British TV: Years And Years Of The Rabbit

by Neil Bamforth

When British drama, or comedy drama is good, it’s very very good. Of course, it’s all a matter of taste anyway. What you like I may not and vice versa. However, when a drama is good, even if it isn’t ‘your cup of tea’, and you only watch one episode to make your mind up, generally, you will, at least, accept the acting is good, if it is.

Two particularly good new drama’s in Blighty are from the BBC and Channel 4. I would highly recommend both.

The BBC drama is called Years And Years while the Channel 4 comedy drama also involves years but, in this case, The Year Of The Rabbit.

‘Years And Years’ follows the line of a possible near future through the eyes of one particular family. As a result, you get the internal family drama’s alongside the worldwide drama’s.

It’s difficult to give my own critique without giving so much away it won’t be worth watching so, to some extent, I suppose you will have to take my word for it and watch them to see whether you agree.

‘Years And Years’ is extraordinarily well acted by an ensemble cast. The only particularly ‘well known’ member of the cast in terms of acting fame across the globe is Emma Thompson. Her character bears an uncanny resemblance to Nigel Farage in female form – well, at least as far as episode 5 it does.

My wife wasn’t keen so I’m watching it on ‘Catch Up’ TV.

Without giving too much away, the near future of ‘Years And Years’ focuses on a possible future where Trump gets a second term and nukes a Chinese military base, while the far right and far left gain power across Europe.

Given that there have always been remarkable similarities between the far right and the far left, the outcome of such a possible near future is uncomfortable, to say the least, for different ethnic minorities and members of the LGBT community.

I am hooked and hope, if you give it a go, you will enjoy it – albeit feel a little discomfited, if not rather frightened by the possibility of it.

Any criticisms? Not really, although I’m not certain it was entirely necessary to show gay sex between two of the main characters on quite such a regular basis. As a viewer, I’d got the idea first time around thank you.

Not that I have any issue with it per se, but, one sex scene is much like another, unless you switch it to men in Wellington boots and sheep or something.

It is no more than a very minor criticism though. The show is a real gem.

‘The Year Of The Rabbit’ is, by contrast, a comedy drama. It is, in my view, absolutely brilliant. The humor is often extraordinarily dark but, depending on your sense of humor, also extraordinarily funny.

If someone had told me I would have laughed out loud at what was, basically, a joke regarding necrophilia, I would have thought they were mad. I would have been wrong.

Quite how the writer(s) have come up with this show is beyond me. It is, as far as I am concerned, about as watchable as a TV show can ever be.

Again, without giving too much away, there are three main protagonists.

Detective Inspector Rabbit, Detective Sergeant Strauss and Mabel.

Rabbit is a hard bitten Victorian police officer with a drink problem and only one eyebrow. He explains that his dog bit off the missing eyebrow the previous Christmas.

Rabbit is forced to team up with Detective Sergeant Strauss in episode 1 with often hilarious consequences.

Mabel is the African Caribbean adopted daughter of the Detective Chief, played by the marvelous Alan Armstrong. He wants her to be a Victorian lady and Mabel wants to be a police officer – unheard of back then.

“I want to be the first female copper – or fopper – or lady filth” says Mabel.

Over the body of a murdered girl – “She’s beautiful” says Strauss, “She’s dead mate” replies Rabbit matter of factly.

When Strauss admits to getting an erection in the morgue as they assess the dead woman’s fatal injuries, you might think they have gone too far but, for some reason, perhaps due to the quality of acting and method of delivery of the lines, it was actually hysterically funny in a very dark way – as are the characters of Rabbit, Strauss and Mabel.

The only criticisms I can make is that, due to Channel 4 showing adverts, the actual show only lasts 25 minutes so, as a result, feels a little rushed to me. I do hate adverts breaking up a great show, don’t you?

I would never buy anything from a TV advert on principle, mainly because they have broken my viewing pleasure so they can sod off. I’ll buy a rival product that doesn’t interrupt my viewing!

Also, rather oddly, while Mabel’s brilliant presence in the show is excellent, I am slightly puzzled why the makers keep including African Caribbean police officers in uniform on the streets. I’m pretty certain that there weren’t very many African Caribbean police officers in Britain, let alone London, during Victorian times?

African Caribbean John Kent – 1805 to 1866 – served in Carlisle until 1844, but having several African Caribbean officers in uniform in the background seems oddly unbalanced to me. I hope it isn’t for political correctness sake. That would be a shame for such an inspired show.

It doesn’t, I hasten to add, detract unduly from the brilliance of the show which, in any case, is not intended to be historically accurate and, frankly, I’m too busy enjoying it to care that much anyway really.

Where police shows, when the criminal is captured, usually have the arresting officer ‘read the criminal his or her rights’ to them, in ‘Year Of The Rabbit’ you get Inspector Rabbit saying –

“You have the right to remain silent and blah blah blah blah – get rid of the prick”

He is, in so many ways, my kind of copper.

I hope I haven’t given too much away here. I also hope I’ve wetted your viewing appetite to give these brilliant new British dramas a look.

You will enjoy them. Trust me, I’m from Oldham.

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %