Psychoville

British Comedy Drama

BBC / Roadshow Entertainment

R4 DVD

This dark comedy follows in the tradition of Snuffbox with just a bit of Little Britain thrown in. There is a new British comedy genre that has diverged from the Monty Python style of humour and the TV sitcom and started to explore new areas and taboo subjects. Psychoville is a good example with its demented characters, lampooning of mental illness and even a passing swipe at dwarves.

The characters are all initially disconnected, their only common thread being that they have received a letter with a key enclosed, and a message “I know what you did:” The first two episodes introduce and explore the characters themselves without developing the mystery very much.

There is Joy the midwife, who has suffered a mental breakdown and been given a doll as part of her therapy. She now regards the doll as her child. When her husband rips the doll’s head off she kidnaps a nurse and transfuses her blood into the doll to revive it.

David is an expert on serial killers who used to run murder parties, which he called “my murders”. His ever-supportive but domineering mum Maureen believes he is talking about real serial killing so she has taken up doing a few killings of her own.

Mr Jelly is an embittered clown with a hook where his right hand used to be. His career has gone downhill a bit since he lost his hand. His arch-enemy is Mr Jolly. He envies Mr Jolly’s success as a clown but they have both received The Letter and must join forces.

Oscar Lomax is a recluse in his decaying mansion. He hires young people to read his mail to him, but so far he hasn’t received the letter from NASA that he is waiting for.

There are more characters and subplots and the telekinetic dwarf seems quite normal in comparison to some of them.

And who is the Mysterious Masked Stranger ?

What is the key that links all these characters? There are seven parts to the series so we have a while to wait before we find out. Meanwhile it is rapidly becoming a cult. The show completely ignores political correctness. Indeed, like Little Britain, the writers Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton seem to enjoy making it as incorrect as possible. The plot has more twists and turns than a pair of mating snakes and so far there is no indication of where it is going. It’s just a lot of fun watching it get there.

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