The Witchfinder on BBC Two starring Daisy May Cooper looked so promising on paper.
Not only is Daisy in it, but she plays opposite Tim Key, who is legendary on Taskmaster and the Alan Partridge shows he’s been on.
The show’s written by the Neil and Rob Gibbens who penned a load of Alan Partridge stuff, which is genuinely funny.
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Jessica Hynes and Julian Barratt are wonderful comic actors and also in the cast of The Witchfinder.
So it should be hilarious, right? Tonnes of dark, gallows humour?
With that team, it should be so funny that tea is constantly coming out of my nose.
Is The Witchfinder a comedy?
But it’s not. And I can’t work out why,
In The Witchfinder, Tim plays a guy called Gideon in ye olde England circa 1640. Gideon’s having a rough time – and not just because of all the civil war, famine and plague that’s knocking around.
No, Gideon’s problem is that he is not very good at finding witches. I mean, that’s a funny concept, right? Especially when Gideon so desperately wants to be good at finding witches.
In episode one he’s sent to investigate a suspected witch called Thomasine Gooch (Cooper) who might be a witch because there’s a dead pig on her property.
After some unfunny banter, mostly about an egg, Gideon drags her to the village gallows where she is found guilty of witchery.
Thomasine was most surprised by this, as it turned out all her friends and neighbours had thrown her under the bus.
But then, Gideon happened upon a murdered witchfinder and was presented with the opportunity to take Thomasine to what seems to be a witchy show trial in the Cotswolds.
And that’s where it ended.
How can I watch The Witchfinder?
It is possible that I’m having a total sense of humour fail, considering world events right now. But The Witchfinder didn’t make me laugh.
Not even once. It just didn’t work for me at all.
The script was bland despite two comedy heavyweights behind it.
And two of comedy’s current shining stars couldn’t breathe any sort of life into it.
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It was the first episode of something totally brand new, so I understand it’s difficult to set up a world and the characters in it, in a 30-minute script.
I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and hope it takes off more in the second episode.
It’s billed as a ‘travelogue’ and episode 2 will see Gideon and Thomasine’s road trip get going.
Let’s hope the series does too.
All episodes of The Witchfinder are now available to watch on BBC iPlayer – episode two airs next Tuesday – March 15 – on BBC Two at 10pm.
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