Murder in successville, review: at the sharper end of cutting-edge comedy

Gerard O'Donovan 16 June 2016 7:06am BST A unique mash-up of terrible impressions, ropey improvisations and perplexed celebs made MURDER IN SUCCESSVILLE one of BBC Three’s surprise hits

last year – a genuine example of a show that fits perfectly the description “so bad it’s good.” Returning for a second run, the formula remained exactly the same – a (supposedly)

unsuspecting B-list celebrity turns up on set to take part in a murder mystery show set in a world of criminally inclined fellow celebrities – and has to wing it all the way. Once again Tom

Davis played hulking DI Sleet, scourge of celebrity crims and Chandleresque cliché: “I brush my teeth with crime, I wipe my ass with bad guys, and I descale my kettle with kettle descaler –­

cos there’s no other way.” First up to play his sidekick was Geordie Shore’s Vicky Pattison. Of course, this being second series, any celeb who turned up not knowing what to expect would

have to have the world’s worst agent. And Pattison clearly knew what was awaiting her – if not how it would actually pan out.  Assigned to clear Sleet’s name after Nick Knowles’s lifeless

body was found in his car, she showed admirable skill in organising a spontaneous prison break and “going renegade” with him in order to prove his innocence. It’s an indication of how well

the series has been received that Paul Whitehouse turned up in the role of a gangsta Len Goodman – hilariously pushing Davis to the improvisational limits in a spirallingly funny

interrogation scene, with Pattison giving as good as she got, too. But it was in the scene where she was required to befriend Sleet’s lush of an ex-girlfriend Lorraine Kelly (Marie Lawrence)

that Pattison was at her best, not only batting back every verbal curve ball thrown at her, but even coping admirably when an unexpected item appeared in Sleet’s baggy pants. This is a show

that depends almost entirely for its laughs on whether the participants are having fun. By the closing scene in which Sleet, holding Pattison hostage and demanding his foul-mouthed boss

Gordon Ramsay (Liam Hourican) kiss a colleague and “hump his leg like a Jack Russell” everyone involved looked fit to burst from the pleasure of their own inventiveness. The 25 best comedy

duos The show's format has the potential to get stale quite quickly. But it still feels like it’s at the sharper end of comedy’s cutting edge. And with the likes of Whitehouse piling in

to add a touch of class, and up-for-it young performers like Pattison determined to kick back and ramp up the fun, for now Murder in Successville clearly has plenty more to give. The top 30

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