Clarkson & Crouch: Away with the Fairies

In sketches which scoot around the seamy side of south London, Jonathan Clarkson and Rob Crouch have a delightful knack of bringing the surreal to the melodramatic. Here are video shop owners who summon the devil, old biddies who cope with pirates and unicorns who cause problems down the boozer.

If the opening doesn't bode well, with a too obvious sketch about demotivational speakers, the writing steps into gear when the supernatural elements begin to emerge. Here is a universe where chavs date centaurs, Foxi Loxi attempts to get unemployment benefit and Trolls do speed-dating.

While the matter-of-fact creation of this universe is what makes this work, the whole show would benefit from an even greater coherence. Most individual sketches reference another in some way but the pair seem frightened to push this side of the comedy. More of an internal rhythm throughout the whole show would help create something interesting and complex from basic gag-based sketches.

The gags are good, however, and the pair provide a strong blank pallet for creation of character with Clarkson scrawny and diminutive besides Crouch's hulking form. With more coherence and perhaps a touch more concentration on the visual side of the comedy, there should be plenty more where this came from.