Everyone Else Burns

Simon Bird stars in brand new Channel 4 comedy Everyone Else Burns, which has some bright spots but not enough laughs to get a strong recommendation.

[subscribe now](http://radiotimes.com/magazine-subscription?utm_term=evergreen-article). Everyone Else Burns also suffers from a somewhat anticlimactic series finale, with a palpable sense of escalation ultimately not amounting to very much at all. [Everyone Else Burns](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/everyone-else-burns-release-date/) is sure to raise some eyebrows. Of these storylines, Rachel's is by far the most compelling, with James-Kelly finding a strong screen partner in Ali Khan, playing a local boy who tempts her away from the strict doctrine she was raised in. That's not a fatal flaw as the series is still a watchable little package, but there is a feeling it could have been something greater had it taken some bigger risks. But underneath this eccentric idea, there lurks a relatively by-the-numbers story that touches on the familiar topics of marriage, parenting and coming of age. Bird remains a charismatic lead as patriarch David Lewis, who has been killing time working at a postal depot as he awaits his all-but-guaranteed promotion to church elder. The latest Channel 4 sitcom starring Simon Bird follows a family in the grip of a puritanical cult, who believe that the apocalypse is coming and it is their sacred duty to save as many souls as they can from eternal damnation. [Comedy](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/) coverage or visit our [TV Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/tv-listings/) and [Streaming Guide](https://www.radiotimes.com/streaming-guide/) to find out what's on. On the one hand, it serves a narrative purpose. [Ghosts](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/ghosts-renewed-season-5-newsupdate/)), Liam Williams ( [Ladhood](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/comedy/ladhood-how-to-watch/)), Kadiff Kirwan ( [This Is Going to Hurt](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/this-is-going-to-hurt-review/)) and Morgana Robinson ( [Taskmaster](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/entertainment/taskmaster-season-15-release-date/)) also attached in supporting roles. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the [Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast](https://www.radiotimes.com/audio/podcasts/).

Everyone Else Burns - Review of Channel 4's new apocalyptic cult comedy.

In a telling scene, featured in the trailers, her parents read her report card, increasingly appalled she’s spent time studying rather than doorstep preaching on behalf of the Church of the Divine Rod, Jehovah’s Witness-style. Though – spoiler alert – it turns out not to be the end times, only a practise run to get the family in shape. [Simon Bird](/comics/s/33419/simon_bird) channels Peep Show’s Mark as patriarch David, petty and pedantic to the end.

Written by Dillon Mapletoft and Oliver Taylor, the set-up is promising and it is observational comedy about religion - starring Simon Bird.

Her brilliantly no-BS teacher wakes her with news of a B minus. [The Last Of Us: Escape The Dark and Cyberpunk 2077: The Board Game – 2023 tabletop game preview](https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/18/the-last-of-us-escape-the-dark-board-game-2023-tabletop-game-preview-18122773/?ico=more_text_links) [The Chemistry Of Death review: Packed with cliffhangers that will desperately leave you wanting more](https://metro.co.uk/2023/01/19/the-chemistry-of-death-review-full-of-plot-twists-and-cliffhangers-18129315/?ico=more_text_links) Rachel is asleep on her school desk. Still, the developing story over these six episodes is how his grip on his family way of life is gradually loosening, his wife Fiona (the excellently buttoned-up Kate O’Flynn), and children all coming of age in different ways. And he had; David (Simon Bird with a literal pudding bowl haircut) has indoctrinated his family into the ways of a minority Christian sect who aren’t allowed Coca-Cola or mobile phones – but believe the Reckoning is imminent.

Everyone Else Burns stars The Inbetweeners actor Simon Bird and Death in Paradise's Kate O'Flynn.

They believe the apocalypse will happen in the next 10 years but each one faces a different problem which stems from their faith. Once the first episode comes out on Channel 4, the entire box set of Everyone Else Burns will come out on the channel's streaming service All4. This means that, as long as there are no changes to the schedule, the final episode of Everyone Else Burns is going to air on Monday, February 20. Everyone Else Burns sees a family of four who are dedicated members of a religious cult. Everyone Else Burns stars The Inbetweeners actor Simon Bird and Death in Paradise's Kate O'Flynn. Everyone Else Burns: How many episodes are in the Channel 4 sitcom?

Simon Bird, Amy James-Kelly, and Kate Flynn star in Everyone Else Burns, an entertaining Channel 4 comedy about an apocalypse-obsessed cult.

What’s interesting about Everyone Else Burns, in the end, is that after a few initial cheap shots (you can’t not have at least a few cheap shots, it’d just be a waste) it settles into something approaching ambivalence about the Divine Order. Everyone Else Burns begins with Rachel already frustrated with the order – she wants to be able to study not sermonize, she wants a mobile phone from this century, she wants broader horizons than were afforded to her mother – and having a chance encounter with a former member, now ostracised by the church. What it’s not, though, is the Simon Bird show – much as press and reviews (this one included admittedly) have perhaps painted it as such. In Everyone Else Burns, however, Bird gets the chance to push the Will McKenzie/Adam Goodman character in a different direction. Bird is, and he’d probably agree, a stronger writer/director than he is an actor (his film The Days of the Bagnold Summer is worth a look if you’ve not seen it), and his two most high-profile roles to date often felt like, however well-executed, just iterations on the same basic character. Their youngest son Aaron (Harry Connor) likes to draw – it’s a distraction from the bullying – and their oldest daughter Rachel (Amy James-Kelly) is starting to think about going to university, maybe to study medicine.

I'd only recently watched post-apocalyptic drama The Last Of Us when I watched Everyone Else Burns and my first thought was, here we go again, you wait ages ...

Rachel is more interested in a possible romantic attachment with a local lad with a past... Elsewhere David is hoping for a promotion in his local church in the – fictional – Order of the Divine Rod in Manchester, but he might just have to wait a bit longer. He is more successful at the sorting office where he holds down a day job and can pop parcels in the correct slot at lightning speed.