A variety of disparate characters are sent parchments with five simple words inked inside ("I KNOW WHAT YOU DID") from a masked "blackmailer". These include Mr. Jelly (Shearsmith), a scruffy clown with a hook for a hand who scares kids and has a vendetta against his competitor Mr. Jolly; Joy Aston (Dawn French), an ante-natal nurse convinced a prop baby called Freddie is real, to her husband's discomfort; Robert (Jason Tompkins), a dwarf with latent telekinesis who fancies the Snow White of the panto he's appearing in, while hiding a history as a midget porn star; Oscar Lomax (Pemberton), a blind recluse with an unusual collection; and David Sowerbutts (Pemberton), an ugly man-child with an unhealthy obsession with serial-killers, still living at home with his mum Maureeen (Shearsmith) while working as a "murder-mystery dinner" actor...
Let's cut to the chase: this was wonderful. It took awhile to acclimatize to its style and dark temperament (and it wasn't anywhere near as funny at The League Of Gentlemen was in its first two years), but it was certainly an improvement on that show in other areas. For one thing, it helped to see some characters played by other actors; Dawn French was particularly good as the unbalanced nurse, stretching her Murder Most Horrid muscles and creating a genuinely unsettling but sympathetic character very quickly. Jason Tompkins was also very good as the likeable diminutive actor, besotted with actress Debbie (Daisy Haggard), but finding himself routinely embarrassed once his ignoble pornstar past becomes common knowledge. Of all the storylines in the opening two episodes, his was by far the most human and recognizable.
Another big plus was the format, jumping to different locales to spend some time with each character, with the audience knowing they're all in some way connected. The central mystery should sustain the series very well, immediately improving on tLOG's often fractured structure. The derided third series of that show had a similar ambition to create cohesion between its episodes (with each one climaxing with a different perspective on a car accident), but Psychoville already feels twice as interesting by keeping its cards close to its chest. Who is the mysterious blackmailer? Were these people all participants in one big crime, or do they each have a different skeleton in the closet? It helps that you have faith you'll be rewarded with a decent resolution, too, as Shearsmith and Pemberton are writers with a clear understanding and appreciation of what black comedy is all about.
A few of the characters weren't immediately compelling for various reasons; Mr. Jelly was a fairly obvious "bad clown" caricature (a hybrid of tLOG's Papa Lazarou with Geofff Tibbs' voice, too), but still good fun when he was accidentally spraying kids with WD40 and scaring them with his arm stump. Oscar Lomax also started weakly as the blind hermit being tended to by teenage volunteer carer Michael (Daniel Kaluuya), although my interest in him perked up during episode 2 when his "holiest of holies" was revealed and fed into a fun Ebay skit. I was also a little disappointed by the masked blackmailer, if only because he wasn't anywhere near as threatening as he perhaps should have been, resembling an incompetent Phantom Flan Flinger.
Most engaging was the Shearmith/Pemberton double-act of the Sowerbutts, a couple of family grotesques given some of the episode's most sinister moments; Maureen scratching dead skin off her son's back while quizzing him on Jack The Ripper trivia, before tucking his shirt in and both getting a brief thrill when her hand goes down his trousers. Shudder.
Overall, Psychoville isn't the kind of comedy you laugh heartily at, but I enjoyed squirming and appreciated the care and attention that went into it. The actors were fantastic to apiece, Matt Lipsey's direction was confident and assured, the DoP work by Francis de Groote was excellent (loved those inky-black screenwipes, too), Joby Talbot's music was very atmospheric, and the writing from Shearsmith and Pemberton was as meticulous, witty and disturbing as ever. I feared Psychoville would feel like a half-empty League Of Gentlemen offcut, but it's possibly improved the formula and cast the net even further.
18 June 2009
BBC2, 10pm / BBCi, 10.30pm
written by: Reece Shearsmith & Steve Pemberton directed by: Matt Lipsey starring: Reece Shearsmith (Mr Jelly/Maureen Sowerbutts/Brian), Steve Pemberton (George Aston/Oscar Lomax/David Sowerbutts), Dawn French (Joy Aston), Jason Tompkins (Robert/Blusher), Janet McTeer (Cheryl), Nicholas Le Prevost (Graham), David Bamber (Robin), Daisy Haggard (Debbie), Natalie Cassidy (Lorraine) Adrian Scarborough (Mr. Jolly), Daniel Kaluuya (Michael Fry), Dominic Coleman (Colin), Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Kate), Amanda Abbington (Caroline), Lisa Hammond (Kerry), Big Mick (Grumbly), Maxwell Laird (Snoozy), Sally Sanders (Old Lady), Holly Shearsmith (Lorna) & David Smallbone (Martin)
