TV review

Published Monday 26 June 2006 at 15:20 by Harry Venning

I have a problem with one man shows at the theatre. About 20 minutes in, no matter how fine the performance or the piece, I am desperate for someone else to walk on stage.

I have a similar problem with post-Partridge Steve Coogan. No sooner has Coogan introduced a new character than I am eager for him to try out another. This is both a tribute to his seemingly limitless versatility as a writer and a performer, and a reflection on how disappointing his more recent comic creations have been.

I enjoyed my initial 30 minutes in the company of rock’n’roll roadie turned pest controller Saxondale but I’m not convinced that the character can support a series. He’s just too dour and listless to be engaging. Add to this Coogan’s insistence on downplaying every potentially funny moment, as if a laugh from the audience somehow compromised his comic integrity, and you have a very bleak comedy indeed.

BBC2’s previous sitcom offering, Feel The Force, was all jokes with no characterisation. Saxondale is all characterisation, with no jokes. This isn’t to say its not worth watching. It is wry, intelligent, subtle, beautifully observed and immaculately performed by a terrific cast.

But anyone tuning in for a rib ticklingly good chortle, as they say in The Beano, is likely to be disappointed.

Before Punks v Teds, before Mods v Rockers, before New Romantics v Anybody With Any Dress Sense Whatsoever, there were fashion fisticuffs between the Fops and Dandies of Regency England. Accordingly, Beau Brummell: This Charming Man opened with the inventor of dandyism (James Purefoy) delivering a good kicking to a pair of upstart Fops, who had admonished him in the street for his lack of wig, make up and powder.

Having espoused a “less is more” ethos, I feel Brummell himself would have approved of this neat, concise and immaculately presented drama structured around three of his most significant relationships; with his patron The Prince Regent (Hugh Bonneville), the radical firebrand Lord Byron (Matthew Rhys) and, most importantly, his loyal manservant Robinson (Phil Davies). Brummell would exploit them all and they, in return, would abandon him to a sorry fate. But then, the course of true love for oneself never runs smoothly.

The Girls Who Came To Stay was an unapologetically sentimental drama about middle aged couple Bob and Julie (Alun Armstrong and Lindsey Coulson) whose lives are enriched and enervated when they play host to two sweet, disadvantaged young girls from Belarus. Crabby old Bob’s heart is melted so thoroughly that he’s all for kidnapping the eldest girl to save her having to return to her abusive parents.

Armstrong is such a great actor that I will buy anything he’s selling and the two young stars were genuinely endearing. Even though the girls’ grasp of English was implausibly rapid, I found myself swept along by the seductive soppiness of it all.

Mercifully, the ending was relatively happy, or I don’t think I could have coped.

DETAILS

Saxondale, BBC2, Monday, June 19, 10pm

Beau Brummell: This Charming Man, BBC4, Monday, June 19, 9pm

The Girls Who Came To Stay, ITV, Sunday, June 18, 9.30pm