TV Review, Murder In Successville, Greg James, BBC3

murder In successvile

Radio 1 DJ Greg James is the new police recruit in the second instalment of this bizarre but weirdly watchable celebrity sitcom/impro hybrid. Having been given the briefest of inductions by DI Sleet (Tom Davis) involving an inflatable doll (don’t ask…) James has to crack the murder of Reece Witherspoon, owner of, yes, you guessed it, the Witherspoons pub chain.

It’s a case of one corpse and lots of corpsing this week. Greg James is very good, but can’t stop laughing. It’s an infectious laugh too. I wonder how many scenes couldn't be completed because nobody could finish their dialogue due to the guffaws.

The main suspects are casino owner Justin Bieber (Cariad Lloyd), dieting priest Gary Barlow (Colin Hoult) and strip club boss Mary Berry (Frances Barber). Greg James has to interview them all, which involves singing jazzed-up hymns with Barlow and getting down on all fours to be inspected, presumably for a soggy bottom, by an unusually raunchy incarnation of Mary Berry.

Gradually Sleet and James home in on a showdown, via a quick meeting with magician Dynamo, played with deadpan restraint by Nick Mohammed. “It’s raining justice, you’d better get an umbrella,” says Sleets as they hurtle towards the finale. We won’t reveal the climax but James certainly gives his role 100% when called upon to do some very unpoliceman-like duties.

This is not sophisticated, carefully-crafted humour like, say, Inside No. 9, but there is something enjoyably stupid about it, even though it looks like it has cost a couple of quid to make. I fear the worst – this ludicrous off-the-cuffs series may be growing on me.

Murder In Successville, BBC3, Wednesdays, 10pm. Watch this edition on iPlayer here.

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