Only one episode of The Wrong Mans has been broadcast so far, so everything could change and it could become one of the funniest shows of the year. I am not convinced that this will happen, but we will see. The Wrong Mans is a new sitcom on BBC 2 written by Mat Baynton and James Corden. They also star, as Town Planning and Noise Guidance advisor Sam Pinkett and internal mail-man Phil Bourne. It has five further episodes to settle in.
Sam is a withdrawn council worker, nicely costumed in a duffel coat and well-played by Baynton, who endows him with a realistic ennui. On the surface Corden’s Philip is more of the boisterous lad we have seen from him before. He is deluded and keen to grasp any possibility of excitement. At the start there are hints of depths that may be developed later in the series, although these disappear as the episode progresses.
For something to be funny in a sitcom events have to be possible for the characters experiencing them. We start with Sam, late for work after a party. Even if the severity of the car crash he witnesses is unlikely we can accept it as possible. However we do not know enough about Sam himself to believe that he is anything other than normal. Which gives problems when he has a front garden and a house and yet locks his bike to a lamppost on the street outside. The character he purports to be wouldn’t think he had securely fastened it by only locking the front wheel to the post. Indeed, for the front wheel to be locked to the post he would have had to leave the rest of the bike leaning on thin air. It doesn’t make sense.
A minor point, but seemingly irrelevant logical issues early in a plot make it harder to suspend disbelief further into a piece. If you witnessed a car accident and then answered a phone that you found on the ground nearby would you really walk around pondering the violent message instead of informing the police? Nevertheless if you can accept the premise there is a chemistry between the two stars, and there are funny moments, as when Sam reorganises a meeting with the criminals as he can’t make their suggested time, or Phil tries to bribe a hospital receptionist.
Amongst the rest of the cast Sarah Solimani plays the object of the hero’s affections, rather as she does in the Jack Whitehall sitcom Bad Education also showing currently on the BBC.
There are some interesting camera angles used in the hospital scenes, but for me the main mistaken identity trolley incident doesn’t work. This is a shame as The Wrong Mans could have been a fun, mismatched, buddy, hero, underdog-to-the rescue sitcom. It could still develop that way, but in episode one the tension is provided by phone calls of a woman shrieking and a man growling that he will cut her throat. That background makes the laughs hard to come.
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