# Back (TV series)

Back is a British sitcom created by Simon Blackwell and starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. It was broadcast on Channel 4 and ran for two series from 6 September 2017 to 25 February 2021. The programme was filmed and is set in and around Stroud, Gloucestershire.
A second series of six episodes was announced in November 2017; filming was scheduled to begin in October 2019. On 19 September 2020, Webb announced that the second series had finished filming, and began airing on 21 January 2021. The series premiered on Sundance Now in December 2017 before premiering on Sundance TV in the US in September 2018. The second season premiered on 31 March 2021 on sister network IFC in the US a week later after it premiered in full on Sundance Now on March 24.

## Plot

After the death of his father, Laurie, 42-year-old Stephen is set to take over the family business, the John Barleycorn pub, in Stroud, Gloucestershire. His plans are interrupted when Andrew, a former foster child briefly raised by Stephen's parents, returns to his life eager to renew his relationship with the family. While Andrew quickly charms the rest of Stephen's family – including his mother Ellen, sister Cass, and uncle Geoff – Stephen resents Andrew and views him as "a glib, dangerous sociopath who's about to steal his family, his business and his life". Andrew fondly remembers the time he spent living with the family as happy, whereas Stephen remembers the same time as miserable.

## Cast

* David Mitchell as Stephen Richard Nichols
** Sebastian Patterson as Young Stephen
* Robert Webb as Andrew Thomas Donnelly
** Caius Luckyn-Malone as Young Andrew
* Penny Downie as Ellen May Nichols, mother of Stephen and Cass
* Louise Brealey as Cassandra Leslie "Cass" Nichols, Stephen's sister
* Geoffrey McGivern as Geoff, Stephen’s uncle and Laurie's brother
* Matthew Holness as Laurie, Stephen's deceased father, who appears in flashbacks
* Olivia Poulet as Alison, Stephen's ex-wife
* Oliver Maltman as Mike, barman
* Jessica Gunning as Jan, barmaid
* Michael Wildman as Tom, Alison's partner
* John Macmillan as Julian, clergyman
* Julie Dray as Juliet, the French chef
* Anna Leong Brophy as Bryony
* Emily Lloyd-Saini as the vet
* Penny Ryder as Wendy
* Clive Francis as Phil
* Julian Kostov as Luca
* Alice Lowe as Joanna
* Shelley Conn as Annie

## Episodes

| Series | Episodes | Episodes | Originally released | Originally released |
| Series | Episodes | Episodes | First released | Last released |
| 1 | 6 | 6 | 6 September 2017 (2017-9-6) | 11 October 2017 (2017-10-11) |
| 2 | 6 | 6 | 21 January 2021 (2021-1-21) | 25 February 2021 (2021-2-25) |

### Series 1 (2017)

| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U.K viewers (millions) |
| 1 | 1 | "Episode 1" | Ben Palmer | Simon Blackwell | 6 September 2017 (2017-9-6) | 1.75m |
| Failed lawyer Stephen's father has recently died, and he makes plans to take over the family's pub. On the day of the funeral there is an unexpected mourner at the graveside: Andrew, who was Stephen's foster brother from March to August 1987. A female stranger leaves a dog in a café while Stephen is there. He takes it home after the manager of the café refuses to take it. |||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Episode 2" | Ben Palmer | Simon Blackwell | 13 September 2017 (2017-9-13) | 1.08m |
| Stephen learns that his father left five percent of his pub business to Andrew. Stephen decides to buy five static caravans to rent out and one is delivered to a field, which Stephen moves into. Andrew organises a trendy outdoor food festival, at which some attendees use Stephen's caravan as a toilet. His ex-wife Alison and her partner Tom are trying for a baby and use Stephen's caravan to have sex; Tom insists that Stephen guard the door to prevent the festival goers entering. The festival is a financial loss. Stephen's mother Ellen becomes a Christian, and unsuccessfully encourages Stephen to join her. |||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Episode 3" | Ben Palmer | Simon Blackwell | 20 September 2017 (2017-9-20) | 1.04m |
| Andrew suggests many improvements to the pub, including better-looking bar staff. Stephen disagrees with the changes, but they go ahead and garner an increased number of customers and many excellent TripAdvisor reviews. Stephen accuses Andrew of creating reviews under fake identities. Stephen makes bad reviews pretending to be customers, which Andrew thinks were done by the new staff, so Andrew brings back the old staff. Alison tells Stephen that she has put her house up for sale, and that she intends to move to a large city. Cass tells Stephen that she is sexually attracted to Andrew, and is considering having sex with him. |||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Episode 4" | Ben Palmer | Simon Blackwell | 27 September 2017 (2017-9-27) | N/A |
| Cass says she is going to go travelling, which for 20 years she has been saying that she is going to do. Stephen and Andrew visit the pub's suppliers, discovering that Laurie and Ellen enjoyed an open marriage. They remember an acquaintance who disappeared in 1987 without explanation, and wonder if they killed him. During the trip, Stephen meets a young woman who prefers him to Andrew. After Stephen and Andrew come home, Cass tells Andrew that she is not going to travel because she is in love with him. He encourages her to travel the world for five or six months, and to sell her share in the pub to fund the trip. The pub catches fire, caused by cigarettes that Geoff allowed the customers to smoke. |||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Episode 5" | Ben Palmer | Simon Blackwell | 4 October 2017 (2017-10-4) | N/A |
| The family clean up and repair the pub after the fire. Ellen blames Stephen for allowing the insurance for the pub to expire. Cass sells her share of the pub to Andrew, and goes travelling. Geoff intends to sell his farm to developers who want to build a housing estate there. Stephen loses the dog whilst walking it in the woods. He finds a man's corpse in a tree whilst looking for the dog. He is unable to find the dog and does not have a signal on his mobile phone. Andrew is jogging through the forest, and Stephen tells him about the situation. Andrew phones the police on his mobile and gives a television interview, claiming that he found the body and is the pub's landlord. He also befriends the man's widow. Cass returns after four days with a new boyfriend, having travelled no further than Lille, where she met him. A man falsely claims that he has the dog, and tries to extort a thousand pounds from Stephen by threatening to kill it. Stephen and Andrew meet the extortionist in a car park. Laurie's brother Geoff, who knows that the dog has come home, turns up and beats the extortionist with a baseball bat. Alison tells Stephen that there is an access road planned for the estate, which will go through the area, and that they will be offered 40% above market value to sell the pub. |||||||
| 6 | 6 | "Episode 6" | Ben Palmer | Simon Blackwell | 11 October 2017 (2017-10-11) | 1.02 |
| Andrew has made the pub successful with its new French chef, Juliet. Cass says she split up with her boyfriend. Geoff and Cass have themselves tested for bowel cancer, which Laurie and his father died of; they both test negative. A gathering of family, staff and friends is held in the pub for what would have been Laurie's 69th birthday, to which Ellen invites some of her former foster children. One of them, Chris, says that he lived in the same accommodation as Andrew when they were 14 or 15 and that he is unsure that he is the real Andrew. Stephen researches Andrew's history and finds out that Andrew served a prison sentence in France for maiming a child whilst drink driving. Stephen confronts Andrew with his discovery and tells him to sell his share of the pub to him and leave – otherwise he will tell everyone about the crime. He also accuses Andrew of stealing his life. Andrew agrees to sell up and leave. Juliet, who was friends with Andrew when he lived in France, reveals that it was her mother who was drink-driving when the car hit an 8-year-old boy – and that Andrew took the blame and served 16 months in prison. Ellen tells Stephen that he is not Laurie's son and is the product of one of her flings. Juliet moves back to France. |||||||

### Series 2 (2021)

| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U.K viewers (millions) |
| 7 | 1 | "Episode 1" | George Kane | Simon Blackwell | 21 January 2021 (2021-1-21) | N/A |
| Stephen returns from a wellness centre and moves back in the family house to find out that his mother Ellen and the vicar Julian have become a couple. Stephen swears revenge to Andrew with the help of his ex-wife Alison. Meanwhile a new pub opens as a competitor to the Barleycorn. Stephen is offered a manager position at the new pub, but rejects the offer after Andrew and Alison warn him it is owned by scammers. |||||||
| 8 | 2 | "Episode 2" | George Kane | Will Smith | 28 January 2021 (2021-1-28) | N/A |
| Charismatic Mike shows up in the Barleycorn and Ellen reveals that he is one of three men who are potentially Stephen's father. Stephen arranges a paternity test which confirms that he is Laurie's son. Andrew overhears that Alison's parents are increasingly dependent on her support and decides to help the elderly couple without informing Alison. |||||||
| 9 | 3 | "Episode 3" | George Kane | Simon Blackwell | 4 February 2021 (2021-2-4) | N/A |
| Geoff marries Luca to get him a visa because of BREXIT. Cass moves into 'student' accommodation while she studies a part time A Level. Stephen takes up cycling as part of a health kick, but it as a ruse to cover his drinking and he is hiding vodka in local hedges. Julian and Ellen plan to move to a new parish in Tring. Andrew questions Luca's need for a visa, Geoff dismisses his concerns so he pays Alison to investigate. Cass organises a dinner party with her not so student housemates. Someone else is drinking Stephen's stashed vodka so he lays a trap by replacing it with Rinse Aid. The police become involved in the incident. Andrew starts spending time with Alison's mum while she is busy investigating Geoff's estate. |||||||
| 10 | 4 | "Episode 4" | George Kane | John Finnemore | 11 February 2021 (2021-2-11) | N/A |
| Alison convinces the jogger who Stephen tricked into drinking Rinse Aid to not take it to court. Stephen is in denial about his alcoholism. Andrew continues to spend time with Alison's parents, helping with jobs that Alison intended to do. PÜB has to close due to asbestos so they ask the John Barleycorn to host their quiz and suggest the Barleycorn enter a team. Stephen is tormented by the memory of the last pub quiz organised by Laurie before he went into the hospice. Their team was beaten by the Brights (a champion pub quiz team, who go around after big prizes) when Stephen got the jackpot question wrong. The topic was law, which Laurie paid for Stephen to study, so Laurie was angry at him. The Barleycorn put together a team, so do Cass and her housemates, and The Brights arrive. The Brights are easily winning in the first round. Andrew manipulates into Stephen reporting the Brights for entering the quiz with a minor on the grounds that it's a form of gambling and the two main members are evicted from the quiz. Andrew then defects to the Brights, saying that he feels bad, the others think it's so that he can win. It comes to a tie break of the Brights versus the Barleycorn team and Stephen is against Andrew. Andrew psychs Stephen out and lets Stephen win by getting the answer wrong on purpose. |||||||
| 11 | 5 | "Episode 5" | George Kane | Fay Rusling, Oriane Messina and Simon Blackwell | 18 February 2021 (2021-2-18) | N/A |
| Andrew spends lots of time with Alison’s parents, who say they prefer him to Stephen. Luca has stolen all of Geoffs savings and auctioned the farm equipment and run away. Geoff realises that Luca had settled status in the UK all along. Cass comes clean, announcing that she was having an affair with Luca. Maurine is put down at the vets while Stephen is on the phone to the bank about dodgy transactions. Ellen announces that she is engaged to Julian. Alison discovers that her parents are selling the house and getting divorced, and that Andrew was involved in their decision. Ellen is influenced by Andrew into letting him walk her down the aisle. Cass briefly thinks she is pregnant with Luca's child. It turns out that the suspicious transactions on Stephens card were Luca on his getaway. Small traces of rat poison were found in Maurine's post-mortem so Alison and Stephen think Andrew poisoned her. They start scheming about how they can get rid of Andrew by murdering him. This plan brings them closer together and they sleep together. In the morning Alison tracks down Andrew's biological mum and wants instead wants to use her mess with him. |||||||
| 12 | 6 | "Episode 6" | George Kane | Simon Blackwell | 25 February 2021 (2021-2-25) | N/A |
| Stephen and Alison, who have effectively restarted their relationship, meet Andrew's biological mother in the hope of getting them to meet, but are met with strong reluctance. Eventually, Stephen bribes Andrew's mother and the two meet. Meanwhile, Alison's parents reunite as her mother is shown to be inept as a member of bar staff at The John Barleycorn and her father quickly gets bored of travelling. Despite testing negative on a pregnancy test, Cass believes she is pregnant, although quickly dismisses this eventually. Alison adopts a retired service dog which happens to be skilled at detecting cancer in humans, this causes concern among the group when it moves towards Ellen, who is later established to have cancer and starts undergoing chemotherapy. On account of the diagnosis, Ellen and Julian move their marriage forward, which causes concern with Stephen as he suspects Julian may be attempting to inherit the pub and house in the event of her death, in case no will has been made. It is not revealed whether Ellen and Julian did marry prior to her death. Stephen and Andrew are later shown mourning at Ellen's burial. In a final scene reminiscent of the first episode and Andrew's introduction, they are joined by an unknown mourner, presumed to be a former foster child who had stayed with the Nichols. |||||||

## Reception

Back received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first series has a score of 100% rating based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Intriguing, intelligent, and dripping with searing social satire, Back proves a welcome return for collaborators David Mitchell and Robert Webb."
The second series received a score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "After a long hiatus, Back returns as sharp and irreverent as ever."
The review aggregator website Metacritic reported a combined score for both series of 85 out of 100, based on reviews from 12 critics.