Come Fly With Me

It’s easy to forget that at one time Little Britain was the funniest thing on television because there is always the memory of Little Britain being the least funny thing on television. What started as nothing short of genius turned into a constant slew of catchphrases and shock value and quickly lost its credibility, and that was way before those not at all irritating Nationwide adverts (irritating doesn’t do it justice).
There’s no argument that Matt Lucas and David Walliams are talented but it’s hard to shake off the images of Andy and Lou, Vicky Pollard and Emily Howard whenever you think about them and at times I feel a bit of resentment towards them because of it. “I want that one”, “yeah but no but yeah but no” resonate in my head at the mere thought of either of them despite the fact that I know they’re funny. I loved Lucas as George Dawes and there is nothing I find more terrifying than Walliams’ turn as Vulva in Spaced, but this matters not now they’ve become synonymous with phrases such as “I’m a lady!”.
Perhaps the success of the show influenced its direction, after all these characters were the most popular with the audience and these were the catchphrases everyone was repeating, never mind Mr Man and his pirate memory games for ages 4-8, the public wanted “that one” and they got it, and a somewhat brilliantly creative show turned into a crappy BBC One “comedy”.
If I didn’t expect Come fly with me to be funny I wouldn’t have watched it, but watched it I did and to my complete non surprise it wasn’t that bad. Thinly veiled as a mocumentary based at an airport (much like the actual documentary Airport) it is essentially just another character based sketch show with every sketch set at an Airport. It looks very much like where Little Britain left off and it also looks like a crappy BBC One comedy so by those standards it really shouldn’t be funny.
It’s hit and miss but what’s important is that it does hit, against the odds it is actually funny. Where Little Britain’s characters quickly became surreal and unbelievable, Come fly with me’s are at least for the moment a bit truer to life, in some cases they are quite mean characters, while others are strangely tragic, in particular Tommy, a “Happy Burger” worker who is trying to work his way up to being a pilot.
It has had quite a few negative reviews and it’s possible that I’m appreciative towards it because I had low expectations, but it is still an enjoyable show and relative to the other shit the BBC pump out this could be considered a masterpiece (Rock and Chips anyone?). It’s not one of the best comedies ever made but at the very least it’s watchable and when BBC comedy can be as bad as My Family, watchable becomes TV magic.
Of course we’ll probably all hate it in two weeks time, it’s already been accused of racism (or as it's more commonly known: DAILY MAIL FRENZY!) which in turn has seen the show garner the support of Jim “I’m definitely not a racist” Davidson. This can’t be seen as anything other than a bad sign and I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick Griffin’s cameo ended in the show being cancelled. For now I will enjoy with great trepidation.