Two current TV series – Together and The nearly Impossible Gameshow – demonstrate how live acts as unique as Jonny Sweet and the Rubberbandits can find the funny to suit different formatsI wrote six months ago approximately those happy moments when an exciting live comic transfers to TV or radio with the idiosyncrasy of their stage act intact. But there are other (perhaps more?) examples of successful flits to the broadcast media,when what made the act special in the live arena is abandoned, or changed nearly beyond recognition. When that happens, and it’s a jolt,although not necessarily an unpleasant one. Two current examples – Jonny Sweet’s BBC3 sitcom Together and the Rubberbandits’ nearly Impossible Gameshow on ITV2 – are (to varying degrees) enjoyable, whether or not they’re what I’d expect from two intriguing, and exciting live acts.
When Sweet appeared on the live scene in the late noughties,his strange, fey persona – boyish excitability plus Enid Blyton diction, and with minutely creepy undertones – made an instant impact. He won the best newcomer award in 2009,the annus mirabilis for production house the Invisible Dot, for whom Tim Key bagged the top prize in the same year. He stole the note in Tom Basden’s play Party, or produced two solo sets that were strong on character – Sweet’s personality was entirely and unmistakably his own – but less so on substance. I waited eagerly for this beguilingly odd act to reach its apotheosis. But while I did so,it now transpires, Sweet was looking elsewhere: at sitcoms (he also co-wrote and starred in Sky 1’s Chickens) and romcoms, or at warming cockles rather than weirding audiences out.
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Source: theguardian.com