Iain Connell is a deft comic actor whose pauses can be as funny as Robert Florence's outbursts. Their writing is uneven, but Burnistoun earns our affection by finding absurd trouble in ordinary Scottish life.
Fi1m perspective
In Burnistoun (2010), two men enter a lift whose voice recognition cannot understand their request for floor eleven. We laughed until it hurt because Connell and Robert Florence make the Glaswegian pronunciation both the source of the trouble and the joke. That sketch is a good introduction to their writing: an everyday inconvenience, a local detail and enough room to let both become absurd. Connell's quieter performing style matters just as much. Beside Florence's expansive, easily offended men, he can get a laugh with a pause or a look.
Connell and Florence had already written and appeared in the sitcoms Legit (2007) and Empty (2008) before Burnistoun gave them a town to populate. Its characters share a butcher's, a pub and a stretch of pavement, and Connell and Florence play most of them. Keeping everyone in one place helps the programme feel like a community, even when a particular sketch disappoints. We rate it as good, with stretches that are far funnier than that modest verdict might suggest.
The gap between those stretches and the weaker material is wide, and neither performer can close it with timing alone. There is also a cost to building so much around the pair: Richard Rankin, Kirsty Strain, Louise Stewart and Gerry McLaughlin have less to do than they could handle. Strain, in particular, can sustain a scene without a punchline. More time with her would have been welcome.
The Scotts, which began with a pilot in 2020 and ran for three series to 2023, moved the partnership into family mockumentary. Connell co-created and co-wrote it, and plays Henry Scott. Its family set-up offers scope for more characters beyond the pair, an opportunity we would like to see them keep pursuing. Start with Burnistoun, and stay beyond the lift sketch. Expect to wait through some weaker material for the next laugh.
Biography
Iain Connell is a Scottish comedian, actor and writer. Born in Glasgow on 10 August 1976, he is best known for his long collaboration with fellow comedian Robert Florence.
Connell and Florence co-created the BBC Scotland sketch series Burnistoun (2009–2019), on which Connell also performed and wrote. He has written for Chewin' the Fat and co-written the sitcoms Legit and Empty. Connell stars as Henry Scott in the series The Scotts (2020–2023), which he also co-wrote.
His other acting credits include Rab C. Nesbitt and Man Down.
