Still Up: the stars of this charming British comedy are a genuine revelation

This sitcom about two friends who phone chat their way through insomnia is an absolute delight. Its leads’ chemistry is impossibly fizzy – you’ll root for them like never before.

ll right, I’m going to say something that, realistically, is going to ruin a lot of television for you for a very long time, possibly for ever. Have you ever noticed how – especially in comedies, but also in almost everything else – nobody actually talks to each other? They don’t actually have conversations? Sometimes they say things to each other, sure. Sometimes they reveal enough information to get the story engine moving. But they don’t actually say things, and quite often they actively talk past each other while they’re doing it. When did you last see an actual, honest-to-goodness conversation in a scripted series? You’re racking your brains. Take a minute, see what you come up with. Nothing, right?

Anyway, I have a delightful surprise for you: it’s called Still Up, it’s a British comedy on Apple TV+ (from Friday 22 September), the characters actually talk to each other, and it’s really, really good. The central conceit is this: best friends Danny (Craig Roberts, who is superb and needs to be in way more things) and Lisa (Antonia Thomas, who is also superb and needs to be in way more things, but is also already in The Good Doctor) are two friends with shared insomnia. They while away the small hours of the morning with long, meandering phonecalls about nothing and something, and they share this deep, loyal, honest-feeling friendship. Obviously they are in love with each other. You don’t win any prizes for guessing that they’re in love with each other.

What’s very good about Still Up is, even though you know exactly where it’s going (well, not exactly: either they are going to realise they’re in love with each other and do a big dramatic life-exploding link-up at the end or they are going to drift in other directions and it’s going to be very heartbreaking for me and, if you take my advice and watch this show, you as well), it’s so deeply steeped in charm that you don’t really mind about all that. Apple has learned that people would always rather be charmed than surprised – I promise I’ll stop bringing Ted Lasso up one day – and Still Up takes that idea and runs out into the night with it.