Staged: Comedy At Its Best

Lockdown has been hard for everyone in a number of different ways. People are isolated from loved ones, their careers put on hold and a trip to the supermarket to get your weekly shop is perhaps the most stressful task you can accomplish nowadays. We’ve binged all that we can binge on Netflix and Homes under the Hammer just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore. We all needed a bit of cheering up and BBC One’s new comedy Staged exactly what we needed.

 

Staged stars national treasures David Tennant and Michael Sheen as an exaggerated version of themselves and is just plain brilliant. Filmed in their homes, the series shows us how the pair are dealing with lockdown whilst masquerading as a rehearsal for a Covid-19 cancelled play. It also gives us a peek into the actor’s real lives, we spend time with their partners Anna Lundberg and Georgia Tennant. Georgia helped to produce for the show which really highlights the idea that Staged was an all hands-on deck sort of production, if anyone could help, they would. So much care and hard work was put in to create something to cheer up the nation and I must say, the nation thanks you for your efforts. 

 

The comedy in the show is superb, somehow both subtle and overt it got countless belly chuckles from me, someone who is, at best, a sharp breath out of nose sort of person. It doesn’t stick itself in a box. Some episodes are just plane bonkers whilst others tackle themes that many of us are dealing with at the moment in particular grief and fear. It also features perhaps the widest range of guest stars from Samuel L Jackson to even the Dame herself, Judi Dench and if that isn’t an incentive to watch the show then I don’t know what is!

 

It’s so easy to see that this show was created with such passion and real love for what they do. Creativity always can always come from our darkest hours and Staged really does show this. Simon Evans and Phin Glynn have created a real gem. A special little commendation to Simon Evans who wrote, directed and starred alongside Tennant and Sheen and gave each episode charm and heart and held his own acting alongside two of the nation’s greatest. 

 

You’ve probably gathered by now that I thought Staged was brilliant. No detail was spared, even down to little jokes in the credits. Staged proves to us that art is not defined but budget or scale but by the dedication, love and pure craftsmanship that a group of artists put into it. If you haven’t already, please do go and give Staged a watch, all six episodes are on IPlayer and it is dangerously bingeable. Once you finish it, I’m sure, like me, you will immediately want to watch it all over again.  

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