Dick Turpin and His Essex Gang

Over the last ten years or so, sit-coms seem to have gradually shifted in tone. Less snark, less sarcasm, less satire. More inclusive, more diverse, more hopeful. It’s not just that the news is so relentlessly grim that people want something to take their minds off it. It’s also the fact that the news is so utterly stupid that it’s impossible to satirise, so completely shameless in its stupidity that even if you did there would be no point.

And whilst I loved the snark, sarcasm and satire of the comedies of my youth. A combination of wearied age and experience means that I’m very much enjoying this new inclusivity, diversity and hope.

The latest sit-com to push those qualities to the fore is Noel Fielding’s Dick Turpin, which is amiable and good natured to a fault. It’s border-line 18th Century Ted Lasso.

Dick wants to be a famous highway man but also wants to be good and kind. Much of the comedy comes from this incongruity. His crew want to be a team of tough criminals, but they also want to be themselves. Even more comedy from this. It’s often delightful, occasionally laugh out loud funny.

There’s a couple of stand out performances: Hugh Bonneville is in cracking form, and Kiri Flaherty is a delight as Little Karen.

Only Connor Swindells disappoints as Tommy Silversides and that’s only because his character is so clearly inspired by Lord Flashheart that it’s impossible to avoid the comparison. And comparison to Rick Mayall is never going to end well.

So it’s not Blackadder. It is however, very much Maid Marion and Her Merry Men. Which either means my initial observation about the changing tone of sit-coms was wildly incorrect. Or Maid Marion… was massively ahead of its time.