Man Down is a British sitcom written by and starring Greg Davies of The Inbetweeners fame.
Davies plays Dan, a drama teacher who despite being in his forties is still struggling with adulthood. After getting dumped by his girlfriend Naomi, Dan sets about doing everything he can to win her back, only to fail at every opportunity.
Rounding out the cast of characters are Dan's eccentric parents; his two friends, the straitlaced Brian and ditzy Jo; head teacher Emma and his aunt Nesta.
The series premiered in 2013 and was immediately picked up for a second series, which was postponed for an extra year due to the untimely death of Rik Mayall, though a Christmas special came out inbetween. The series concluded in 2017.
Tropes
- Actor Allusion: Much like with Mr Gilbert, Dan's teaching vocation is based on Greg Davies' history as a teacher before getting into acting.
- Age-Gap Romance: Dan tries dating a woman almost half his age. In the same episode he's prescribed some medicine for his prostate and has his hair dyed jet black, tearing away what little dignity he had left.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Mum and Dad's inability to see Dan is a middle-aged man is likely the reason he still acts like an adolescent.
- Ax-Crazy: Dan's dad gets his jollies attacking Dan in the most absurd way possible. Though this should be no surprise considering he's played by Britain's resident weirdo Rik Mayall.
- Black Comedy Rape: One of Dan's dates ends in some aggressively kinky role-play. Dan is left with a Thousand-Yard Stare afterwards.
- Blackface: Dan gets called out of his diversity class to meet Nesta (who just returned from a folk festival after Polly told her about the house being robbed by the "cleaner") wearing blackface. He is horrified at this, and tries to get her out, but it turns into a scuffle between them.
- Brain Bleach: Dan's memories of his childhood toy "Bear" take a turn for the surreal when Brian reveals that he was Bear this whole time, with Dan's insanity obscuring his memories. Dan goes into a screaming fit upon realising all the innappropriate things he did with his "Bear".
- Bring My Brown Pants: Dan wets himself after being threatened at sickle-point by his neighbour for supposedly killing his son's rabbit. Later on he gets an aggravated prostate and ends up projectile pissing in a nightclub.
- One of Dan's pupils shits himself out of stage fright.
- British Brevity: 6 episodes per series.
- Catchphrase: Teggun
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Everyone in Dan's family, plus Jo.
- Continuity Creep: The episodes in the first three seasons are pretty self-contained but season 4 contains an overarching plot about Dan trying to embrace fatherhood and there are plenty of references and ongoing threads between episodes.
- Cringe Comedy: The best way to describe this series is if the characters from The Inbetweeners aged 30 years but didn't outgrow their awkward adolescence.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Dan attends a sensitivity training session, which he assumes he'll be able to ace as he could feign a progressive worldview on command. What happens instead is that he trips up at several areas where he can't articulate complex scenarios without coming across as insensitive, starting with his attempt to communicate with his partner, a one-armed, non-English speaking woman named Teggun.
- Funny Foreigner: Teggun
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Dan occasionally runs afoul of a police officer who has a habit of screaming hysterically at the slightest aggravation. He also has a pupil that only ever speaks with blood-curdling screams.
- Odessa Steps: A black comedy reenactment occurs involving Dan and his friends, plus a baby carriage that turns out to contain not a baby but a literal Large Ham.
- Only Sane Man: Dan wants to believe he's this, but it's actually Brian who is the stable one.
- Pokémon Speak: Teggun
- The Pollyanna: Jo. Despite being just as immature as Dan, she's much more endearing and upbeat about it.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Rik Mayall's sudden death prompted a complete rewrite of Series 2. The end result was that instead of getting a new series in 2014, audiences instead got a Christmas special that explained Dad's absence and introduced aunty Nesta.
- Rousing Lullaby: In one episode, Dan's mother and aunt sing the "Dudley Lullaby" (a song they used to sing to Dan to get him to go to sleep), which is not only quite loud but also extremely dark and inappropriate (it's about being kicked down a flight of stairs and dying horribly for upsetting your uncle. The refrain is "...When he kicks you down the stairs!"). When Dan hears the song, he says "Jesus Christ! Is that what you used to sing to me? No wonder my life's utter shit!"
- Running Gag: Dan has a habit of having his face discoloured or disfigured in hilarious and sometimes disgusting ways.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Jo announces that she's getting married in the Series 2 finale and when Brian notices her looking wistfully in Dan's direction he deduces that she's secretly in love with him. The wedding is called off when the groom cheats on Jo and she was only looking towards Dan because she could see her mother standing behind him.
- Wham Line: Played decidedly for laughs in Series 4:Brian: Dan, for God's sake! I was Bear!
