The Wimbledon Poisoner

I was very pleasantly surprised by this, watching it in 2023 and never heard of it before. Found it initially very enjoyable - dark, sarcastic humour, which I love.

Episode One was fine, and the wine-drinking scene at the funeral was pretty funny. However, there was a whole lot of overacting to the point of silliness, and Episode Two just deteriorated into ridiculous, noisy chaos. I actually had to stop watching in the last few minutes, or skipped ahead to catch the very end, but I'd lost interest by then. Too bad. It started out quirky and witty, and I especially enjoyed Robert Lindsay. Alison Steadman, who is wonderful generally, was too shrill for me. I just think it go a bit too OTT slapstick for me and lost points the longer it went on.

Henry Parr seems like an ordinary, down to Earth guy, but his loud and domineering wife Elinor has pushed him to breaking point, he decided to kill her, to poison her, the trouble is, other people suffer.

I haven't seen this since it first aired way back in 1994, it's aged very well. The Wimbledon Poisoner is a black comedy drama, it's witty, it's full of sarcasm and farce.

I'm reminded of shows like Murder most horrid, it's that kind of funny, surreal black humour with twists, don't expect it to be straight laced.

Some great scenes, I really liked the ending, but that punch party massacre was outrageous.

The best element for me, the comedy timing of Robert Lindsay, he's wonderful as the hen pecked Henry, you really do feel he's a Man ready to snap. Alison Steadman is equally marvellous as Elinor, her character is something of a nightmare.

Great support acting, look out for Philip Jackson, Art Malik, Larry Lamb and many others.

7/10.

If you have never seen this before then I suggest you do! Alison Steadman is brilliant (and gorgeous...) and as for Robert Lyndsey. I often laugh at the thought that he was Wolfie Smith (Power to the People) all them years ago... I like his talking to the audience, taking us through his trials & tribulations and adventures. Like all plays it soon gets dated and this play is no exception. It's from 1994 and it is looking dated in some parts, CRT displays for the computers (Windows 95 perhaps...) and 'F' reg cars, look at his Volvo estate (for the non initiated 'F' reg was from 1988), I did not notice any mobile phones, perhaps you do when you watch it, but I guess you'll be laughing so much that you may miss them...