Comedy Playhouse: Tim Vine Travels In Time

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Comedy Playhouse: Tim Vine Travels In Time

September 03, 2017 - 18:41
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The BBC’s Comedy Playhouse is back – a series of one-off comedy pilots which gives writers and producers the opportunity to have a play around with ideas that have been festering at the back of their minds. Essentially, it’s thinking out loud. Having originally aired in the 60s and 70s, Comedy Playhouse was the birthplace of many successful sitcoms, including Steptoe and Son and Last Of The Summer Wine, the world’s longest-running sitcom.

Tim Vine Travels in Time

By Matthew Gormley @MatthewPGormley

The BBC’s Comedy Playhouse is back – a series of one-off comedy pilots which gives writers and producers the opportunity to have a play around with ideas that have been festering at the back of their minds. Essentially, it’s thinking out loud. Having originally aired in the 60s and 70s, Comedy Playhouse was the birthplace of many successful sitcoms, including Steptoe and Son and Last Of The Summer Wine, the world’s longest-running sitcom.

Now, Comedy Playhouse is back, with three more standalone sitcoms all being given a trial run. The first of which is Tim Vine Travels In Time, a flimsy concept which is essentially a vehicle for Tim Vine, the king of the one-liners, to cram in as many of his cheesy wisecracks as he possibly can. If, like me, you’re into your puns, then it’ll be funny at first, but it soon begins to lack pace.

Vine is running an antiques shop, when he’s visited by celebrity guest Ore Oduba. Since he won Strictly last Christmas, the BBC seem insistent on having him involved in everything. ‘Strictly has opened so many doors for me’, Ore claims as he enters the shop. ‘There’s a lot hinging on that’, replies Tim, before anybody has the chance to predict could possibly be coming next. And so it goes on for the next 27 minutes.

Ore dances his way through the half hour, bursting into an improvised shoe shuffle at the mere mention of any word or phrase that sounds remotely like a style of dance - ‘can go’ being a prime example.

Ore presents Tim with a broken arrow which needs repairing, allowing Tim to go travelling back in time, with the aid of a grandfather clock. It’s like being back in the primary school history classroom. So it’s back to 1205, the age of Robin Hood and his merry men. Cue: ‘We’re the merry men’. ‘Well do you think you could tell your face’ etc etc.

Once back in 1205, Ore reappears as Robin Hood, joined by sitcom regular Sally Phillips as Maid Marian. Sally is best known for playing Miranda’s annoying public school friend Tilly, and there’s a subtle hint of the overbearing character seeping through into Robin Hood’s love interest. Never before, in the story of Robin Hood, have the principal characters been so insignificant. The story is purely just a washing line on which to hang an endless supply of puns and leave them to drip dry.

Tim treats the whole thing at farcical face value, regularly breaking the fourth wall and addressing the viewers through the camera, almost like he’s on stage doing stand up. You never quite manage to believe that he’s playing a character in a sitcom. I’m not sure we’re even supposed to. It’s almost as though Vine is a passenger, cruising through one of his own dreams, providing a running commentary at breakneck speed. He has no pretences about this show. It’s supposed to be shoddy, it’s supposed to be silly, it’s supposed to be 30 minutes of non-stop shameless pundry.

Other cast members who have come along for the ride are Spencer Jones, who plays Friar Tuck, Marek Larwood as the obligatory dim-wit Glen, one of the merry men, and Tim Key as the shouty Sheriff of Nottingham (whom Vine calls the ‘chef of Nottingham’ and the ‘Sheriff of Not-in-again’). He’s the most annoying character, bawling his way through the script. It was funny for the first couple of lines, but there are only so many times you want to see Tim wince with his fingers in his ears before it becomes tiresome.

By the time we get back to the antiques shop for the final scene, we forget why we there in the first place, despite Vine dropping in several ‘plot recap’ reminders to camera throughout the historical scenes. Ore’s golden arrow is mended and is now back in one piece, so Tim is no longer ‘missing the point’. Ba-dush.

The fact that it was buried away at 10.35pm on a Friday night suggests that Beeb bosses have as much faith in this programme as Vine himself. It could be on the middle of the afternoon, or better still, at teatime, as it would certainly pull a few giggles out of the kiddies. There are laughs and groans in equal measure, but while it gets off to a strong, albeit silly, start, the pace slows down as we creep towards the finish line.

If you’re anything like me and love nothing more than a cleverly crafted piece of wordplay, you’ll bask in this smorgasbord of silliness. If you’re expecting cutting edge comedy, this Comedy Playhouse is not for you.

As enjoyable as it was, I can’t see it making a full series. There simply isn’t enough premise and the jokes would soon wear thin.

Comedy Playhouse: Tim Vine Travels In Time is now available on BBC iPlayer.