Any idiot can write a funny sit com, with well observed, likable characters and tightly constructed plots; but takes the genius of someone like Ben Elton to create The Wright Way. Yes Ben Elton former angry young man raging at Thatcher's Britain and latterly a novelist whose books clutter our charity shops.
Well Ben has returned to television with a game changer of a situation comedy, The Wright Way is so colossally, insultingly, deeply dreadful that you have to think Mr. Elton is satirising the genre, if this garbage is genuine then you truly fear for him.
Set in the town of Baselricky (no that's the name, I'm not kidding) the show centres around Heath and Safety officer Gerald Wright (David Haig) and his struggles to keep his professional and personal life in order. As you would expect Gerald is pedantic to the point of who cares, recently divorced he lives with his gay daughter and her partner. And that's it, the rest is so viciously unfunny that everyone connected to this show should be sentenced to Community Service, at least, and a few should do hard jail time. I'd like to call the characters and situations corny, hackneyed, cliched and dull, but Ben Elton's writing is not up to those standards. The acting is truly dire, you'll see better performances at an infants school Nativity play. Every member of the cast should be compelled to burn their Equity cards and be ceremonially drummed out of the profession. Add to all this The Wright Way is so old fashioned it makes On The Buses and Love Thy Neighbour look fresh and cutting edge and you have the perfect s#!t storm.
The supreme irony is that as BBC1 was pouring this effluent through our televisions, the excellent Parks and Recreation was being shown, tucked away, on BBC 4 at roughly the same time. The good news is that the battle for worst sit com ever on British television has a new, strong contender.
Over
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