Toast of London

The Toast Of London

Matt Berry leads the cast as the washed up, flaky thespian on the search for work more interesting than voice-over work, that appears to be matched with his limited skills.

He pursues his particular brand of quirky surreal situation comedy and it's a winning and inventive formula.

I'm giving this a firm 8 outta 10.

In an era of comedies that are over-hyped and undercooked Toast of London has, with hardly anyone noticing, delivered the goods. The travails of stage actor and frequent voice over artist Steven Toast are, in the hands of lead actor Matt berry (who also wrote the theme music) and writer Arthur (Father Ted) Mathews a clever mix of parody and pratfall with musical interludes which reveal Toasts world to be populated by colourful grotesques and passing fools. The situations that develop are delightfully eccentric and frankly not easy to describe as so much is down to pure timing, a hand gesture and a thrown look. Suffice to say if you enjoyed the more lunatic, surreal outer reaches of Father Ted you should be ready to try a slice of Toast.

I'd never heard of Matt Berry until I watched What We Do in the Shadows (the series) and he steals the screen as Laszlo the vampire. I'm really getting into British comedy so I saw Toast of London on Netflix and decided to watch it. Matt is so entertaining as struggling (not in his mind) actor, Steven Toast who also happens to be quite the ladies man. Doon Mackichan is a scene stealer as his agent Jane. Other supporting characters who are really funny ; Harry Peacock as Steven's nemesis and fellow actor, Ray Purchase, Tracy Ann Oberman as Mrs Purchase, Ray's wife and Steven's sometime bedmate. My favorite character doesn't have a huge part but he cracks me up every time is Shazad Latif as Clem Fandango.

I was already a fan of Matt Berry after seeing him in The IT Crowd, even though he wasn't a major character. But he really gets to shine in Toast of London, where he is both the writer and the star. His character, Steven Toast, is unsuccessful actor on the fringes of the profession. He is always finding himself in absurd situations and surrounded by silly characters, some of whom only last an episode. His agent Jane is a riot because she is always screwing up his bookings and putting him in humiliating situations. His arch-nemesis, Ray "bloody" Purchase, is also lots of fun, and since he's an actor Toast ends up seeing him all the time. But my absolute favorite scenes are when Toast is in the studio doing voice-overs. The 2 studio guys, including Clem Fandango, are outrageously funny. I look forward to these scenes every episode. I should also mention that each episode has a brief musical number, which seems to be the trend in absurd British comedies (Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy, The Mighty Boosh, etc). If you like absurd comedy, I suggest giving Toast of London a chance. From the pilot episode, it just gets better and better. And it was renewed for Season 2 which is just as brilliant as the first!

I found this show by accident two years ago, and I fell immediately in love with it. Of course it is sometimes crazy, unpredictable, and over the top, of course it is well scripted and well played. Together with "Drifters" it's my favorite comedy show.

But here is why I really was caught: My mother (rest in peace, mum) was an actress, and so I got some insight as a boy growing up, from six to fourteen approximately, into the local actor's "family".

So, many characters, behaviors, and events in this show are not uncommon for me. I recognize all this vanity, envy, life-long hate, sexual promiscuity, hubris, fear.....whatever you want, that makes an actor's or actress's life special and interesting, but also stressful because of the exaltation of most aspects of the normal life - even poverty or the struggle for income. For example, the life of an actor is torn apart from the beginning between the need to become famous and the need to have privacy...sailing these waters is always a difficult thing, because if you get much of one, you loose the other.

I remember me constantly being astonished about those strange people I met then, and I think that was the reason why I took another path - those people can also be very strenuous.

Toast let us have a view at the struggles of an actor who has his little moments of fame, but never gets really successful. He fails at most things in his life, but nevertheless survives ridiculously proud.

And believe me, although I grew up with Austrian actors, where everything is much smaller, it's the same here and there, and as strange that may sound, Toast is not far from reality as it is to be lived as a member of the biz.

If you don't have a background like me, you can of course enjoy this little show, which constantly (and successfully) tries to surprise you, mostly with black humor, or disarming humor, always well-meant, never (or rarely, to be precise) disgusting.

It's a little gem, and the only thing I have to criticize is, that it's only six episodes a season.