Tom Davis (I)

Will Successville be back for a second series?

Murder in Successville star Tom Davis has revealed he wants David and Victoria Beckham to guest on a second series.

Episode four of the homicide-themed comedy with an improv edge. Each week, DI Sleet (Tom Davis) investigates crimes perpetrated by phony celebrities, with the help of a real-life famous face. This week it's Dermot O'Leary, who must decide who was responsible for the death of "Amanda Holden" and the kidnap of "Mayor Simon Cowell": care home proprietor "Miley Cyrus", sweet shop magnate "Alan Sugar" or "Jessie J", apparently a martial arts champ. Complete and utter nonsense, cleverly done.

It's going to take more than a conceptual BBC Three comedy to faze Deborah Meaden. Squinting at DI Sleet (Tom Davis) like he's a particularly careless inventor, the Dragon soon overcomes both the show's premise and a colossal height difference to take control. Who lethally doctored Lady Gaga's soup? As the investigation charges on, Sleet shouts at Boris Johnson, rubs himself against Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and nearly goes all the way with a half-dead Nicki Minaj. Meaden plays her disdain brilliantly straight.

Radio Times review

Radio 1 DJ Greg James is the poor rube dropped into the entertaining, immersive murder mystery. He's got to work out why Reese Witherspoon, owner of Successville's biggest chain of bars (see what they did there?), has been murdered. Playing junior to the gruff, unorthodox-verging-on-insane DI Sleet (deadpanned brilliantly by Tom Davis), he's criticised for being "a bit camp and weird".

But then he's got to contend with Prof Brian Cox as an awe-filled forensic scientist and Frances Barber giving a delicious turn as a rapacious Mary Berry, owner of strip club Soggy Bottoms. He can't help laughing incredulously at it all and neither will you.

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.

Murder In Successville review

It's probably too inconsistent to be a must-see, but top marks all round for trying something different.

Interview: Tom Davis

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