Quarter 1 Reviews- 011 Contemporary Comedy - New

011 Contemporary Comedy – New

All the comedy is Christmas-y this time around.  

Sophie’s Lights was a charming and quite amusing comedy about Sophie, a Jewish girl who goes to a mixed school but attends special Jewish school on the weekend.  She annoys her Jewish teacher, Mrs Abrams (Christine Cox), because she believes in Santa Claus (she’s only six).  Her mother Rachel (Fariah Falade) is fairly secular but agreed with dad Alan (William Ashe) that she would be brought up Jewish.  Alan talks Sophie into “logically” discounting the ability of Santa Claus to exist, so Rachel throws him out in the rain and cold on Christmas Eve.  Will there be a Christmas miracle, a Hanukkah miracle, or a little of both?  Sophie’s Lights was written by Adam Usden and directed by Charlotte Riches.

The Dead Ringers Christmas Special 2017 Part 2 made me laugh out loud.  Donald Trump has hit the nuclear button, so the world has half an hour left.  Jeremy Corbyn wants to try to negotiate with the nuclear war-heads, while Penelope Wilton reads a primer on what will happen to everyone in the event of a nuclear holocaust.  Michael Gove gets the nuclear bunker all to himself, and it turns out David Davies is actually responsible for the impending nuclear annihilation.  The funniest part was The Archers parody.  Dead Ringers was written by Tom Jamieson, Nev Fountain, Tom Coles, Ed Amsden, Sarah Campbell, Laurence Howarth, James Bugg, Max Davis, and Jack Bernhardt.  It starred Jon Culshaw, Jan Ravens, Lewis MacLeod, Debra Stephenson, Duncan Wisbey and was directed by Bill Dane.  

Not actually Christmas-y but remaining true to the theme, Dead Ringers:  An Alien Has Landed was very, very amusing.  It served as an effective primer to everything in contemporary British life, from Theresa May to Jeremy Corbyn to Michael Gove to Big Brother to Jeremy Kyle.  It made me laugh a lot.  An alien lands on Earth and seems to be content to stay in the UK.  He is adored at first, then he reaches saturation point and the British public turns on him.  Dead Ringers was written by Tom Jamieson, Nev Fountain, Tom Coles, Ed Amsden, Sarah Campbell, and Laurence Howarth and was directed by Bill Dare.