Leonard and Hungry Paul Overview: A Calming Show Featuring the Voice of the Hollywood Star Provides an Ideal Antidote to Contemporary Living

In a calm neighborhood of Dublin, an individual stands in his driveway, dressed in a sleeveless jumper and sharing his feelings. “I feel my voice is fading. More invisible,” states the main character, gazing into the darkness. “One thing’s led to another and currently it seems without a change, my life will proceed in this minor, harmless existence.” Hungry Paul, his closest confidant, ponders the idea. “There's no harm in that,” he replies, his robe flapping with the wind. “Preferable to striving for recognition only to wind up defacing it.”

For anyone weary by the bluster and rat-tat-tat of modern television offerings, this series steps in like a cozy wrap and a comforting beverage of blackcurrant juice.

Similar to its harmless protagonists, Leonard and Hungry Paul – a half-dozen installment program created by the writing duo, inspired by the author’s understated 2019 novel – looks disapprovingly at modern life; peering disapprovingly through its eyewear toward anything related to unnecessary noise, abrupt changes or – goodness forbid – an abundance of ambition. The series is, instead, an ode to introversion; a subtle homage to people content to pootle around away from attention. But. Leonard (a further sublimely idiosyncratic portrayal by the actor) feels restless. He notices an increasing “urge to throw open the entryways of my life … slightly.” The passing of his mother has yanked the floor from under his slippers and Leonard, an anonymous author, now realizes questioning the decisions which led him to his current situation (unattached; defensively moustached; creating several children’s encyclopedias for an employer who signs off messages using the words “ciao for now”).

Thus Leonard begins on a journey for personal satisfaction, alongside his more outgoing Hungry Paul (the actor) functioning as his confidante, life coach and ally during their regular board games evening functioning as both debate (“Is the water heated because kids pee in it, or is it that kids pee as it's heated?”) and refuge.

(What's the origin of "Hungry" Paul? It's unclear. The source of the moniker seems forgotten in mystery. It could be that Paul once ate some food very fast, or responded to an awkward situation by panic-peeling some food items using his teeth).

Into Leonard’s gentle world bursts a new colleague (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), a fresh lively co-worker who lightheartedly proposes to kill Leonard’s appalling boss (Paul Reid) in a workplace safety exercise. The rushing noise noticeable is Leonard’s gentle world experiencing a revolution.

In other scenes during the opening installment of a series not heavily plotted and more by what younger viewers could describe as “vibes”, viewers encounter Paul's father (the consistently great the performer), a tired character who privately views, records then replays trivia competitions to dazzle his devoted partner with his general knowledge.

Guiding viewers throughout this minor-key niceness is a narrator that sounds very much like – and actually is – the famous actress. Indeed, the star. If you are thinking, “undoubtedly the presence of a big-name celebrity is at odds with the series’ unshowy MO and initially serves only as an interruption?” you would be correct. Still, Roberts acquits herself well, and lines such as “Leonard’s problem is his absence of an expression of discovery” help ensure that initial doubts give way though not complete approval, then at least acceptance.

But that’s enough grumbling for now. The show's core is in the right place: which is “located on a seat in the company of gentle comedies, showing its favourite duck.” It’s a series that ambles along in its sleeveless jumper, sometimes gazing upward toward the sky, sometimes downward at its feet, quietly confident that no experience is on Earth as uplifting as being with close companions.

Throw open the portals in your existence, just a bit, and let it in.