Juice

Available on BBC iPlayer

Mawaan Rizwan’s debut series, which is adapted from the comedian’s 2018 Edinburgh Fringe show, is the sort of delight that you seldom see in mainstream television, in the sense that it is a fresh and pleasingly surrealist take on anxiety, a condition which is painfully commonplace but still sorely misunderstood.

Juice is centred around Jamma (Rizwan), a hip but hopelessly juvenile marketing professional who is struggling to make peace with his long-standing issues with his eccentric family (the cast for which includes Rizwan’s real-life mother and brother), as well as his fear of committing to his older and generally more-together boyfriend (Russel Tovey).

Over the course of its six-episode run, the series explores these and other underlying themes in a style that is never predictable, with Rizwan drawing upon a smorgasbord of creative influences that include Boots Riley and Bong Joon-Ho, while also incorporating elements of clowning (he is an alumni of École Philippe Gaulier).

Rizwan makes for an absorbingly delightful screen presence throughout, relishing in the sort of self-penned leading role that can really kick-start a career, and also demonstrates a clear penchant for scripting emotionally diverse comedy that sheds both a playful and authentic light on the experiences and lifestyles of minority groups. While a second season of Juice is yet to be confirmed, the BBC would have to be either nuts or completely unadventurous not to commission one.