Leonard and Hungry Paul: ‘beautiful, heartfelt’ television

Some of us have got so used to punchy, “heart-pounding” television, that when something “nice and simple and genuinely uplifting comes along”, we might approach it with “suspicion”, wondering when it’s going to get “complicated”, said Chris Wasser in the Irish Independent. But this six-part adaptation of Rónán Hession’s charming novel “tells a refreshingly tidy tale”.

Not everything works out for the “affable Irish protagonists”, and the show is peppered with “tragedies, big and small”. On the whole, though, “it’s about ordinary, everyday people, with ordinary, everyday problems”, and the “funny little things we do to keep the soul ticking over”.

The series is an “ode to introversion”, said Sarah Dempster in The Guardian. “And yet”, Leonard (the “sublimely idiosyncratic” Alex Lawther) feels a “creeping ‘need to open the doors and windows of my life… a little”. Reeling from the death of his “beloved” mother, the 32-year-old ghost writer “launches himself on a quest for emotional fulfilment” with his “slightly bolder” pal, Hungry Paul (Laurie Kynaston). (We never find out how he got his nickname.)

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Then, “into Leonard’s gentle world cartwheels Shelley” (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell of “Derry Girls”), a fiery new colleague who “cheerily offers to kill Leonard’s appalling boss”, and he finds himself developing a major crush.

“There are no raucous belly laughs in this mildest of comedies”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. “But it is strangely calming and immersive”. Written with “great charm”, it’s a “warming, relatable watch, and a paean to the non-sharp-elbowed”. There is something “reassuring” about there still being a place for this type of “gentle, unshouty TV”, which isn’t packed with “exhausting cliffhangers” or dramatic plot twists.

The “craziest” thing about the show is that Julia Roberts is its narrator, said the Irish Independent. The Hollywood star was a fan of the book and is said to have “jumped at the opportunity” to be involved. Her voiceover is “warm and comforting”, and doesn’t distract from the action: “it’s a lovely little bonus”.

“Funny, charming and unexpectedly profound”, the “remarkable” show is far more worthwhile than many of the dramas that “clog up our evenings”. This is “beautiful, heartfelt television”.