Greg Davies’ comedy returns with a notable absence…
When Rik Mayall died on the 9th June 2014, we lost a comic pioneer with prodigious ability; exemplified by his hilarious performances in shows like THE YOUNG ONES and BOTTOM, he gobbled up the landscape with his histrionic and rampaging style, contorting and screwing up his face like a gurning madman. When he passed away, the volume at which the British public expressed their adoration for barmy Mayall and his exemplary output was a great testament to our ongoing love of quintessential eccentricity. We quaint islanders love a charming nutjob and Mayall was the archetype.
Mayall’s televisual output had an anarchic, crude and crazy style and MAN DOWN, one of the final shows to utilise Mayall’s comic talent, shares that same stylistic DNA. And in writer and central performer, Greg ‘Mr Gilbert from THE INBETWEENERS’ Davies, MAN DOWN has a comedian that shares Mayall’s DNA, i.e. bonkers as bats**t. Series 1 of MAN DOWN had some genuinely rib-tickling moments, mostly from Mayall playing the Machiavellian father of protagonist Daniel (Davies); his character delighted in inflicted as much anguish and embarrassment on his emotionally-stunted son as was humanly possible.
It was a bloody funny role for Mayall and somewhat fitting that he should share the screen with Davies, who sites Mayall as his hero. The 2014 Christmas Special of MAN DOWN dealt with Mayall’s death by in turn killing off his onscreen character in a successfully touching and respectful tribute; this paved the way for MAN DOWN to continue without Mayall’s absence a constant elephant in the room.
So, Series 2 of MAN DOWN has begun. Perhaps Davies feels that he must carry on Mayall’s good work and create a programme which is as anarchic, crude and crazy as THE YOUNG ONES and BOTTOM before it. Perhaps he doesn’t. But there’s no doubt the first episode of this second series is all of these things.
It opens with our antihero Daniel visiting the doctor’s and discovering he has a swollen prostate. He is accompanied to the doctor’s (much to his visible and verbal disgust) by his obnoxious aunt Nesta (played with venomous relish by Stephanie ‘Roy’s mum in CORRIE’ Cole), who helpfully asks, “Why do you want Dr Baxter to finger your bottom, Daniel?” The realisation that he is now a middle-aged man drives the events of the episode. I love that. When a forty-something-year-old bloke’s swollen prostate is a plot device you just know you’re in for a pant-wettingly vulgar and, frankly, childish time. And that is where MAN DOWN is at it’s funniest; when Daniel is behaving with vulgarity and childishness. Daniel is a hugely dysfunctional comic creation who hasn’t grown up; he’s 6 foot 8, pushing 20 stone and teaching drama at a secondary school, but behaves like a teenager. He’s a Man Child.
It’s very funny when Daniel tries to join the gym; the instructor refuses to help him get in shape, saying, “it’s all gone, all bad”, as he wobbles Daniel’s stupendously rotund beer gut. It’s very funny when Daniel goes on a date with a younger lady, having dyed his hair jet black and wearing a Shed Seven t-shirt to appear hip and happening; his spectacularly underwhelming boast, “I ate a whole bag of potatoes once”, made me LOL. And then there is a sex scene which is all kinds of crude and howl-inducing… I won’t ruin it for you, just watch it. Davies is brilliant and larger (quite literally) than life as Daniel and MAN DOWN is always watchable and funny because of that fact.
The secondary players, Roisin Conaty as Jo and Mark Wozniak as Brian, just can’t compete with his enormous performance and unfortunately their storylines fall by the wayside.
The legacy of Mayall’s comedy lives on in MAN DOWN. I would never suggest the quality of MAN DOWN is anywhere near the sheer cult brilliance of THE YOUNG ONES or BOTTOM or, indeed other programmes Mayall excelled in, such as BLACKADDER. However, it’s nice to have a little bit of anarchic, crude and crazy filth on the box, in this (at times) bland and (sadly) Mayall-less televisual era.
MAN DOWN series 2 Episode 1 is now available to watch on All4. Episode 2 is on Monday 8th June, 10pm on Channel 4.
