A version of this review was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 30th May 2015.
SunTrap:
Wednesday, BBC One
When
Pop Ruled My Life: The Fans' Story: Friday,
BBC Four
Paul
Whitelaw
Very occasionally a sitcom comes
along that's so unremittingly poor, it seems inconceivable that it
ever reached our screens at all. SunTrap is one such turkey.
Here's what we're lumbered with.
Kayvan Novak stars as Woody, a smooth, wise-cracking undercover
journalist who flees to a Spanish island after exposing an
establishment scandal back home. There he shacks up with a roguish
ex-colleague (Bradley Walsh), with whom he shares a supposedly
sparkling odd couple relationship. Dismal escapades ensue.
Common sense dictates that SunTrap
was written by humans, but it feels more like the result of an alien
study into the earthling concept of humour. It's superficially bright
and breezy, yet oddly robotic. The actors deliver self-consciously
“funny” performances, as if desperately trying to compensate for
the mediocre script. Every tortuous line sounds like an off-key cover
version of an actual joke, e.g. “Something smelled fishy at the
vets. But it was a vets, so it could've been fish.”
Even as a deliberately corny gag,
that doesn't work. The whole sorry enterprise clunks and groans like
a knackered laughing policeman, dying a death before your very eyes.
The executives who commissioned this? They have no business being anywhere near comedy. I'm not exaggerating for comic effect. This isn't ha-ha-hilarious comic hyperbole. These clueless execs - W1A is barely exaggerated - don't have a slack-jawed clue. Register your protest by never tuning into insulting crap like this. Bother them on Twitter. Irk them on Facebook. Don't let them off the hook. Fight the power.
This misbegotten drivel is obviously intended as a
mainstream vehicle for the versatile Novak, hence why Woody is a
master of disguise. But the sight of him flailing through his armoury
of accents – Russian, Scottish, outrageous French – recalls one
of those sad, later Peter Sellers films. Funny voices are no
substitute for solid material.
Despite being a timid, uncertain actor when divested of his disguises,
Novak deserves better. As does Jack Dee, who turned up in a thankless
cameo. How was he roped into this? Presumably by accident and with
immense regret.
It doesn't help that Woody, far from
being a charming scamp, is a searing pain in the rump. Like SunTrap
as a whole, he's undeservedly pleased with himself. Continually
it mistakes “talking quickly” for witty repartee, while
forgetting that silly, threadbare plots only work when supported by
clever gags. Of the two main female characters, one is a monstrous
battleaxe, the other a blandly glamorous moll. In terms of gender
politics, it makes On the Buses look like His Girl Friday.
Even the scenery looks embarrassed.
How much money was wasted on this shite? That BBC One have buried it
in a graveyard slot speaks volumes.
Whenever TV turns its gaze towards
avid fans and collectors of pop culture, they're usually treated as
figures of fun to be sniggered at. Thankfully, When Pop Ruled My
Life: The Fans' Story took a more affectionate tone.
A documentary hosted, without a hint
of cynicism, by the music journalist Kate Mossman, it was an elegant
and sometimes bitter-sweet celebration of the ongoing relationship
between pop fans and their idols.
Original Beatlemaniacs, teenage One
Direction fans, a former Boy George lookalike and a snowy-haired
rocker with a shed full of Iron Maiden treasures, all were treated
equally. Though separated by taste and generations, they were united
in a common understanding of what it means to care so deeply about an
artist.
Mossman, whose teenage diaries
devoted to Queen drummer Roger Taylor formed a charming through-line,
clearly empathised. She also spoke to objects of fandom such as Les
McKeown of The Bay City Rollers, a former teen-scream idol whose
gratitude towards his loyal fans felt hearteningly genuine.
Hero worship cuts both ways. Here,
for once, was a tender tribute to that complex mutual dependency.
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