New BBC3 comedy - Clone

Last week I saw a screening of a new BBC3 comedy series with boo, Hellen, Dan, his girl Justyna and one of his workmates. Here’s the press release that was sent out with my invite:

A new comedy series for BBC3 jointly Executive Produced by Ash Atalla (The Office, The IT Crowd, Man Stroke Woman) and Adam Chase (Writer/ Exec Producer on the hit US sitcom ‘Friends’), Clone opens with a brilliant scientist unveiling the result of his life’s work: The first human clone. Intended to be a prototype super soldier who will eventually replace Britain’s volunteer army, the Doctor quickly realises his super weapon is more likely to hug someone than shoot them.

Clone is a classic ‘fish out of water’ comedy revolving around the education of an Innocent who is seeing and experiencing our world for the first time. It might also be described as a ‘buddy comedy’ about a modern Dr. Frankenstein and his monster.

The show stars Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Carribean, Evita, Miss Saigon) and Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen) with Fiona Glascott (Foyle’s War) and Stuart McLoughlin (currently appearing in ‘Brief Encounter’ live on stage at the Cinema Haymarket).

The warm-up comic (do you really need one for a screening?) was trying to get everyone excited about the Friends and The Office connections, but due to being a comedy elitist snob I was less enthusiastic than most of the rest of the crowd. I was mainly interested in Johnathan Pryce and Mark Gatiss’ performances.

We were shown the final 3 episodes of the series, the first 3 having being shown to a different audience earlier in the day. To be honest, I found the quality a bit patchy although it definitely picked up towards the end of the series, both in pace and writing. The last episode is fairly amusing for an action movie style car chase involving a 2CV and the final twist is quite interesting. It looks like they’re banking on a second series but that’s all I’ll say about that.

The strange thing is, I don’t know what demographic this is aimed at. It’s going to be broadcast on BBC3 which is supposed to be yoof-oriented and yet aside from the occasional expletive, Clone was fairly sedate and seemed a perfect fit for the Friday night 8:30 BBC slot. It’s not bust-a-gut hilarious and certainly doesn’t break any new ground but as a sitcom it is better than My Family and My Hero.

Overall it’s alright, the writing isn’t amazing but is carried by great performances from Pryce and in particular Gatiss, who seems to relish his role as a sadistic military general. Not worth seeking out but an entertaining way of killing half an hour on a bored Sunday.

Kind of like Friends then.