Julia Davis writes cruelty with an ear for the reassuring phrase, then delivers it as though she were being helpful. We recommend her comedies for their exact wording and performances, though she sometimes keeps being nasty after the joke has finished.
Fi1m perspective
In Nighty Night (2004), Jill Tyrrell tilts her head and lowers her voice before saying something appalling. Davis delivers the cruelty as concern, never raising her voice. We laughed and felt ashamed when Jill addressed Rebecca Front’s trusting Cathy in that soft voice; the delivery made the cruelty funnier, and Cathy’s kindness made it hurt. There is no moment of vulnerability offered to let us feel better about Jill.
Human Remains (2000), co-written and performed with Rob Brydon, had already established her interest in dysfunctional couples. Creating and producing Nighty Night gave Davis a whole sitcom in which to test how long such dreadful company could remain funny. It works because the other actors do not merely stand about waiting to be insulted: Kevin Eldon’s baffled Terry and Ruth Jones’s patient Linda get laughs from how little they do. The second series sags, a warning that even a character this sharply played can be asked to sustain too much.
In Hunderby (2012), Davis takes that unkindness into period comedy and shares the writing with Barunka O’Shaughnessy. Their exact phrasing matters more than the willingness to offend: the strongest jokes go a little further than we expect without stopping to congratulate themselves. Davis also plays Dorothy, giving the lines the attention to delivery they require. There are misses, particularly when the effort to be outrageous becomes more noticeable than what anyone is saying.
Camping (2016) brought her directorial debut; by Sally4Ever (2018), she was again creating, writing, directing and acting. Her Emma is objectionable company, kept watchable by Davis’s comic precision, while Catherine Shepherd’s exhausted Sally gives us someone worth staying with. Davis is good at making difficult people watchable without asking for sympathy. But another escalation of nastiness can become predictable, and here she sometimes presses on after the discomfort has stopped changing. We would start with Nighty Night, with fair warning that Davis has no interest in making Jill easier to like.
Biography
Julia Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She created and starred in the dark comedy series Nighty Night (2004–2005), Hunderby (2012–2015), Camping (2016) and Sally4Ever (2018). She has received multiple BAFTA TV Award nominations, winning Best Comedy Writing for Hunderby in 2013 and Best Scripted Comedy for Sally4Ever in 2018, along with two RTS Awards and three British Comedy Awards.
Davis is known for her role as Dawn Sutcliffe in the BBC series Gavin & Stacey (2007–2009, 2019, 2024). Her film appearances include Nancy the Caterer in Love Actually (2003), a role in Four Lions (2010) and Lady Baltimore in Phantom Thread (2017). She is the partner of comedian Julian Barratt.
