Staged

BBC1/iPlayer

****

SOME endeavours lend themselves more naturally than others to the lockdown television format.

If, say, the production of The Herald were to be given the Staged treatment, in the manner of David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s summer hit, the viewer would see little but a string of smoothly executed Zoom meetings in which beautiful people put best laid plans into action, and nothing silly ever happened like a dog barking, or the features editor accidentally muting themselves for the umpteenth time. But where would be the funny in that?

The Scotsman and the Welshman showed how it should be done in the first series. The plot was simple. Tennant and Sheen were supposed to be starring in Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of An Author. Then came Covid, and rehearsals had to be done via video conference. Like everyone else, the pair, or their fictionalised characters (so they said) went stir crazy after a while and much hilarity ensued amid the tears.

A second series was commissioned, so here we were again last night, by coincidence on the eve of another lockdown: their second and our third.

Sheen and Tennant were being interviewed remotely by a comedian who was hosting a chat show from his kitchen. Also on the call was A Big Name Celebrity, whose identity shall not be revealed lest it spoil your enjoyment of the show on catch up.

Enough to say said celebrity is famous for his niceness. But here he was, being snarky about Staged, calling it unfunny and the performers lazy sorts who thought comedy was about making stuff up on the hoof. It was shocking, like watching the Queen make a corgi cry.

Sheen tried to humour the grump. “I do think some quite brave stuff has come out of the more improvisatory approach,” he said, only for the national treasure to bat back, “Do you?”

Once again, creators Simon Evans and Phin Glynn had successfully walked that fine line between luvviedom, and a right royal send up of all things luvvie. Viewers could relax. Television was still eating itself, with sprinkles on top for good measure.

There was more not so good news for the Celtic duo, which bodes well for the rest of the series. Much play is being made of the special guest stars to come. The last run featured Samuel L Jackson and Judi Dench, a pretty high bar.

No matter how starry the guests, this will forever be the Tennant and Sheen show. Behold the Withnail and I of the pandemic, poor work-starved players strutting and fretting their 15 minutes upon the laptop screen. Theirs is a tale told by idiots, full of fury, laughter, and seriously bad hair, signifying something or other. Wonderful.

Series one and two now available on iPlayer