James R | On 06, Feb 2022

This review is based on Season 1.

“Is this an accurate representation of your workplace?” “Well, the carpets are green.” That’s hardened Crazy Clive (Peter Ferdinando) talking to soft-hearted security guard Sidney (Steve Stamp) near the start of The Curse. They’re standing by a snooker table in 1980s East London, and attempting to map out a heist using snooker balls and a triangle. But what does the chalk mean? And what about the pockets?

If that sounds like a silly detail to focus on, that’s because Channel 4’s new caper is a deliberately silly affair, juggling comedy and crime thriller in a way that shouldn’t work at all, but absolutely does. A large part of that is thanks to the people behind it: the majority of the boys from People Just Do Nothing and Tom Davis. Kurupt FM’s finest and the star of King Gary and Murder in Successville? It’s a match made in Heaven for British comedy fans, and within minutes of the opening episode, it’s clear that the match has paid off.

Steve Stamp, Allan Mustafa and Hugo Chegwin were a formidable bunch in their own right in People Just Do Nothing, thanks to their ability to create sincere friendships out of their lived-in chemistry, no matter how dumb the pirate radio broadcasters in their mockumentary sounded. They bring that attention to detail to bear here once more, as we’re introduced to café owner Albert (Mustafa), getaway driver Phil (Chegwin) and Stamp’s Sidney. The trio are friends, but far from natural criminals, and the joy comes from none of them really being prepared to admit it, whether it’s Mustafa’s cowardly, blustering business owner, Chegwin’s hat-wearing, insecure lad, who just wants to be considered part of “The Firm”, or Stamp’s timid, on-the-edge singleton, who conceives the idea of using his new job for a robbery but has no inkling of what to do.

Enter Big Mick (Tom Davis), a towering giant in all ways except his intellect, who never met a ranting aside that he didn’t like – and his loud, deadpan presence is a perfect contrast to the intimidating Abraham Popoola as enforcer Joey and the always-brilliant Peter Ferdinando as the serious, no-nonsense Clive. Davis is hilarious and, like the Kurupt clowns, has a knack for squeezing in one-liners where they shouldn’t exist, and the script – co-written with director James De Frond – stuffs inspired jokes in at every opportunity.

The show’s success is the way that it manages to balance that with a surprisingly griping narrative, as the would-be bad guys stumble upon not just cash but £30 million worth of gold, making their job one of the country’s biggest ever robberies. Within the opening episodes, we’re watching them work out what to do with the loot, while also getting grilled by the police (including Ambreen Razia’s smart Detective Thread and Geoff Bell’s entertainingly old-school Detective Saunders). A judicious voiceover from the marvellous and magnetic Emer Kenny as Albert’s scene-stealing Lady Macbeth-like wife, Natasha, makes it clear that not everyone is going to make it out of this mess alive – which instils a quiet tension in the shifting dynamics of the group, as we wait for them to turn on each other. Every decision, meanwhile, is rooted in a context of recession, greed and desperation, which makes things strangely plausible as well as amusingly absurd. The result is The Ladykillers meets Lock, Stock, a box set that’s witty, gritty and gripping – and leaves you clamouring for a second season.

 

The Curse is available on All 4.

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