The Stage

TV review

Published Tuesday 30 June 2009 at 12:00 by Harry Venning

It is possible to have too much macabre weirdness in one programme.

Created, written and largely performed by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton from The League Of Gentlemen, Psychoville is an exercise in just how far you can push dark comedy.

To this end the pair have assembled a rogues gallery of grotesques, scattered them the length and breadth of the country, and set a mysterious blackmailer on their trail. “I know what you did,” ran his first anonymous correspondence to the seemingly unconnected group and, without even knowing what they’re accused of, you wouldn’t put it past them.

They comprise a midwife who treats a demonstration doll like a real baby, a telekinetic dwarf, an eyeless millionaire surrounded by soft toys, a one-handed clown with anger management issues and a socially inept mummy’s boy obsessed with serial killers. Not to forget his mummy.

Psychoville is definitely an acquired taste, and I’m afraid my appetite was sated halfway through the second episode, with the introduction of ghoulish conjoined twins with symmetrical facial blemishes. For me it was a case of two freaks too far.

It is very well done, atmospheric and beautifully performed, but the misanthropic tone of the humour is relentless and, after a while, a bit tedious. The introduction of a little shade would have been welcome, even different shades of black.

At least Psychoville has its own distinctive style. Personal Affairs has none whatsoever, and doesn’t even seem to know what it’s supposed to be.

Combining elements of comedy, mystery and romance, but without ever being funny, intriguing or romantic, Personal Affairs’ heroines are five go-getting gals working as personal assistants in a high-powered City brokers firm.

Episode one introduced itself with a flurry of Ally McBeal-style fantasy sequences, but these quickly and inexplicably petered out once the main characters were established.

Storylines comprising varying degrees of idiocy followed soon after, the most prominent of which was the disappearance of ultra efficient PA Grace which, in my opinion, was a very smart move on Grace’s part.

Personal Affairs clearly imagines itself to be frothy fun in the spirit of Sex and the City, but it produces all the effervescence of an autopsy. The acting is pantomime posturing, the script is a wit-free zone and the lead characters chronically underwritten. Even the ever-reliable Mark Benton looks bad in it.

Imagine - Save the Last Dance for Me celebrated the Sadler’s Wells’ Company Of Elders, a contemporary dance company whose members are all past retirement age.

It was a joyful and inspiring film about a remarkable group, average age 79, who regularly overcome such bothersome hindrances as memory loss, osteoporosis, cancer treatment and public prejudice, all for the pure love of performing.

Choreographer Chris Tudor was charged with delivering their latest production, based upon the songs of Hoagy Carmichael, and he approached the task with caution, saying, “I shall tread carefully so I don’t put anyone in hospital too soon.”

Nobody ended up infirm except, ironically, Tudor.

By the night of their triumphant performance he was laid up with a slipped disc.

PROGRAMME DETAILS

• Psychoville, BBC2, Thursday, June 25, 10pm

• Personal Affairs, BBC3, Monday, June 22, 10.30pm

• Imagine - Save the Last Dance for Me, BBC1, Tuesday, June 23, 10.35pm