Tom Davis (I)

In some respects, Murder in Successville reminds me of a sort of Beadle's About programme in which a number of celebrities becoming the unwitting foil to the fictional DI Sleet (Tom Davis). Sleet is a detective in the fictional town of Successville; which is populated by a group of famous faces none of whom act how they do in the public eye. The fact that a group of impressionists populate the show also makes it feel akin to a comedy show such as Stella Street or Dead Ringers. The problem is that, unlike those two programmes, none of the impressions in Murder in Successville are particularly accurate. Whilst I suppose this is meant to aid the comedy not one of the supporting cast members impressed me in the least bit. The lack of any decent impressions would lead me to believe that Murder in Successville is attempting to spoof both celebrity culture and the cop show in general. Unfortunately, I didn't find that there was one laugh during Murder in Successville's first half hour in which Made in Chelsea non-entity Jamie Lang is paired up with Sleet. In fact I found Lang incredibly annoying as he employed a bout of nervous laughter as the situations he experienced became more bizarre. Only Davis' deadpan performance as the Sam Spade-esque Sleet was worthy of praise as he at least tried to pull of the spoof element of the show. Murder in Successville built up to Lang attempting to solve the murder of Bruno Torlioni by shooting the person he thought was responsible for the crime. Due to this conclusion, Murder in Successville felt like one of those murder mystery weekends which I'm sure Lang and his Chelsea pals have been on in the past. However, aside from Davis' performance, I haven't got one positive thing to say about Murder in Successville as I found it be a programme that never really knew what it wanted to be.

The premise goes something like this: each week a celebrity participates in a sort-of immersive theatre production, based around a murder investigation. Teaming up with detective DI Sleet (Tom Davis), the famous person (in this opener, Made in Chelsea's Jamie Laing) meets warped, Stella Street-style versions of celebrities involved in the case, and from these encounters must work out who the culprit is. Possibly the most high-concept show television comedy has ever seen, it's bewildering but occasionally very funny, in a slightly frenzied way.

Radio Times review

This is silly. Very silly indeed. Successville is a town populated by celebrities - Gordon Ramsay's the chief of police; Mary Berry runs the strip joint - and policed by maverick DI Sleet. All these people are played by actors (Tom Davis is hilarious as Sleet). But when restaurateur Bruno Tonioli is found dead, Sleet is partnered with a celebrity rookie, Made in Chelsea's Jamie Laing, who's parachuted in to help solve the case.

It's a mixed-up structured reality comedy cop drama impressions show. Yet it boils down to a bunch of comedians saying increasingly ridiculous things to make Laing corpse, which he does a lot. Brilliantly silly.

Tom Davis on Murder in Successville

We're very excited, and in the middle of an almighty press campaign, we quickly caught up with the busiest man of the moment, Tom Davis, to find out more.

Interview: Tom Davis

Actor discusses his first lead role in BBC Three's improvised comedy crime thriller Murder in Successville.

Tom Davis interview

DI Sleet aka actor Tom Davis has the following to say...

This is the penultimate Comedy Lab pilot, and stars Tom Davis as Iain Bodkin, a "comedian" (in the loosest sense of the word) whose main job is doing warm up for a TV programme... but he's actually a total failure.

This is something of a cringe comedy, as you continuously watch Bodkin trying to be funnier than he really is. His lack of success is made clear when he is forced to work in a supermarket, where his continued attempts to make people laugh always bring him down - as well as his supervisor's trousers.

Eventually Bodkin finds some work on a panel show, albeit dressed up as a penguin, kicked by a martial arts expert into an inflatable swimming pool of chocolate. This results in a pointless rivalry between him and the warm up guy for this panel show (played rather well by Will Smith).

This pilot's definitely got legs and would probably make for an entertaining series if given the chance. Yes, Bodkin isn't a love character. In fact he is something of a bastard, but he is a funny bastard...

The Warm Up Guy - Interview

This Sunday, E4 are airing a pilot called The Warm Up Guy as part of their Comedy Lab series. We caught up with the creator and star of the show Tom Davis to ask him some questions about his new project...

Tom Davis interview

Digital Spy caught up with Tom Davis to get the lowdown on The Warm Up Guy and what a future series may have in store.