As unsatisfying and insubstantial as a rice cake (Randall and Hopkirk)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Randall and Hopkirk
Date:	08/11/01 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vic and Bob

Disadvantages: Vic and Bob

Cue chilling ghostly chimes and that oh so resonant theme tune of Monty Berman's, dating back to the original 60's version, before the magic and the atmosphere is shattered by the entrance of Vic and Bob, jesters by royal appointment and so stylistically stereotyped these days that you just cannot take the show seriously in the way that you could way back then with Ken Cope and Mike Pratt, alias Marty and Jeff, central characters in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

Is it drama with comic overtones, or high comedy with a hint of a storyline linking the set pieces together? Well, the presence of Vic and Bob make this irretrievably placed right in the middle of the surreal land of fun which the pair have milked to death on stuff like The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and Shooting Stars.

Now there's a number of schools of thought about this prog, which are violently opposed to each other's entire mindset and outlook on life: first of all, you get the anoraks who remember the original series, for whom any variation or self parody amount to sacrilege. For them, Vic and Bob's knockabout reinvention of the tales of the extremely expected constitutes a crucifiable offence; then you get the fans of Vic and Bob, who hang on their every deed and phrase, who see R&H as a weak vehicle for their surreal word plays and bizarre slapstick; then you get the rest, for whom both the original Pratt-Cope version and the previous lives of Reeves and Mortimer are impenetrable irrelevance, and it is only this last bunch for whom the newer version of R&H can be in any way satisfying. For those of us who like Vic and Bob AND remember the original with affection, it's just an odd mish mash of colliding myths, prompting a wry smile and fleeting interest, but ultimately as unsatisfying and insubstantial as a rice cake.

Okay, sermon over...

R&H was revived about 18 months ago, after getting on for thirty years of being away from our scre
ens. It tells the tale of a pair of happy go lucky losers, Marty Hopkirk and Jeff Randall, who run a seedy detective agency along with Marty's pretty wife Jeannie. Marty gets killed in a hit and run car crash, but his ghost returns to help Jeff solve the murder. Unfortunately, because he outstays his welcome and does not return to the other side before the appointed time he is doomed to remain on this mortal coil, offering his spiritual support to his former partner in solving all sorts of mysteries. However, as no money ever seems to change hands between clients and Randall, it's difficult to know how they keep going. I guess there must be some more mundane but better paying customers visiting the agency between the weekly episodes, subsidising their more photogenic weekend guests.

Vic and Bob's acquaintance, Charlie Higson, late of The Fast Show, took over the writing reins for the remake and usually appears in a cameo role, while Reeves and Mortimer feature as Hopkirk and Randall. Tom Baker is another regular guest as Wyvern, Marty's mentor from beyond the grave.

The first series was eagerly awaited but a relative failure, despite attracting reasonable viewing figures to its prime time Saturday evening slot on BBC 1. It has recently returned to our screens but is no better or worse than the first run of episodes.

I can take it or leave it, but wouldn't stay in to watch it. The larger than life Reeves and Mortimer are always bigger than their characters or the story and unless you have a liking for their approach then R&H is likely to leave you pretty cold.

It was an interesting experiment and undoubtedly quite fascinating to watch, but it falls into a very barren middle ground, satisfying neither the anoraks nor the R&M lovers. I guess it has built up a kind of momentum of its own despite all the shortcomings and will be sticking around as long as Vic, Bob and Charlie stay interested, and Greg Dyke
is willing to fork out the readies. Still, anything's better than the National Lottery, I guess...

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