Psychoville

It's incredible what a lick of face-paint will achieve - Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton bring their chameleonic skills to this odd tale of blackmail.

Meet the dwarf obsessed by his pantomime co-star, Mr Jelly the clown, who keeps getting mistaken for his more successful competitor, Mr Jolly (with hooks for hands, he is not a world away from The League of Gentlemen's Papa Lazarou), and a murder-obsessed man-child from Wood Green. Dawn French provides a chilling turn as a midwife who pretends a toy baby is the real thing - and in her hands the writing, which subtly drip-feeds insight into these bizarre characters' personalities, comes most alive.

Psychoville 1.7 Review

The finale to this idiosyncratic black-comedy was a mixed bag and possibly Psychoville's unfunniest episode. It tried to pull everything together into a fitting conclusion and didn't totally succeed (it even joked about how its plots haven't gelled correctly), before unwisely leaving us with the setup for another series that, to be frank, didn't feel necessary or earned...

Psychoville episode 7 review

Hmm. Well, that was a disappointing ending, certainly on a comedic level, to what has undoubtedly been my personal highlight of the BBC's broadcasting calendar thus far in 2009.

After the thrilling tempo last week, this one takes a little time to get started. It kicks off with a scene in a Citizens Advice Bureau that seems out of tone with the series. But then that shows why so many have been against this: it's not what they expected. But how could you expect things like the brilliant Rope pastiche, or the serial killer song-and-dance routine, or Dawn French being so absolutely terrifying? Truth is, the show has no constant tone and is all the more kickass for it. Anyway, the end is nigh and it even has an ending . . . sort of.

Previewers were asked specifically not to reveal the ending of this bizarre and wonderful series. Fair enough - although the ending is so strange that not many previewers would be able to give it away even if they wanted to. Under the circumstances, I'm hanging on desperately to what little I know. There is an outrageously funny scene tonight when the serial killer tries to confess his crimes at a Haringey police station, which was very similar to my own experience a few years back when I tried to hand in a wallet at Wood Green police station. The programme goes on to provide invaluable advice on how to cure Paradise Syndrome, which can afflict anyone who suddenly finds himself with everything he ever wanted. As for the rest - well, heaven only knows what was going on. But it was imaginative and brilliantly acted, and I loved every sick and confusing moment.

Twenty-five minutes of patient build-up culminate in a curiously hurried pay-off as the horror-comedy-thriller reaches a gruesome climax tonight. Amid cross and double-cross, David, Joy, Mr Lomax, Mr Jelly and Robert are all drawn back to the scene of their crime tonight, together with their respective hangers-on (literally, in Mr Jelly's case) to face the world's most incompetent blackmailer.

To say more would spoil things, but rest assured that Eileen Atkins & her motivating tool, a cattle prod ("I don't know how Trevor Nunn does it..") have a part to play.

The clash between the nightmarish and the workaday once again finds another perfect setting when David is locked into a dispute with the Citizens Advice Bureau over whether his murders were all committed in the same borough. And so what if the ending is a bit scrappy? At least it leave enough threads dangling for a richly deserved second series.

Psychoville: the end is nigh!

Reece Shearsmith provides his thoughts on the finale of Psychoville (don't worry, no spoilers).

Psychoville Preview

This Thursday, Psychoville - the latest comedy-horror from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, half of the team behind the gets-better-every-time-you-watch-it League of Gentlemen - reaches its deadly and disturbing denouement.

Psychoville 1.6 Review

Everyone's drawn to Ravenhill Hospital in the penultimate Psychoville, an episode that rediscovered the sense of pace and development from the earlier episodes. I have high hopes for next week's big finale after this, so hopefully Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton won't let us down...

Psychoville episode six: "I'm waiting"

It's all back to the Institute as our heroes are hampered by handcuffs, decapitated heads and Sonia from EastEnders. Well, no one said it would be an easy ride ...