Outside the Box

Staged. Image shows from L to R: David (David Tennant), Michael (Michael Sheen)

Great comedy can come from challenging situations.

One interesting aspect of the entertainment scene recently has been shows and performers finding innovative ways to make the best of things. Big ideas do tend to emerge from extreme situations - a crisis certainly does focus the mind - and the comedy fraternity have really had to think outside the regular box to stay busy while the world shut down.

Take Staged, the BBC show in which actors David Tennant and Michael Sheen, and writer/performer Simon Evans, turn our current Zoom, Skype and Facetime-based social lives and turn it into comedy gold. If you haven't binged the two series yet, it features Sheen and Tennant, and their respective partners, verbally jousting with Evans and a hugely impressive cast of guest stars.

Clearly times have changed, but persuading such big celebs to log on and get involved is still quite a feat, as there are so many other things you can do from the comfort of your couch these days - huge new blockbuster films go straight to digital now, you can look up the new betting sites 2021 has to offer at the click of a button, or buy a few items online and take up a whole new hobby the very next day.

Mind you, it's hard to imagine the biggest surprise guest from Staged Series 1 - we won't name him here just in case you haven't seen it yet - cracking on with some crochet, or making dolls houses, or setting up a model railway. Mind you, model railways are cool enough for Rod Stewart, so who knows what people get up to in the privacy of their own attics.

Staged. Image shows from L to R: Georgia (Georgia Tennant), David (David Tennant)

The good thing about Staged is that it uses the restrictions that this unique situation has posed as a positive. Many shows have tried to keep going, often quite admirably, but these socially-distanced or video-based versions are clearly not quite as good as the original versions. Whereas a show like Staged feels like an organic product of the current environment, and would probably never have happened if the world hadn't all been forced onto Zoom.

The question is, will Staged carry on after the current restrictions are finally lifted, and acting work gets back to normal; in fact, life will probably be even busier than normal for in-demand performers, as postponed shows get squeezed back into the schedule too. But again, the show's lo-fi nature is another plus here, as even if full-on camera crews and make-up people become available again, they're not needed on this production.

A glossy version of Staged would just be weird - which is what Series 2 is chiefly about, incidentally - and that's a blessed relief for the acting fraternity. And particularly for talents like Sheen and Tennant, who've appeared in numerous shows with lots of time-consuming effects and prosthetics: the Twilight and Harry Potter sagas, Doctor Who, Tron: Legacy, and their previous collaboration, Good Omens.

It's why busy TV stars still do radio work regularly: it's an absolute joy to make, compared to the on-screen stuff. In fact, the return of that movie magic might come as quite a shock, after all this.

Published: Tuesday 19th January 2021

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