Comedy with Intelligence... Surely not!
THERE is funny! It lives!we all thought it was dead and we’d have to watch Mrs Brown’s Boys all our lives thinking it was amusing when secretly we couldn’t stand it. But now there is hope. Okay, in a bumbling British comedy sort of way. It’s called Intelligence (Sky One, Friday), which began with two episodes, the first slightly funnier than the second.
But let’s put that churlishness aside. There’s much to recommend this sitcom set in GCHQ, the spy centre. Nothing has ever been set there before – for good reason. For those who don’t work there, it’s incredibly dull. For those who do, ditto.
It stars David Schwimmer as Jerry Bernstein.as Friends is still on the television in any house with a teenager, this was indeed superb casting (although that’s what they thought when Matt Le Blanc joined Top Gear). Schwimmer also plays an American which is something he can draw on with authority.and he does it with ease.
Bernstein is an import from the NSA, whatever that is, and he’s hilarious, and boy, have we satirised Americans down the years. Over two episodes, I laughed out loud many times, alarming those around me. It’s rude, yes, but not in a very shocking way.the word “v ***** ” is said but that was balanced with a discussion about actor Matthew Mcconaughey’s “browser history” which showed him searching for “Lawn mowers. Big ones”.that is funny. Don’t ask me why. There was also a joke about a short person. In today’s world, this was daring. Bernstein, on meeting his charge from GCHQ, said to Nick Mohammed, the writer and star, “Do you have dwarfism in your family? You should check!”
Short in stature but not in talent, he was cleverly making the joke against himself. It also dares to be “racist”. In his best clanger, Bernstein offers diplomatically: “Well, we were all black once… That’s not racist. It’s what mum says.”
Special mention to the wonderful Sylvestra Le Touzel, head of GCHQ Cyber Security, who is suffering no fools – including Bernstein.after he gives everyone a wacky team-building exercise, she refuses his offer of a jelly bean. How uncollegiate. She barks at him: “Do you think Alan Turing had fun?!” Yes, this is the tried-and-tested office comedy. Some work; some don’t.this one is mostly definitely “promising”.
The second episode of crime drama Endeavour (ITV, Sunday), made me think this hitherto fine series may have left its mojo in the Sixties. Now in 1970, the episode paraded next to no detection from Morse, rather a waste when he’s actually quite good at it.we had the death of an Indian restaurant delivery man, along with, oddly, a TV chef, about whom we knew next to nothing, who was found missing hands and head. There wasn’t much to go on. Meanwhile, Morse is still trying to extricate himself from an affair with a married Italian heiress.as the episode ended, he succumbed again to waftyvioletta who just doesn’t know what to do with herself so she appeared on Morse’s doorstep wearing her dress back-to-front on a chilly Oxford evening.the good detective comforted her in a moment of need.
What should happen to Endeavour?
Fans do not want it to end and non-fans – we’re told they exist – don’t want it to go on forever, regardless of ethereal Italian ladies and arcane plots.
Perhaps it will have a “conscious uncoupling” from the schedules like ITV announced for Cold Feet (ITV, Monday). Before its 10th series, ITV says it is taking a “rest”. Cold Feet has run out of legs – and plot.as we know when people get to their fifties, they either settle down or go bonkers. Adam (James Nesbitt) has bought a camper van. If we want that level of excitement we’ve got Practical Caravanning. Last word to Pete (John Thomson) who addressed wife Jen (Fay Ripley): “There is nothing I like more than sitting on that sofa and watching s **** TV.” Enjoy your sabbatical, Pete.
Finally, The Brits (ITV, Tuesday) landed its lowest ever audience.well done, viewing public. It’s meant to be entertainment for all, even the family, not politicised ranting. Grime music (not least Stormzy, left) may make money, but for those of us who once enjoyed Bob Dylan’s protest songs, or the anarchic Sex Pistols, this is nothing new. It was old-fashioned offence with dancing girls and water features. Jackwhitehall negotiated a politically correct minefield to shine again.what a relief.