MURDER IN SUCCESSVILLE (2015-17) MUST-WATCH TV CLASSICS

Available on iPlayer

Murder In Successville is a murder-mystery comedy with an improvisational element, and it’s so plain silly it’s joyous. I even heard a noise when I was watching that, at first, I failed to recognise, as it was me laughing. I can’t even remember the last time I laughed out loud at a TV comedy.

Every week a ‘celebrity’ (I use the term loosely; in one episode it was ‘Queen of the Jungle’ Vicky Pattison, though she was wonderfully game) is partnered with DI Sleet (Tom Davis, above, so lovable) to solve a murder. It’s set in Successville, a surreal town populated by celebrities who aren’t the actual celebrities. Sometimes it’s a celebrity playing another one. In one episode we had Paul Whitehouse playing Len Goodman.

Plus, we had actors playing Gordon Ramsay, Lorraine Kelly and Lewis Hamilton. DI Sleet was himself arrested because ‘Nick Knowles has been found dead in your car’. Pattison, who is delivered to the set and knows nothing – she must improvise her reactions – has to pick up on clues and at the end say whodunnit. Lorraine or Len or Lewis?

This is all so mad and so Spike Milligan-esque that even those involved can’t help corpsing, which is delightful. Highly recommended.