Quarter 4 Reviews - 9/13

012 Contemporary Comedy – Old 

I don’t know that there’s been a radio drama I listened to that made me as optimistic about the human race as The Liberty of Norton Folgate since I heard Breaking Up with Bradford earlier this year.  It’s been a long time since I’ve heard music was integrated so well into the narrative of a drama, which is not surprising considering the drama was based on Madness’ 2009 album, rather than the other way around.  The way Suggs, Chas, and Mike are integrated into the narrative feels less natural, more on par with Sophia Square than more “professional” drama.  Nevertheless, the music is infectious, and the story just what we need in the current climate of intolerance and short-sightedness.  Gazi (Vincent Ibrahim) and Sitara (Pooja Gai) have been running the Union Café in Norton Folgate (East London) for decades.  Their son, Aki (Avin Shah, a big part of recent episodes of Tommies), returns to London after having been warned off bigoted property hotshot Ralph Burke’s daughter Jess (Stephanie Racine).  While Jess’ habit of saying “mate” at the end of every sentence was much more annoying than Aki’s habit of saying “innit,” theirs is a relationship that, once again, for some reason makes me think of Sophia Square—Alice and Mercedes.  Burke is in charge of a council initiative to end the lease on the Union Café when the boundary lines are mysteriously re-drawn.  Gazi institutes a Union sit-in and is delighted by 200 views on YouTube.  Ralph’s racist goon Huey is tricked by Somalian refugee Sunshine (Danny Supani) who in the end gets his asylum status and a job in immigration!  The points about the UK being a nation of immigrants—particularly London’s melting pot—are all absolutely bang on the mark. Originally from 2013, it was written by Mark Davies Markham and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.  

Katie Hims once again on top of her game with The Disappearance of Shirley McGill, also directed by Jeremy Mortimer.   Oh, Philip Jackson.  So often cast as the baddie, or at least scarcely ever the hero.  I was astonished when I realized that Shirley McGill was played, very much against type, by Lesley Manville (who always seems to play dainty, aristocratic ladies), which is not Shirley McGill at all.  Shirley is a housewife who married Vernon, who seems to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  He is self-important and crushes any and all personality from her life.  The only person who seems to notice Shirley is the butcher (Shaun Dingwall); that is, before she goes completely invisible.  Vernon thinks she’s run away, and after a few phone calls in which he tells her she can still come home, he will forgive her, she devotes her life to other things.  Such as trying to prevent teenagers from murdering each other in back alleys.  It also starred Emma Woolliams and Scott Brooksbank.

The more I think about it, the more I have to disdain Time Slip’s enshrinement of early 1980s gender norms.  But if you can get over that, it’s an ingenious and humorous piece of science fiction from the irrepressible Wally K Daly. Faye (Gwen Watford) is a typical housewife who apparently has nothing better to do than put out sherry and make dinner when her husband, Paul (Paul Damon), comes home.  He’s managed to catch an earlier train.  He and good friend Frank (Donald Hewlett) have been trying out new scientific kit including a kind of 3D printer/cloning machine.  In no doubt that it doesn’t work, (“it’s nothing to worry your pretty little head about”) he and Frank have made their way home.  Only, the machine has worked, and another Paul arrives to have dinner with the first Paul and Faye.  Faye informs both Pauls that she has a headache and will continue to have a headache until the Pauls can sort themselves out (oy vey, the gender stereotypes).  Margaret (Norman Ronald), Faye’s friend and Frank’s wife, is having a slightly different reaction.  A frequent aficionado of the sauce, Margaret takes the whole thing with a slightly more “liberated” view.  Faye is appalled.  Meanwhile, the first set of Paul and Frank have gone to the pub to discuss how to get rid of their copies.  However, a horrible realization sets in:  there’s no way to telling which set is “real.”  Worse, considering their previous experiments with the machine, they know the false set is going to implode approximately three hours after the duplication took place.  It’s a funny story and must have been fun to make; on the other hand, it does have some slightly sobering observations on how do we really tell we are ourselves. Originally from 1983, it was directed by Martin Jenkins.