dodgy van, some questionable tips and an even dodgier assistant, Darren.
Darren is Ollie's assistant in the handyman business. Usually Darren is rather lazy and doesn't complete his jobs, and normally he is the one getting Ollie into most of his troubles.
Emma is Ollie's old crush from catering school days. She is now a successful restauranteur, back in town looking to set up a new business. However, she is out of ideas for a new restaurant and, in desperation, starts taking ideas from Ollie.
Liz is Darren's sister who works behind the counter at the local hardware shop. She is one of Ollie's only true admirers, although even he's not quite sure just how serious her admirations are.
Tony used to be the local handyman. With recent illness leading him to early retirement, he has turned to Ollie to take over the family business, Curry and Son.
Ricky is the local thief of Mapelbury, In episode one he stole Ollie's sat-nav and in episode five he helped Ollie and Darren to break into the estate agents. He also asked Ollie to help move some stuff for his Nan, who had a hip replacement and also fought in the war, but Ollie believes this to be another one of Ricky's scams and refuses, which annoys Ricky because he was actually telling the truth for once.
Joanne searches direct enquirers for the father of her baby who is "a handy man". In episode six it is revealed that the baby's father is Darren, but Joanne isn't very bright and believes it was Ollie, although he has never met her before.

Episodes

Series 1 (2011)

# Title Writer Director Original air date
1 "Ollie's First Day" Adrian Poynton James Strong 22 March 2011 (2011-03-22)
Giving up dreams of running his own restaurant, Ollie has taken over the handyman business from his ailing dad, Tony. On his first day, Ollie quickly finds himself out of his depth, driven up the wall by his incorrigible assistant Darren and alienating every client he works for, even getting embroiled in a paternity case. In the midst of it all he runs into an old crush, Emma, and manages to make an utter fool of himself in front of her. 
2 "Turf" Adrian Poynton Iain B MacDonald 22 March 2011 (2011-03-22)
Ollie decides it's time to modernise the family business and kicks into marketing overdrive to promote Curry and Sons Home Maintenance. His flyering campaign starts bringing in trade nicely, but little does he know they are ruffling some shady feathers. 
3 "The Stand" Adrian Poynton Iain B MacDonald 29 March 2011 (2011-03-29)
When Jeremy refuses to pay the full amount for a bathroom fitting, Ollie blocks his driveway with the van, refusing to move unless Jeremy coughs up. This act of rebellion starts to get the attention of the local community. Darren breaks his friend Irene out of an old people's home and promptly loses her. 
4 "The Morning After" Adrian Poynton Iain B MacDonald 5 April 2011 (2011-04-05)
Darren wakes up next to a beautiful woman, but what should be his dream come true turns out to be a complete nightmare - particularly when he has absolutely no clue as to who she is or how he got there. Meanwhile, Ollie's crush, Emma, must face up to some serious money trouble with her financial backer in town. Her only hope is to quickly come up with some money-making ideas - could Ollie have the answers? 
5 "Honest" Adrian Poynton Iain B MacDonald 12 April 2011 (2011-04-12)
Unluckily for Ollie, at the moment he makes his resolution, Emma implores him to break into an estate agents on her behalf, putting him yet again at the mercy of local burglar Ricky. Meanwhile, Darren has a dilemma, too: is stealing from a blind woman immoral if you replace said article with the same item, only a bit more stained..? 
6 "Beginnings and Ends" Adrian Poynton Iain B MacDonald 19 April 2011 (2011-04-19)
Not only is Ollie trapped, it also seems as though everyone he knows is suddenly revealing secrets - leaving him with a big decision of his own. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the trapped pair, a lot of people are trying to get hold of them and, if they don't find them soon, there are going to be some very serious consequences. 

Series 2 (2012)

A second series of White Van Man is currently in production for broadcast in 2012.

Viewers

Series one opened with a double-bill; episode 1 and 2 opened with 937,000 and 769,000 viewers respectively. The third took 881,000 viewers and the fourth got 937,000 viewers, roughly the same as the first episode. The last episode got 729,000 viewers

Series Avg. viewers
Series 1 800,000

DVD releases

The first series of White Van Man was released on 25 April 2011. The second series is due for release on 26 March 2012.

References

  1. ^ Fletcher, Alex (26 May 2011). "Will Mellor's 'White Van Man' lands second series". Digital Spy. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a321584/will-mellors-white-van-man-lands-second-series.html. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 

External links