Game On (British TV series)

Game On
Shot of the second and third series cast, left-to-right: Martin Henson (Matthew Cottle), Amanda "Mandy" Wilkins (Samantha Womak née Janus), and Matthew Malone (Neil Stuke).
Genre	Situation comedy
Created by	Andrew Davies and Bernadette Davis
Starring	Ben Chaplin (series 1) Matthew Cottle Samantha Janus Neil Stuke (series 2 & 3)
Opening theme	"Where I Find My Heaven" by Gigolo Aunts
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	18
Production
Producers	Geoffrey Perkins Sioned William
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Hat Trick Productions
Original release
Network	BBC2
Release	27 February 1995 (1995-02-27) – 6 February 1998 (1998-02-06)

Game On, also titled Game On! and Game-On (alternatively Two Men and a Blonde in Finland and The Game of Life in Portugal) was a British sitcom which ran for three series, and aired on BBC2 from 1995 to 1998.

The central characters are three childhood friends from Herne Bay in Kent; laddish agorophobe Matthew Malone (Ben Chaplin in the first series and Neil Stuke in the second and third), man-eater Amanda "Mandy" Wilkins (Samantha Womak née Janus), and wimpish Martin Henson (Matthew Cottle). When into their twenties, the trio move into and share a flat in Battersea, Southwest London, which Matthew bought with his inheritance, and the series follows their lives as flatmates.

Created and written by Andrew Davies and Bernadette Davis, and produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, Game On was aimed at twenty-somethings, the same age group as the principal cast of the show.

Production

The title, originally derived from a stock screen term used by 1980s early computer video games to initiate a competitive encounter, was taken from English urban slang speech of the 1990s lad culture which the principal character Matthew Malone was an exemplar of. It was directed by John Stroud, produced by Sioned William and the BBC Television Head of Comedy Geoffrey Perkins, and executive produced by Denise O'Donohue on behalf of Hat Trick Productions for the BBC.

After a successful first series, the option suffered somewhat from the loss its lead player Ben Chaplin, who quit the cast unexpectedly after receiving an offer of a film role in Hollywood on the back of his performance in Game On.

The first two series were written by Andrew Davies and Bernadette Davis. Davis wrote the final series alone.

The show's theme tune was "Where I Find My Heaven" by the Gigolo Aunts. The single reached number 29 in the UK singles chart in May 1995, when the series debuted, and was also included in the soundtrack to the film Dumb and Dumber at the same time. Among other music included was Dogs of Lust by The The, From Despair to Where by Manic Street Preachers, Girls & Boys by Blur, The View From Here by Dubstar and Oasis.

Characters

• Matthew Malone (Ben Chaplin for the first series, subsequently Neil Stuke) – Matthew is the unemployed owner of the three-bedroomed flat in which the show mostly takes place, and which he hardly ever goes outside of. Once from Herne Bay, and a self-proclaimed ladies' man, the car accident which killed his parents has left him with a significant inheritance - part of which he spent on buying the Battersea flat, and which means he does not have to work - but also resulted in a deep fear of the outside world and acute agoraphobia. Although Matt still keeps a surfboard in pristine condition, routinely waxing it, even passing beyond the front door causes a panic attack. He passes the days alone in the flat whilst the others are at work by dressing up, role-playing and spying on the neighbors. Routinely makes up wild and implausible stories about his past and what he has been up to through the day whilst the others have been at work. Loves to use the word "tosser" and the phrase "double hard bastard" and in an ongoing gag throughout the entire series would mock his flatmate Martin for being ginger and force him to make endless cups of tea. Despite describing himself as a "double hard bastard," he secretly enjoys things that could be characterized as "effeminate," such as 1940s "love story" movies and Emmerdale Farm when not watching Reservoir Dogs or Bikini Beach Babes on Safari.
• Martin Henson (Matthew Cottle) – a passive and meek tangerine-haired bank clerk who lives on his mother's frozen meals. His sister is Claudia, Mandy's best friend, and by extension, is a few years younger than Mandy, and has known Mandy since they were kids. Martin is still a virgin in the beginning of the series, and although he doesn't remain one, he remains forever unlucky in love, like Mandy. Martin is Matthew's slave, doormat and constant source of entertainment, whom he calls "ginger tosser" whilst screaming for Martin to make cups of tea. Although not agoraphobic like Matt, Martin also rarely leaves the flat, as he has no social life outside work, and has made a threadbare trail from his seat to the kettle.
• Mandy Wilkins (Samantha Janus) – ambitious career girl who finds herself going nowhere except to bed with an endless stream of men (Northern by preference). Many of the men she sleeps with, she is not particularly attracted to, and there are hints throughout the series that she is simply addicted to sex (she tries during the second series to abstain from sex entirely). In early episodes there were running gags involving Mandy's history of childhood bedwetting (which did not cease until she was 13). Despite earning a degree at University, she is stuck in temporary secretarial jobs, gets into debt far too often, and envies her best friend Claudia, who did the same things Mandy did but is going places.
• Clare Monahan (Tracy Keating) – An Irish nurse, Clare is Martin's girlfriend in the second series and then his ex. She meets Martin and initially makes a deal with him to lose her virginity, not knowing that he was also a virgin. They start dating and eventually break up due to Martin's inability to trust her around other men, his almost vegetative state, and irreconcilable life paths - Clare wanted to travel the world while Martin did not. She appears in five episodes of series two, and four episodes of series three. Actress Tracy Keating also makes a further appearance in the final episode as a different character, a woman who Martin pursues because she looks like Clare. Keating plays this part with an English accent.
• Archie Glenister (Crispin Bonham-Carter) – Mandy's boss, lover and groom to be in the third series. Born to a wealthy, upper-class and snobbish family, Archie never really fit in with them who were worried by his disturbing taxidermy obsession, which he later scares Mandy with. Despite his privileged background, Archie is a fun-loving, rough-and-tumble guy who spent time in the Royal Marines (unlike Matthew, who merely claims he has). Archie dies unexpectedly on his wedding day to Mandy, fulfilling one of his old Marine challenges.
• Jason (Mark Powley) – Mandy's friend from college, the one she never had sex with due to him being gay. A psychotherapist, he poses as Mandy's cousin to try and help Matt overcome his agoraphobia. Appears in three consecutive episodes of series two and during which he falls in love with a completely unassuming Matthew.
• Marco – Mandy's Italian tutor who she struggles to resist in her short-lived dabble with celibacy. Appears in two consecutive episodes of series two.
• Stoat (Eddie Marsan) – A criminal and Mandy's ex-boyfriend from school. Only appears in one episode during which he takes everybody in the flat hostage, but is later revealed to have fathered Mandy's daughter she gave away for adoption as a teenager.
• Claudia Henson (Rebecca Lacey) – Martin's older sister, and Mandy's best friend. Although frequently referred to throughout all three series, she actually only appears in one episode of the first series, when she and Mandy go clubbing, and never shares any scenes with Martin.

Episodes

Series 1 (1995)

#	Title	Original airdate
1	"Working Girls"	27 February 1995
It's Martin's birthday and Matt sets up a special birthday surprise. Meanwhile Mandy meets an author who wants her to do research – into the contents of his underpants.
2	"Matthew, A Suitable Case for Treatment"	6 March 1995
Spend a day with Matthew and find out what he gets up to stuck in the flat all day, every day.
3	"Bad Timing"	13 March 1995
Mandy has a fling after she feels trapped in her new week-long relationship and Matthew starts looking for a new tenant after Martin decides to leave to become a teacher.
4	"'The Great Escape"	20 March 1995
While Mandy considers leaving, Matthew thinks of some interesting ways for her to pay him the back rent.
5	"Big Wednesday"	27 March 1995
Martin meets a hot American girl and finds out you should go prepared on a date. Meanwhile Matthew must cope with the damage Mandy has inflicted to his surfboard.
6	"Fame"	3 April 1995
Matthew becomes the lead singer of Proactive, the band upstairs and gets dragged by them out to their first gig.

The boxing-themed Big Wednesday was originally scheduled as the first episode on 27 February 1995, but two days beforehand the real-life the boxing match between Nigel Benn and Gerald McClellan ended with the latter in a coma. In response, the BBC brought forward Working Girls, which had originally been scheduled as the second episode on 6 March. Subsequent episodes were screened as show, and were presumably the intended order, except that Big Wednesday was eventually shown fifth, after McClellan had emerged from the coma (he eventually made a partial recovery).

Big Wednesday being shown so late introduces a continuity error, in that it is during the episode that Mandy accidentally uses Matthew's surfboard as an ironing board, leaving it with the prominent burn visible "earlier" in Matthew, A Suitable Case for Treatment. However, the damage is not visible when the surfboard is seen in The Great Escape and Bad Timing, suggesting that those episodes should actually appear before both Big Wednesday and Matthew...

When first repeated on BBCs in early 1996, the episodes were shown in the following order:

Big Wednesday (4 January 1996)

Matthew - A Suitable case for Treatment (11 January 1996)

The Great Escape (18 January 1996)

Bad Timing (25 January 1996)

Working Girls (1 February 1996)

Fame (8 February 1996)

In addition, on the VHS and DVD releases, the following order was used:

Big Wednesday

Working Girls

The Great Escape

Bad Timing

Matthew - A Suitable Case for Treatement

Fame

Series 2 (1996)

#	Title	Original airdate
7	"Roundheads & Cavaliers"	16 September 1996
Martin meets an Irish nurse called Claire who is a virgin and believes Martin is the man for the job. Mandy becomes celibate. And Matt thinks he's a vampire.
8	"Slime Surfers & Jissom Monkeys"	23 September 1996
Matthew admits his agoraphobia to Mandy who sets him up with psychologist Jason under the pretence he's Mandy's cousin. Meanwhile, Mandy tries to enforce her celibacy against her Italian teacher Marco who believes she is a virgin.
9	"Double Hard Bastards & Girly Shirt-lifting Tosspieces"	30 September 1996
Martin lets paranoia over Claire get to him making a real fool of himself. Matthew dispels Marco's belief that Mandy is a virgin by showing him a home made video. Jason finally gets Matt out of the flat to the park and a male gym before he finally heads to the local shop on his own...
10	"Heavy Bondage & Custard Creams"	7 October 1996
Mandy's ex-boyfriend and wanted criminal Stoat (an early appearance by Eddie Marsan) turns up at the flat and soon ties everybody up. Mandy has sex with him before tying him up and turning him over to the police. Claire dumps Martin and Jason admits to Matt he is gay and in love with him.
11	"Tangerine Candyfloss & Herne Bay Rock"	14 October 1996
Matt starts a dramatic journal that Martin and Mandy just must uncover. Martin is depressed about his breakup with Claire and Mandy starts to fall for her old teacher.
12	"Bruce Willis & Robert De Niro Holding A Fish"	21 October 1996
Martin takes up a job on a phone helpline for people suffering from depression and gives out his home number to a caller. She calls and tells Matt she is on the verge of suicide and he is forced to leave the flat to see if she is okay. He collapses once he gets there and gets rushed to hospital where Martin claims he has taken an overdose and Mandy's comedian boyfriend has been beaten up.

Despite the official titles appearing onscreen at the start of each episode, advance artwork for the VHS releases showed alternative titles on the cover. Notably, the provisional artwork also showed the actual video release names the wrong way round, with the last three episodes titled "Second Match - Round 1" and the first three as "Second Match - Round 2".

Between the first and second series, Ben Chaplin left the show due to Hollywood offers and the part was given to Neil Stuke who had been the producer's other choice for the part of Matthew Malone. In the first episode of series two, the substitution of Neil Stuke for Ben Chaplin was acknowledged. The trio are watching Roseanne which had previously referenced the change in actresses playing Becky by having the cast watch TV and comment on actors changing and no one noticing, then looking at Becky. In Game On, Martin asks "I wonder who's playing Becky this week?!" to which Mandy remarks: "Don't you just hate that, when they keep the same character and change the actor?" Both Mandy and Martin then look subtly yet strangely accusingly at Matt, sitting between them on the sofa, who looks worried.

Series 3 (1998)

#	Title	Original airdate
13	"Palms, Pigs And Bad Debts"	2 January 1998
Matt learns palm-reading in order to 'shag girls', although the only one he'll meet is the debt collector that's looking for Mandy. She catches Mandy at work and her new boss Archie lends her the £9,000 to pay them off.
14	"Martin's Baby"	9 January 1998
Martin finds out Claire has a baby called Rosie and that he is the father, but she doesn't want him involved until she needs a babysitter. Mandy starts to date her boss Archie, although she might just be interested in his multi-million pound inheritance.
15	"Marines And Vacuum Cleaner"	16 January 1998
Matt decides he wants to join the Marines and decks the flat out. Archie brings round his old Marine pals to chat to Matt about it but Matt has had an accident with a vacuum cleaner that Claire is still trying to remove.
16	"Crabs"	23 January 1998
Claire decides Martin would make a terrible father and Mandy passes out while trying to cook for Archie's family. Martin and Matt put on their best behaviour and knock up a meal. However, Archie's sister mistakenly believes Rosie is Mandy's and that they are just after Archie's money.
17	"Laura"	30 January 1998
Matt starts shagging the attractive woman from upstairs called Laura but he has cried wolf so many times Mandy and Martin just don't believe him. Even sharing her intimate sex secrets and producing her underwear fails to convince them. Martin has problems of his own as Claire decides to emigrate with her hunky new Australian boyfriend taking Martin's daughter Rosie with them, and so Martin goes to get legal advice from a misogynistic solicitor.
18	"Wedding Day"	6 February 1998
In the final episode, Martin gets a postcard from Claire saying she has married her hunky Australian boyfriend Shane. He meets a new girl, Rachel, at Mandy's hen night who is very similar to Claire (because she is also played by Tracy Keating) and immediately proceeds to buy her a nurse's outfit and wig and asks her to speak with an Irish accent. It is Mandy's wedding day to Archie and even Matt is persuaded to leave the flat to attend (the episode features the song The View From Here by Dubstar as Mandy walks down the stairs in her bride's dress). Archie dies whilst trying to fulfill his obligatory challenges set by his old Marine unit. The show ends with Mandy "going a funny color" as she realizes she is stuck in the flat forever, and Matt asks Mart to make her a cup of tea.

Reception

The Digital Fix noted that viewing figures were highest during the first season due to the fact the "star" Ben Chaplin was replaced by Neil Stuke for the next two series. The British Comedy Guide noted in its review of Game On that the series was polarizing due to some controversy over some of the politically incorrect dialogue, situations and gags, but also that the series had high viewing figures, building up an even bigger following after its cancellation.

On The Internet Movie Database, Game On has a user rating of 8.2 out of 10, based on 957 votes. Site demographics show that Game On was popular with both genders, and fairly equal across age groups, although the show was apparently not as well received in the United States as it was in Britain. On tv.com the show has a rating of 7.5 out of 10 based on 75 votes, with the review saying that Game On "could be described as an evil British version of Friends. Only about a thousand times better. With added Fawlty Towers-style squirm factor. Utterly timeless. Utterly hilarious."

Awards

Game On was nominated for Best Comedy (Programme or Series) at the 1997 BAFTAs, along with Absolutely Fabulous and Father Ted; the category was won by Only Fools and Horses.

DVD releases

All three series of the show are available on DVD. The first series DVD is the only one with any special features, which include Ben Chaplin's best moments as Matthew Malone from the first series, and character photo galleries.

DVD Title		Disc #	Year	Episode #	DVD release dates
					Region 2
	Complete Series 1	1	1995	6	17 September 2001
	Complete Series 2	1	1996	6	23 August 2004
	Complete Series 3	1	1998	6	23 August 2004
	Complete Series 1–3	3	1995–1998	18	23 August 2004

External links

• Template:Tv.com show
• Game On at British Comedy Guide
• Game On at Hat Trick Productions Website
• Game On at BBC Online
• Game On at IMDb