2. A Touch Of Cloth (2012-present)
The modern successor to The Naked Gun, this two-part comedy by Charlie Brooker (yes him again) was shown over here in the UK last summer. A Touch Of Cloth was the perfect detective spoof, littered with in jokes and puns on every British crime show (and I'm sure numerous US ones) out there. The casting of the leads is genius. John Hannah is perfectly hammy as DI Jack Cloth, bursting into melodramatic outburst and all the right traumatic moments. Surranne Jones plays a brilliant low key performance as DC Anne Oldman. They have both played TV detectives before (John Hannah in McCallum and Rebus, Suranne Jones in Five Days and Scott & Bailey) so their performances here become as much a spoof on their own performances as the detective genre itself. In terms of why this show made me laugh continuously from beginning to end, where do I start? The play on the DI Jack Cloth's name is a series of running bad puns throughout the, my favourite being:
"The fact is that bodies keep washing up""Whatever" "WASHING UP CLOTH!" The script is relentless, possibly my favourite inappropriate quote being:
"I haven't laughed since my wife died." "Why did you laugh when your wife died?" Everything from PC cardboard out, to sickingly flashing images of dead victims, the brilliant location names (Rundowne Estate, Peter Andre House), a chase sequence that will have you in stitches, and fantastic background posters, my favourite being this:
Plus for UK fans, we have the return of Kurt and Brian from the aforementioned
Teachers and Todd Carty as himself. Of course like any great comedy, you have to see it for yourself. So here's the trailer. Anf if you like that, a second two-part installment will be here in the UK later this summer! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15IRXKn9LSU