High & Dry

2 episodes in I'm finding it intermittently funny but not as laugh out loud as Wrecked which so far it's very similar too, so much so that I thought it was just a UK adaption until I read it was written and created and starring in by the very talented Marc Wootton. (Cyderdelic, My New Best Friend and La La Land series).

Such a shame that some of the reviews left for this show have been left by people who admit that they didn't even stay for first half of episode 1. As well as being devilishly funny, High and Dry rewards continued viewing as the characters develop and your take on them shifts as it might do in real life. This is a funny, intelligent and enjoyable show that deserves to be rewarded with a 2nd series Brett Sullivan should be up there with David Brent, Jill Tyrell and Basil Fawlty if TV comedy history gets it right.

I'm a big fan of La La Land, Marc's previous show for Showtime and My New Best Friend which like High and Dry was also for Channel 4 so was really looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint. Great opening and characters - my stand out so far is Asim Chaudhry but also loving Harry Peacock's (Toast) performance so far. It's early days but I've already been shocked by Asim's character, bewildered at Brett's behaviour and most of all amused at the one-liners and slapstick by Wootton - really looking forward to episode 2 and seeing how it all pans out and develops

Q. What do you do when you are writing a comedy but can't think of any actual jokes or humourous bits?

A.Make characters so ineffably stupid and vapid that their every word and action make you laugh at them, not with them.

I've watched most of the first episode of this 'idiots stranded on an island' comedy and I really dont mind if they all die on that island, humanity would be better off. There seems to be no centre of normality around which the farcical activities can occur, no anchored observer, just.. idiots being .. idiots..

The writer/main actor, Marc Wooton seems to have some experience in writing but it just doesnt seem to show here.

I get that farcical characters means people acting in over the top in farcical ways, but this just takes it to the limit and leaves us with no character to align with. Imagine Fawlty Towers where EVERYONE was as bad as Basil. Or that the reason that Blackadder 2-4 was better than Blackadder 1 was because Edmund himself became the island of sanity surrounded by a sea of morons.

Not this show, its Morons all the way down.

Marc Wooton plays the most ridiculous campiest flight attendant this side of Dick Emery sketch. Harry Peacock is his romantic foil or something. Vikki Pepperdine does her Appallingly Rude Middle Age Harridan schtick, again. And the rest are also morons but have yet to develop their full moronity.

If you secretly browse IMDB.. please put some actually comedy in your next show, don't use this ultimately lazy path.

Loving this show. More surprisingly my wife also loves it so it's doing something right. It has a fantastic cameo in episode five and there is also a great pay off from episode four with a significant plot twist that in hindsight I should have seen coming. I really like the series as its a collection of flawed characters each jostling for their place in any entirely impossible environment. I honestly don't recognize the negative reviews? The show Wrecked never aired in the UK so cannot comment on which is the best desert island show, but its not a unique concept, Swiss Army Man, Cast Away, Lost all the way back to Robinson Crusoe. FWIW Marc Wootton also created a show called La La Land about people trying to make it in LA but add singing + love and the movie version is not called a copied concept. Brett is meant to be laughed at because of the tropes as much as the lines his delivers, he is not meant to be an actual representation of a realistic gay person anymore than Harriet a realistic head teacher, or Susan an actual religious person, they are funny fictional characters brought to life for our entertainment, and entertain me they did!