Three of the regular characters are reunited at Ravenhill Hospital, two years after they left the place as patients following the death of sadistic Nurse Kenchington (the frighteningly severe Eileen Atkins), when man-child David (Steve Pemberton) lost his temper -- after being cattle-prodded while fumbling the lyrics to a "Jason & His Technicolour Dreamcoat" show tune -- and accidentally brained her against a desk. David's friends -- Joy (Dawn French), Lomax (Pemberton) and Robert (Jason Tomkins) -- agreed to cover-up the deed by dousing Kenchington's body with alcohol and setting fire to the room, then feigning ignorance...
Now, Lomax is back with his new home-help Jennifer (Stacy Liu) to rescue Michael (Daniel Kaluuya) and finally get his hands on Snappy the beanie toy; Joy mistakes Jennifer for her a magically grown-up "Freddie"; Joy's anemic victim Nicola (Elizabeth Berrington) spends the episode wobbling around being mistaken as an ashen ghoul; David arrives at Ravenhill with a melon in a plastic bag (for no particular reason beyond the fact it gave us a cliffhanger "is it Mr. Jolly's head?" ending last week); Mr. Jelly (Reece Shearsmith) arrives still handcuffed to a batty old lady with diabetes (Vilma Hollingberry); and we catch-up with Jason and Kerry (Lisa Hammond) in a car travelling through some woods, which runs out of fuel and forces them to walk to an old cottage, where Jason is attacked by Kerry's witch grandmother. No, I don't know what was going on with this storyline, either! The entire panto-dwarf subplot reached a conclusion in episode 2, and everything since has been running on fumes.
Of course, the finale's raison d'etre was to reveal the identity of the mysterious blackmailer -- despite the fact only a few characters ever appeared threatened by his letter campaign. Anyway, as predicted in some circles (the choice of suspects was limited, let's be honest), it turned out to be Mr. Jolly (Adrian Scarborough) -- the son of Nurse Kenchington who channeled his grief into tracking down those responsible for killing mum. I have no idea how he knew they killed her. Or even why he's so sure she's dead because she -- surprise, surprise -- isn't! No, after David claws up Kenchington's grave in Ravenhill's grounds, he just finds a frog inside her coffin (more panto imagery), before a scarred Kenchington make her grand return. I guess the Ravenhill staff thought she'd burnt to a literal cinder?
Strangely, it turns out that Kenchington is only really interested in finding the locket she believes one of her "killers" stole from her cataleptic body -- before the final shot reveals her jewellery is hanging around Robert's neck, as he's about to be eaten by Kerry's evil gran. Yes, that'll be the macguffin for series 2, even though Mr. Jolly turns suicide bomber and detonates a waistcoast of explosives nobody could survive.
Sadly, I was disappointed by this final episode. There were undoubtedly some fun moments (David confessing to his murders at a Citizen's Advice Bureau, the blackmailer's long-awaited reveal, Nurse Kenchington's flashbacks, Oscar revealing he has "paradise syndrome" and throwing Snappy off a cliff just so he can track the toy down all over again), but there was no sense of fulfillment and the story felt wrestled into shape. Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith are fantastic performers, write excellent dialogue, know the horror genre inside-out, can think up creepy ideas, and craft memorable characters... but cohesive plotting (as The League Of Gentlemen's third series also proved) just isn't their forte. And that's a big problem for a mystery series that required them to juggle multiple subplots.
Most frustrating was the way this episode didn't provide enough closure, as things were hastily set-up for a second series. I mean, really, how far can you take charaters like unhinged Joy, miserly Lomax, irascible clown Jelly, retarded killer David, and besotted dwarf Robert? Will it be fun seeing them chase a locket around, like an episodic version of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? These characters were interesting as mysterious oddballs with shadowy pasts to tease apart, but I'm not convinced they have anything to offer us now their backstories have been revealed. I'd have preferred a proper end to this storyline and for Psychoville's next series to introduce a new group of grotesques...
30 July 2009
BBC2, 10pm
written by: Reece Shearsmith & Steve Pemberton directed by: Matt Lipsey starring: Steve Pemberton (David Sowerbutts/Oscar Lomax), Reece Shearsmith (Mr. Jelly), Dawn French (Joy Aston), Eileen Atkins (Nurse Kenchington), Adrian Scarborough (Mr. Jolly), Vilma Hollingberry (Mrs. Wren), Jason Tomkins (Robert), Lisa Hammond (Kerry), Daniel Kaluuya (Michael Fry), Elizabeth Berrington (Nicola), Stacy Liu (Jennifer), James Holmes (Simon) & Sheila Reid (Old Crone)
