Concept or art? Dolly and Noel debate the Pele drawing.
Channel 4 deserve enormous credit for commissioning and backing what is billed as the “psychedelic character-based show” : Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy.
This is the solo project of one half of the duo behind the hugely successful cult sit-com The Mighty Boosh.
The similarities between the two shows are obvious from the start, and it even features some of the Boosh regulars although straight man Julian Barrett is conspicuous by his absence.
The presence of the gorgeous Dolly Wells more than compensates for the the lack of Howard Moon.
The show has a deliberately amateurish look in the same vein as Vic Reeves’ Big Night Out and the zany humour is very similar to that of Vic and Bob. There’s a kind of ‘here’s one I made earlier’ charm to the surreal DIY costumes and low budget animation.
Any one of the sketches could be submitted as evidence that Fielding is clinically insane and perhaps that’s how his story will end as he admitted in an interview on Richard Bacon’s radio 5 show that the show involved a lot of “psychologically damaging character work”.
Episode 1 of seven divided the audience which is no great surprise and won’t unduly concern Fielding as he is not interested in penetrating the mainstream or being swayed by the Twitter masses.
The second episode (The Jelly Fox) already seems like a step up or maybe I’m beginning to get on the wavelength. It is self indulgent and inevitably not everything works but I’ll take this over the ‘straight’ sit-com any day.
It’s one of those shows you will either love or hate but Channel 4 have already committed to a second series so ,if you’re in the ‘hate it’ camp, tough titty!
