This Is Jinsy

If you never grew up on a small island, watch this. If you did, watch this. Amazingly inventive and funny, full of cameos from the likes of David Tennant and Harry Hill.

Perfectly pitched and balanced, with an excellent cast, the residents of the island of Jinsy are definitely act like inmates of an asylum, overseen on the behalf of "The Great He" by Arbiter Mavern and his ever faithful team of dripping, myopic and cleverer assistants. Whilst this may appear simple, it is anything other than that.

If it is an asylum, the inmates have definitely taken over and they have a lot to sing about. So, daily greet and sing sing sing.

Daily Greet! "This is Jinsy" is a surreal, satirical, ever-humorous look at life on an island administered by craven Arbiter Maven (Justin Chubb) and his ever-cynical assistant Sporrall (Chris Bran) by way of tessallators in every chalet and field. They labor in a Tower and under the sometimes bewildering eye of The Great He.

The tessallators, which look like a cross between a parking meter and an oscilloscope, spy on residents and also broadcast a range of light entertainment including island folk dibbler Melody Lane ("What's in my Handbag Today", "Types of Wood"), Weather Monk Tracee Henge ("Brrrr!" "Thud!", "Gentle Wafting!") and Sandy's Choice (a talent competition hosted by a dog).

The tessallators are also used to dispense justice to inebriates, petty thieves and other ne'er do wells by way of mild electrical shocks which honestly do wear off after several days and have only set a few small fires. One of the highest rated shows on Jinsy is "Punishment Roundup", hosted by a delightfully evil Joon Boolay (Harry Hill) who never seems to get tired of suspending dance vouchers and administering electricals!

Sporall and Maven are supported by Soosan Noop (Alice Lowe), their nearsighted tech, and Trinch (Geoffrey McGivern), who labors in the Law Caves under a stalactite. The Jinsy players round out the population of the island, constantly changing knitwear, wigs and genders to add to the surrealism.

Guest stars are also on hand to add to the lunacy. Especially funny are David Tennant as Mr. Slightlyman, Peter Serafinowicz as Eric Dunt, K.T. Tunstall as Briian Raggatan and Susan Horrocks as Mrs. Stenton.

Whether Maven and Sporrall are inadvertently exposing corruption in the island's wedding lottery, beheading an Ool bat, finding the way of the cupboard, making sure the spoons are clean or transferring name worms, "This is Jinsy" is always good for a laugh and repeated singing of the catchy songs (It's cold and it's wet and it looks just like an onion...").

Nightly Bye!

The songwriting skills of Neil Innes at his best, the intelligent madness of Spike Milligan and an inventiveness that defies description, these are just a few of the elements that make This is Jinsy the best British comedy for many years. Justin Chubb and Chris Bran are to be congratulated on an original character based comedy that has joined sit-com to sketch-show with a joyful confidence and utter success under the superb direction of Matt Lipsey. The series is supported by a surreal design team led by Nic Pallace the captures an entire world of insane parallel development.

The highlights are almost too numerous to mention, but gold stars have to go to the entirely too believable civil service banter and by-play between the two main protagonists that occasionally riffs on Yes, Minister for the niceties of political structure formalities; Harry Hill as the sadistic Dominatrix punishment manager; The Jinsy Singers for some entirely too complex harmonies; Alice Lowe as the darkly frustrated yet interestingly sensual Tessellator engineer; the narcoleptic historian; David Hatton as the Weather Monk Tracee Henge, surely Spike Milligan on top Goon Show gibberish form reincarnated; songs you find yourself humming three weeks later; Simon Callow, Kevin Eldon, Jane Horrocks, Nigel Planer, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Serafinowicz, David Tennant and Don Warrington completely off the wall in guest roles.

It all makes a kind of mad sense, suspension of disbelief is entirely too easy, not to mention enjoyable as you immerse yourself in a very different normality. You can't help but laugh all the way through, each episode has gem moments, but the overall absurdity is a giggle form start to finish. Bravo, more please.

This show sits within that specific genre where people either love it or hate it. I'm not a fan of all absurdest comedy, but once I started watching this I just couldn't stop! It has a hypnotic quality that I just can't describe and it sucks you in. It's just so fabulously fresh and out there, but in a way where it has such momentum going from one crazy and entertaining thing to the next, that there is no time to ponder on one thing too long and get bored with the format at all.

Adding further to this; the show has (for me at least) that rare quality where despite the "nuttiness", it still has enough coherence to make sense without totally losing me. I also love the inspirational story behind the incredibly talented duo who star in and write the show, so I'm crossing all my fingers that we get the third season they so deserve.

If you enjoy something completely on the flip side, with a lot of (very well done and thought out) absurdity thrown in, then do yourself a favour and watch this gem. Hopefully the more positive reviews they receive, the more likely it will be that we'll get another season. Although I understand that this show isn't for everybody, I'm pretty confident that for fans of such niche genres, this show will become an instant cult classic!

WARNING: Be prepared to have the songs and ditties from this show stick in your head for days on end...aaarrgggh!!!!

Nightly Bye all ;-)

Must say I didn't quite know what to make of Jinsy the first time I watched the pilot episode. But after watching a few more, you really do get into the whole surreal world they've created. The songs are silly, catchy and years later I still find myself humming along to a number of them, something I haven't done to any comedic songs since the Python days. This won't appeal to all, especially the more conservative mainstream sitcom type watchers, but to anyone who likes some quirky and a bit crazy comedy sketches and songs and episodes filled with guest stars such as Rob Brydon (love his badger song!), David Tennant, Greg Davies, Stephen Fry etc etc, its a blast!

Funniest thing on British TV in many years and the most re-watchable program I've probably ever seen.