David Tennant (left) and Michael Sheen star in “Staged”, the latest show based on fictionalised versions of stars.
Ever since I saw “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” in the late ‘80s, I couldn’t help wondering if the late, great comedian was really obsessed with that wondrous bouffant of his. Or was Garry playing an exaggerated version of himself transposed into his sitcom world?
Think how many great shows involve fictionalised versions of their stars – Larry David in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “Flight of the Conchords”, Marc Maron in “Maron”, even boxer Mike Tyson and the Marquess of Queensberry in Adult Swim’s “Mike Tyson Mysteries”.
Sometimes, as in Sean Hughes’ “Sean’s Show”, the actor/stand-up comedian is even aware they are present and living within the sitcom.
“The Trip” television and film franchise has comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon cast as fictionalised versions of themselves, taking to the road on culinary trips.
They argue, humiliate each other about career choices, ridicule each other’s talents (or supposed lack thereof), and engage in duels involving impressions of Michael Caine, Sean Connery and Mick Jagger.
The latest actors to immerse themselves in this genre are David Tennant and Michael Sheen in this year’s short form show, “Staged”.
The duo has previously teamed up in the television adaption of the Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman novel, “Good Omens”. Sheen is the angel Aziraphale, Tennant the demon Crowley, representatives of Heaven and Hell on Earth who must sabotage the coming of the Antichrist and Armageddon to preserve their comfortable lives in modern England.
“Staged” is an iso-com set during the COVID lockdown, filmed using video-conferencing technology.
Tennant and Sheen are set to perform the Luigi Pirandello play, “Six Characters In Search Of An Author”, before the pandemic puts the production in London’s West End on hold.
Instead, they must rehearse the play using social media, and adjust to a life in lockdown like us – wearing the same old grey hoodies, coping with home schooling, and in Sheen’s case, dealing with his paranoia surrounding birds.
Both real life partners of Tennant and Sheen, Georgia Moffett and Anna Lundberg, appear as lockdown versions of themselves. I’ve always loved the real-life “Whovian” synchronicity that has Tennant, the tenth incarnation of Doctor Who, married to Moffett, the daughter of the fifth Doctor Who, Peter Davison.
“Staged”, like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Trip”, blurs the lines of reality and fiction as it feeds off the neurotic, passive aggressive-tortured artist shtick of its players.
How much, if any, of the self-referential running gag between the stars over cast billing in the play they are rehearsing – and previously in Good Omens – is true?
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Seeing Sheen discover he wasn’t the director Simon Evans’ first choice for the play’s role is priceless; as is the director’s anxiety about the potential of the play never getting off the ground and ruining the chance of his big career break.
Watching the six episodes of “Staged” in one sitting has me revisiting the musical drama, “Blackpool”. It stars Tennant as D.I. Peter Carlisle, investigating a murder in the Lancashire seaside resort town.
Creator Peter Bowker breaks the narrative with characters launching in to lip-syncing and surreal dance routines.
Influenced by Dennis Potter, who pioneered this dramatic device in “Pennies From Heaven” and “The Singing Detective”, the soundtrack features songs “The Boy with the Thorn in his Side” by The Smiths, “”The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers, and Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin”.
It’s the use of the melancholic “Ooh La” by The Faces that haunts though, with D.I. Carlisle and his prime suspect Ripley Holden (David Morrissey) miming the song’s story of a grandfather warning his grandson of the perils of relationships with women.
It’s now I recall that “Ooh La” is written by Ronnie Lane and Ronnie Wood, who later joined the Rolling Stones.
So I’m on YouTube watching episodes of an over-the-top example of a show featuring exaggerated fictionalised versions of stars.
“Stella Street”, the British show of the late ‘90s, is based on the brilliantly absurd concept that celebrities (played by impressionists) decide to move en masse to the (fictional) titular street in Surbiton, London.
Michael Caine rules the manor, talking to the camera in the style of his movie character Alfie Elkins, while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards run the corner store.
David Bowie and Roger Moore spend Christmas together, as Bowie is introduced by Caine talking directly to the camera with the genius line: “The Man Who Fell to Earth – and landed at Number Two.”
The local councillor is Alan Rickman, Al Pacino is arrested for building a bonfire on the beach, and there is a flashback episode to when Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams from the “Carry On” series ran the store, and The Beatles moved in and made a film with Hitchcock.
As always, the YouTube algorithm is guiding my next choice. The mouse hovers over the suggestion, “The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald”. It’s animated, it’s a mini-series. I ponder the question: does Ronald fit the category of a fictionalised version of himself?
To Be Continued…
“Staged” is available on ABC iview
