Shows I wish you would all bloody well watch (pt 1) - A Touch of Cloth
I kind of feel like I'm doing this in entirely the wrong order - I've already watched all the episodes, squeed extensively on tumblr, and written fic, but somehow my fannishness is incompletely expressed until I've done a long-ass post about it on livejournal. So, let me ramble on a bit about A Touch of Cloth. It's a British comedy that has run for three series, if you can call TWO 45-minute episodes each year a "series". So, 4.5 hours over three years. That's even more pathetic than Sherlock *g*. Anyway. The name is a play on A Touch of Frost, since the main character's name is DI Jack Cloth, except that the term "touching cloth" is a charming expression referring to the act of needing to go to the bathroom so badly that... let's just say I hate toilet humour, but that's thankfully as close as it gets. Haha.
I don't much care for British cop dramas either, but the appeal of this show is that it's basically every British cop show you've never seen. Somehow the tropes are still incredibly familiar. After the brutal murder of his wife, DI Jack Cloth (John Hannah, all greying and Scottish, like a Capaldi) retreats into alcoholic stupor and framed news clippings (including one headlined, "Local cop obsessed with news clippings"), only to be dragged back to work by his new partner, an intense DC Anne Oldman (pronounced An Old Man, a joke that has run through all three series, and yet somehow never gets old), played by Suranne Jones. I found the entire cast instantly appealing, which is also a big plus. There's earnest Asap Qureshi (Navin Chowdhry), who is basically a font of exposition, Des Hairihan (Adrian Bower) who is unsurprisingly obsessed with the female form, Dr Natasha Sachet (Daisy Beaumont), the ice-cold mortician who shares a smouldering "history" with Jack, and, in a direct assault on all my kinks, arrogant boss ACC Tom Boss (Julian Rhind-Tutt), with his flowing coat and terrible puns and penchant for walking straight through crime scene tape rather than under it.
Cloth and Oldman's first job together is to investigate the murder of an actual old man on the "Rundowne Estate". Chasing up a lead on some youths spotted in the vicinity, they end up at "Datdere Yute Club" looking for a man nicknamed Crossbow (who they must catch before he bolts!). When they find him, he denies being the man they're looking for, even though he's helpfully wearing a bright red T-shirt printed with "I Am Crossbow". The stupidest chase scene in the world ensues, compete with random somersaults, improbable leaps from tall buildings, spontaneous ribbon waving, and dramatic live musical accompaniment. And it just gets increasingly more ludicrous from there.
Now, I realise that on the face of it the show doesn't sound so much "funny" as "stupid" - in fact, I will go so far as to say at times it physically hurt me to watch, since there appear to be no limits in just how low the show is willing to go for a cheap laugh. No, even cheaper than whatever it is you're thinking. And yet at the same time, it's completely brilliant. A lot of its appeal lies in the fact that that if you overlook the idiocy and sight gags, everything else - the cinematography, the editing, the acting, even the convoluted plot - is pure, serious cop show. The actors are particularly amazing - they spout complete nonsense with all the ponderous gravity you would expect from gritty BBC crime drama. "Never been found dead before, so this is out of character." "You're coming apart at the seams, Cloth!" "Wants us to head over there during the ad break." "Don't forget which side you're on." "I'm on the edge. Edges don't have sides."
I'd be wailing, "OH GOD, THIS IS SO STUPID I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M WATCHING THIS, BUT IT'S ALSO BRILLIANT. HOWWW?" to which my husband shrugged and said, "cognitive dissonance". And he's right. What I love is that the drama and emotion are so genuinely affecting, even though the content is patently ridiculous, leaving you lost and helpless in the land of "I don't know what my feelings are doing". The true joy of the show lies in having your brain thoroughly messed with by all the conflicting data. Of course, if you tend towards being a bit highbrow in your tastes... um, yeah, probably not your thing.
Oh, and at least three of the main characters are canonically bisexual, and not at all bothered about it, thank you very much. I haven't seen its like since Torchwood *g*
Please. Watch the trailer. And if you want more, head over to enigmaticpenguinofdeath's post (with links!). Or you can check out a few more random clips on Youtube.
I don't much care for British cop dramas either, but the appeal of this show is that it's basically every British cop show you've never seen. Somehow the tropes are still incredibly familiar. After the brutal murder of his wife, DI Jack Cloth (John Hannah, all greying and Scottish, like a Capaldi) retreats into alcoholic stupor and framed news clippings (including one headlined, "Local cop obsessed with news clippings"), only to be dragged back to work by his new partner, an intense DC Anne Oldman (pronounced An Old Man, a joke that has run through all three series, and yet somehow never gets old), played by Suranne Jones. I found the entire cast instantly appealing, which is also a big plus. There's earnest Asap Qureshi (Navin Chowdhry), who is basically a font of exposition, Des Hairihan (Adrian Bower) who is unsurprisingly obsessed with the female form, Dr Natasha Sachet (Daisy Beaumont), the ice-cold mortician who shares a smouldering "history" with Jack, and, in a direct assault on all my kinks, arrogant boss ACC Tom Boss (Julian Rhind-Tutt), with his flowing coat and terrible puns and penchant for walking straight through crime scene tape rather than under it.
Cloth and Oldman's first job together is to investigate the murder of an actual old man on the "Rundowne Estate". Chasing up a lead on some youths spotted in the vicinity, they end up at "Datdere Yute Club" looking for a man nicknamed Crossbow (who they must catch before he bolts!). When they find him, he denies being the man they're looking for, even though he's helpfully wearing a bright red T-shirt printed with "I Am Crossbow". The stupidest chase scene in the world ensues, compete with random somersaults, improbable leaps from tall buildings, spontaneous ribbon waving, and dramatic live musical accompaniment. And it just gets increasingly more ludicrous from there.
Now, I realise that on the face of it the show doesn't sound so much "funny" as "stupid" - in fact, I will go so far as to say at times it physically hurt me to watch, since there appear to be no limits in just how low the show is willing to go for a cheap laugh. No, even cheaper than whatever it is you're thinking. And yet at the same time, it's completely brilliant. A lot of its appeal lies in the fact that that if you overlook the idiocy and sight gags, everything else - the cinematography, the editing, the acting, even the convoluted plot - is pure, serious cop show. The actors are particularly amazing - they spout complete nonsense with all the ponderous gravity you would expect from gritty BBC crime drama. "Never been found dead before, so this is out of character." "You're coming apart at the seams, Cloth!" "Wants us to head over there during the ad break." "Don't forget which side you're on." "I'm on the edge. Edges don't have sides."
I'd be wailing, "OH GOD, THIS IS SO STUPID I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M WATCHING THIS, BUT IT'S ALSO BRILLIANT. HOWWW?" to which my husband shrugged and said, "cognitive dissonance". And he's right. What I love is that the drama and emotion are so genuinely affecting, even though the content is patently ridiculous, leaving you lost and helpless in the land of "I don't know what my feelings are doing". The true joy of the show lies in having your brain thoroughly messed with by all the conflicting data. Of course, if you tend towards being a bit highbrow in your tastes... um, yeah, probably not your thing.
Oh, and at least three of the main characters are canonically bisexual, and not at all bothered about it, thank you very much. I haven't seen its like since Torchwood *g*
Please. Watch the trailer. And if you want more, head over to enigmaticpenguinofdeath's post (with links!). Or you can check out a few more random clips on Youtube.
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