Enroll at Obsessed With Film, where I've reviewed the premiere of Channel 4's university-set comedy CAMPUS, from the makers of Green Wing.
I wasn't a fan of Green Wing, the semi-improved comedy based on scripts that were a hodgepodge of jokes, sketches and sight gags from a hive-mind of writers. It was an interesting way to produce a single-camera sitcom, and one that clearly found an audience, but I found its scattergun approach quite tiring. Many of Green Wing's writers are behind Channel 4's new comedy offering Campus, which won't escape "Green Wing in a university" branding, because that's exactly what it is. The uni's motto is even "with wings".
"Publication, Publication, Publication" was a 70-minute extension of the half-hour Comedy Showcase pilot from 2009 (including adverts), which basically means there was an awful lot of filler. But this filler is exactly what Campus thrives on, as it's really just an extended sequence of sketches and non sequiturs. Jonty De Wolfe (Andy Nyman) is the tyrannical vice chancellor of Kirke University, with ambitions for expansion inspired by the success of mousy mathematics lecturer Imogen Moffat (Lisa Jackson), who's written a book called "The True Story Of Zero". Jonty pressures English professor Matt Beer (Joseph Millson) into writing a similarly successful book, but the inveterate womanizer is too easily distracted to comply. Meanwhile, accommodations officer Nicole Huggins (Sara Pascoe) accidentally paid the entire staff twice, ruining the day for accountant Jason Armitage (Will Adamsdale), who's tasked with trying to recoup the money. Continue reading...
