Summer’s here! Sun’s out, guns out! SUNTRAP’s also here to get you in the mood for the beach… Possibly…
Comedy. It’s all about the performance. Well, that’s not entirely true; the script has to be funny too. But think about the classic British comedies of yesteryear; they were so popular because they were performed so superlatively. John Cleese was hernia-inducingly hilarious as the bordering psychotic Basil Fawlty in FAWLTY TOWERS… would it have been such a success with another actor, therefore a different performance? Probably not. David Jason was rip-roaringly rib-tickling as Del Boy Trotter in ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES; a lesser comic performance would probably have diminished the show’s success. With this is mind let’s talk about BBC1’s SUNTRAP.
Woody (Kayvan ‘FONEJACKER’ Novak) is an undercover reporter who is forced to go on the run, for convoluted reasons that entirely escape me; he ends up in Gran Canaria where he reconnects with his former mentor Brutus (Bradley ‘THE CHASE’ Walsh), who runs a bar on the island. Woody and Brutus then team up to solve some mysteries, Woody using a series of whacky characters and accents to infiltrate and deceive. Now that I have the context out the way we’ll move onto the performances.
Right, so, firstly I’d like to say that all the actors in SUNTRAP have laudable track records. Kayvan Novak is a gifted funny man, chucklesome in FONEJACKER, FOUR LIONS and SIRENS among others. Bradley Walsh has that cheeky-chappy, everyman thang that has made THE CHASE a genuinely entertaining gameshow. Supporting roles in SUNTRAP come the from the resplendent Emma Pierson, Jamie Demetriou who has been in pretty much every great new sitcom going from UNCLE to TOAST OF LONDON and hammy geezer actor Keith Allen who I have a bit of a soft spot for. However, none of them cover themselves in glory here.
Novak delivers many of his lines like a primary school child reading off an autocue; stilted, toneless and at times with so little enthusiasm that it’s embarrassing to behold. Which is just plain weird when you know how good he can be. He wheels out a succession of characters throughout the series which are just not funny, especially when compared to the bombastically hilarious Terry Tibbs from FONEJACKER or, a personal favourite, Brian Badonde, the extravagant art critic from FACEJACKER. Bradley Walsh goes the other way and overeggs his every line, willing it to be funny by sheer effort alone and I think we’re supposed to derive amusement from Keith Allen’s thick, exaggerated Spanish accent but, alas, no.
The writers, Charlie Skelton and Neil Webster are consummate and experienced comedy writers and it is clear what they’re going for with SUNTRAP; a knock-a-bout, buddy comedy with lots of quick-fire banter and bonhomie… in the scorching sun à la BENIDORM. An example of the dialogue from the sixth and final episode is thus;
Woody: You’re confused
Brutus: No, you’re confused
Woody: No, you’re confused
Brutus: No, you’re confused
Woody: No, you’re confused
Brutus: Hang on, now I’m confused. Are you confused or am I confused?
It’s delivered at pace and relies on performance to be funny and that’s the trouble; Skelton and Webster have written many lines that have the potential to be funny but fall flat because of the performances.
Excuse the cliché… you win some you lose some. SUNTRAP isn’t great but the writers and actors in it are great and they will go on to do great things again. But, hey, don’t let any review put you off watching SUNTRAP, I’m sure some people will find it hilarious and there’s the possibility I’m being a little over-critical; but with the quality of previous output from all involved I just expected so much more from SUNTRAP.
SUNTRAP Series 1 can now be viewed on BBC iPlayer
