TV Review: Mandy, BBC Two

TV Review: Mandy, BBC Two

Mandy star Diane Morgan recently said in an interview in The Times that "I don't think there's enough stupid comedy." Well, she is certainly doing her bit to redress the balance with a third series of Mandy in which Morgan plays the dim as a dead light bulb titular character, each episode (two 15 min instalments a week and all now on iPlayer) looking for gainful employment and each episode making a mockery of said gainful employment.

In the first episode, Destination Dundee, for example, she lands a job as an air steward (or is it flight attendant, I can't keep up). but first she has to meet the regulation 5 foot 8 inches height which involves a cut price operation and wearing magnetic calipers on her legs for the next six months. Needless to say this both hinders and helps her in her new career. She can't walk down the aisle without collecting all sorts of metal objects such as pens and spectacles along the way.

But this hindrance also turns out to be a help when the plane is hijacked and she is able to jump into action, in death-defying heroic bionic lady-style. It's every bit as daft as it sounds – you can't help think of the classic movie Airplane every time there is a visual gag. Morgan has spoken of her love of silent comedy heroes such as Harold Lloyd and you can see that influence here too, though we won't give too much away on the visual comedy front.

It helps, of course, that Morgan is a brilliant physical comic. When not contorting her face she is strutting gormlessly along, like a stick thin praying mantis with the hairdo of Bet Lynch. It's hard not to be hilarious when you look like that.

In the second episode, Get Mandy Carter, she lands a job guarding an ancient tree and turns out to be so good with a blow dart (don't ask...) that she is approached in a pub to be a hitman. Which means buying a suitable weapon in the nearest Sue Ryder shop. As you do. Once again the episode is peppered with idiotic verbal and visual gags and ends with something you really won't see coming.

Oh, and if you like watching lots of comedy you'll see a plethora of familiar faces, including Mark Silcox, Sunil Patel, Michelle Greenidge, Paul Ready, Lucia Keskin, Tom Basden, Michael Spicer, Alistair Green, Roger 'Nuts In May' Sloman and Edward Aczel. 

Mandy, Wednesdays from March 27, BBC Two, 10pm. 

Picture: Mandy (Diane Morgan) (Image: BBC Studios/Richard Harrison)

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