L-R: Doug, Joe, and Alice
Mad About Alice is a 2004 BBC1 sitcom about a couple who have divorced - although Doug (Jamie Theakston) and Alice (Amanda Holden) can't stand each other, however, they have to regularly see each other for the sake of their son, Joe (Billy Hill).
Members of the supporting cast include Ted (John Gordon-Sinclair), Alice's best friend and co-partner at the small business they run, Jason (Dan Clark), an incompetent employee of both Alice and Ted, Kate (Debra Stephenson), Alice's Cloudcuckoolander sister, and Sancha (Jessica McClunie), a Creepy Child classmate of Joe.
Tropes in this show:
- Bad Date: In "Alice's Restaurant", Alice wants to prove that the old romantic restaurant where she and Doug used to date holds no ghosts for her, so she goes out with her new boyfriend Scott. Unfortunately, the restaurant owner brings up her previous relationship and they end up talking about Doug for hours. In the end, Alice decides to go to the one place that Doug never did for a date... the supermarket.
- Birthday Episode: "Sick as a Parrot" is focused around Joe's birthday, where Alice's plans for it are sabotaged by Doug.
- Book Dumb: Whilst in the present day, Ted is decent at architecture and design, he notes in "School Craze" that he was so bad at school, he failed ''assembly''.
- British Brevity: 6 episodes and that was it.
- Creepy Child: Sancha has a very detached way of speaking and interacting with things, including the apparently live dissection of an animal. She even practises arson, as Joe gets to learn when he plays with her.
- The Ditz: Jason is hopelessly incompetent, participating in such acts as ringing his own mobile multiple times and having difficulty filing the correct files.
- Dumb Blonde: Alice is a blonde and is a bit Book Dumb - in the first episode, she struggles to explain magnetism to Joe and dries her clothes in the microwave. She's still smarter than the majority of the cast however.
- Entertainment Above Their Age: In "Alice's Restaurant", Joe wants to see Revenge of the Robots, despite being both only 9 and the movie being for 15 and above. While Alice refuses to let him see it, however, Doug does, and Joe ends up both enjoying it and wanting to see its sequel.
- Family Versus Career: Joe prioritized his career over his family, making Alice resentful. The final straw came when he accepted a high-paying job under Alice's nose that was miles away from home.
- Feathered Fiend: In "Sick as a Parrot", Alice is lumbered with a parrot called Dougley who Can't Take Criticism, hates sarcasm, has a bit of a psychotic streak, and holds a nasty grudge.
- Flashback: In "Alice's Restaurant", a flashback is used to show Alice and Joe's time at a romantic restaurant, ending with him proposing to her.
- Horrible Honeymoon: In "Alice's Restaurant", mention is briefly made of Doug and Alice's honeymoon - apparently, the hotel they went to had a wall missing. Doug claims that it was to save money, but Alice wasn't pleased.
- Parent with New Paramour: In "Handover", Alice is embarrassed when her son Joe learns about her new boyfriend in the worst way (namely by seeing him naked). She also gets jealous when Doug reveals that he's got a girlfriend and that he plans to show her to Joe during the handover.
- Performance Anxiety: Ted has severe difficulty giving presentations in front of people.
- Pretentious Latin Motto: In "School Craze", St. Matthew's, a fancy school that Alice wants to take Joe to, has the motto Veritas Supreme ("Honesty Above All Else", although it actually translates more literally to "Truth Above All"). Ironically, whilst the school is annoyed by the amount of lying that Alice went to to get her son into school, they appreciate her commitment and let her send him in.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Whilst Doug and Alice spend most of their time arguing, it's implied that they do still have romantic feelings for each other, and they sometimes end up kissing.
- Ultimate Job Security: Jason is utterly incompetent, but Alice and Ted keep him on anyway so that they can repay a favor from his parents.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: The main conflict of the show - although Doug and Alice are divorced, Doug still has visitation rights, and he regularly sees his son much to the annoyance of Alice.
