Year of the Rabbit (Matt Berry sitcom)

[Captain Z]

To be fair to Berry though I don't think he's under any illusions about his comedic talent and subsequent career. Whenever I've heard him being interviewed (he was quite good on the Adam Buxton podcast for example) he's always been keen to stress his entry into comedy was a complete accident and not something he'd ever wanted or really worked for. I get the impression he knows he's a bit of a one trick pony in that regard but if people keep offering him work what's he supposed to do, turn it down and become a plumber?

This is almost word-for-word exactly what Michael Cumming said about Matt Berry at a recent 'Oxide Ghosts' screening I went to. Matt always reiterates he can only play one character, and is a musician first and accidental-actor second.

[Shit Good Nose]

It had a few moments that made me chuckle.  "Horrible murders, fucking pictures and everything" in particular got me.

Also I continue to be the only CaBber that can't stand Paul Kaye. 

It's not the reason I can't stand him, but his fucking teeth...

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Teeth aside, what's your problem with him? He's a good actor.

[Shit Good Nose]

He just annoys me.  Always has done, right back to Dennis Pennis where I found myself constantly siding with those he was attacking.

I've always thought he gives it WAY too much, at least when it comes to comedy - I'll admit I've not seen any of his more recent dramatic work.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Isn't that because he tends to get cast in comedy roles which require broad strokes? He seems to spend most of his time doing straight acting these days anyway - he's particularly good at playing creepy, sinister characters

[Shit Good Nose]

Isn't that because he tends to get cast in comedy roles which require broad strokes?

That may be so, but even in this, where the whole cast is playing it too much, he made it look like the rest of them were in All the President's Men.

But, y'know, I've acknowledged before, as I do now, that I'm the only person that thinks it.

[dr_christian_troy]

I liked him in that Terry Pratchett documentary.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

That may be so, but even in this, where the whole cast is playing it too much, he made it look like the rest of them were in All the President's Men.

Fair enough. I enjoy his OTT performance style.

But, y'know, I've acknowledged before, as I do now, that I'm the only person that thinks it.

You can't be the only person who thinks this.

[chrispmartha]

I know its not a popular opinion here but I loved Darkplace, watched all again recently, and it holds up.

I love Dark Place too, but then I do quite like Berry's Shtick, Toast of London is right up there with my favourites.

As for this Rabbit thing, I quite like the premise but The swearing does seem OTT but I suspect tgat is oart if the parody?

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Not popular opinion? Darkplace is/was great, cooked and bombd are idiots fuck off idiots!!!

I think it was an ironic post as it's rightly lauded on here afaik.

[VelourSpirit]

I think it was an ironic post as it's rightly lauded on here afaik.

A lot of people in this old thread fucking haaaaaaated it when it came out https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=215.0

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

As for this Rabbit thing, I quite like the premise but The swearing does seem OTT but I suspect tgat is oart if the parody?

It's such a boring joke, though. A spoof of grisly Victorian period dramas such as Ripper Street in which everyone says "fuck" and "cunt" a lot. How incongruous!

Except it's not really, is it? The roughneck character Berry plays probably would've used such language at the time, so it doesn't even work as a subversive, deliberately anachronistic gag.

I like the basic premise too, but the execution is lousy.

[Phil_A]

Have Cecil & Riley ever, in their thirty-something years career, produced anything between them that rises above barely competent mediocrity, I mean anything? To me their name on a project never fails to evokes a sigh of disappointment and a feeling of "Oh god, another one of those."

It seems like they truck a lot in pastiche but won't put in the work in, that crucial attention to details that separates something like Police Squad from something like...Top Coppers.

Instead of making it feel true to the source material, let's just have characters walking around going "Fucking hell fuck bollocks cunt isn't it shit being in Victorian times, you twat."

[Danger Man]

Have Cecil & Riley ever, in their thirty-something years career, produced anything between them that rises above barely competent mediocrity

The Armando Iannucci Show? But they could have just written the shit bits in it.

[Old Nehamkin]

Have Cecil & Riley ever, in their thirty-something years career, produced anything between them that rises above barely competent mediocrity, I mean anything? To me their name on a project never fails to evokes a sigh of disappointment and a feeling of "Oh god, another one of those."

I'm a big advocate of "Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire", a 1999 stop-motion special they co-wrote with Richard Curtis (and directed by Richard Golezowski, creator of Rex the Runt). I think it deserves to be a perennial christmas TV standard like the Wallace and Gromit films, but it's been largely forgotten about along with its two sequels (which are admittedly much less good).

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

And Black Books of course. But I gurss you mean just Cecil and Riley rather than them in collaboration with other talented writers.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Apologies at referring waaaay back in this thread but I only recently came to a perusal of the same.

On the discussion about Matt Berry's 'normal' accent he was born and brought up in Bedford where I also lived for a while. To be specific he is from Bromham which is a reasonably well heeled part of the town. The difficulty with placing a Bedford accent is that there isn't really one as the place is something of an anomaly as to exactly which part of the country it belongs to. It isn't really Midlands or London(ish) and tends to get lumped in with the Eastern part of England but it doesn't really sit well there. This leads to something of an identity crisis for the place, which manifests itself in not really having a distinctive accent.

Bedford celebrates Berry with some publicity pics and a bit of a bio in the local Weatherspoon's which is high praise indeed.

Bedford itself is fairly non-descript with the most notable present day feature being the presence of the Panacea society who (I shit you not) believe Bedford to be the site of the Garden of Eden and also maintain a house in the town reserved for the second coming of the Messiah in the event that he needs somewhere to crash for a while. This is well covered in Bollocks to Alton Towers the excellent book by, amongst others, Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris who of course are responsible for the Rule Of Three Podcast.       

[MigraineBoy]

Bedford itself is fairly non-descript with the most notable present day feature being the presence of the Panacea society who (I shit you not) believe Bedford to be the site of the Garden of Eden and also maintain a house in the town reserved for the second coming of the Messiah in the event that he needs somewhere to crash for a while. This is well covered in Bollocks to Alton Towers the excellent book by, amongst others, Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris who of course are responsible for the Rule Of Three Podcast.       

Stuart Maconie did a good bit on the Panacea Society in his Long Road from Jarrow book.

[vainsharpdad]

Mark Steel's In Town covers it when he's in Bedford as well.

[gilbertharding]

Apologies at referring waaaay back in this thread but I only recently came to a perusal of the same.

On the discussion about Matt Berry's 'normal' accent he was born and brought up in Bedford where I also lived for a while. To be specific he is from Bromham which is a reasonably well heeled part of the town. The difficulty with placing a Bedford accent is that there isn't really one as the place is something of an anomaly as to exactly which part of the country it belongs to. It isn't really Midlands or London(ish) and tends to get lumped in with the Eastern part of England but it doesn't really sit well there. This leads to something of an identity crisis for the place, which manifests itself in not really having a distinctive accent.

I come from Huntingdon - so can relate.

[Tony Tony Tony]

Mark Steel's In Town covers it when he's in Bedford as well.

Probably covered elsewhere and veering off topic, but I do think Mark Steel is something of a comedic genius in the way he knocks out a pretty decent show about wherever he lands up each week. Although some of them do depend heavily on the isn't [insert nearby place] shit compared to here trope they are nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining half hour each time.

He also strikes a decent type as evidenced when I saw him fairly recently at the Knebworth comedy festival. The show was directly before Greg Davies set, which had been sold as a separate show. The thing was held in a tent and that day saw a rainstorm of near biblical proportions. Steel saw Greg Davies' audience huddling outside towards the end of his set and talked the door staff into letting them into the dry. This was despite the influx ruining the last ten minutes or so of his set, though he managed to get some decent laughs as he worked the dripping wet audience into their seats.   

[McFlymo]

For a while I lived in Luton, which is near Bedford. Both places left me unfulfilled with mirth.

My issue with this Rabbit caper is not the swearing, but how that 10 minutes of YouTube rocked awkwardly between comedy and potentially interesting detective story. Paul Kaye was ludicrously over the top as a fool stealing Rabbit's thunder, and the spoofing of detective tropes guarantees that any serious plot will be lost in a sea of lazy jokes. It looks pretty though and I wasn't as annoyed by Berry as many of you were.

[derek stitt]

Year of the Rabbit, Year of the Pony more like.... am I right, am I right.

I make no apologies for this witless remark, seems rather fitting.

[Twed]

So it seems this sitcom is less interesting than Bedford.

[Twed]

Hey, that's kind-of weird. I live near a (different) Bedford, I work there and do all my shopping etc. there and it's only just clicked with me that it's the same place name. My brain is a very specific kind of shit brain.

[Mister Six]

Why are so many TV shows now going for that 2:1 aspect ratio shit

Uh, you mean 16:9? Or is it actually 2:1? I don't think I've ever seen a 2:1 ratio before.

Assuming it is 16:9 - presumably because that's the shape of most people's tellies now?

Edit: coo, I stand corrected: https://vashivisuals.com/the-hot-new-filmmaking-aspect-ratio/

[jobotic]

Apparently Farage is snowflaking again because this programme portrays a racist cunt politician getting shot.

[momatt]

I like Matt Berry in the new What We Do InThe Shadows

This is a bloody great show!  Has it got it's own thread yet?

[St_Eddie]

This is a bloody great show!  Has it got it's own thread yet?

Yes.

[Johnny Yesno]

I've just finished watching this and judging by the reaction on here, I'm in a minority of people that enjoyed it. Not as good as What We Do in the Shadows but a fuckton better than Darkplace. I do agree, though, that the sweariness doesn't really fucking work. It feels like it's cunting shoe-horned in and arsebiscuits is quite distracting.