A mirthless sitcom with idiot characters and desperate plot-lines is hardly news. But I am mildly surprised that Channel 4 would commission a deeply homophobic schlock comedy that has the unenlightened sensibilities of a 1960s Carry On film or a lowbrow 1970s sitcom. In High and Dry Marc Wootton plays Brett, an airline "trolly dolly" who could have been a friend of Mr Humphries in Are You Being Served? or one of Dick Emery's cast of stereotypical characters. He's insufferably camp in that too-gay-to-function way that almost no real life person could be. But, worse, there is an underlying pathology to Brett that betrays the homophobia in both the writing and the performance. Brett is the very embodiment of the predatory homo - the kind of pervert we were once warned about - and half the jokes revolve around him trying to seduce straight Douglas and ward off any attempts to interfere with the fantasy of Brett making the island on which they are stranded a paradise for two. Which points to the second strand of homophobia: Brett is not just comedy-crazy, he is psychopathic. Textbook definition psychopathic, actually. And since Brett pretty much drives the action, the nastiness that generates suffuses almost every scene and plot point, to the point where the whole show is one stinking pile of offensive dreck. Best avoided. The two stars are for Vicki Pepperdine, who is talented and has my sympathy.
