British TV comedy series about a Mancunian pot dealer called "Ideal"
One of my favorite British TV comedy series -- and I'll be blogging about several during my tenure here at Boing Boing -- is a show about a Mancunian pot dealer called "Ideal" (geddit?). It's consistently well-written, extremely well-acted and provides comic genius Johnny Vegas with a role worthy of his almost Shakespearean-level verbal talents.
Vegas, the funniest fat man since John Candy, is "Moz" a small-time weed merchant who may or may not be agoraphobic. But "Ideal", which has so far aired for four seasons on BBC3 and is scheduled for a fifth beginning in early 2009, isn't a comedy about drugs per se, it's more about the dramatic device of Moz's bohemian line of work bringing whimsical (and psychotic) characters in and out of his flat all day long. "Ideal" is truly one of the best things on television anywhere in the world right now and thanks to the wonders of technology, should you decide it's something you would want to watch, there is surely a way for you to see it, too. Just get your hands on it, trust me, you'll love it!
(Richard Metzger is a guestblogger)
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I've always wondered how Manchester folk got named Mancunian. Not a ton of letters in common...
Downloading all seasons naw via torrent - thx Richard!
hello richard. i would recommend these other british comedies to boingboing readers.
catterick - much underrated vic and bob sitcom.
15 storeys high. - one of the best thing the bbc has ever produced and yet nobody saw it. it's out on dvd.
charlie brookers screenwipe. not a sitcom but a series of rants/reviews on tv.
and the obvious peep show (which everyone likes) and mighty boosh (which is now very cool to hate now it's so famous)
I've watched all eps of this since it started airing. Consistently excellent comedy.
I'd also recommend The Mighty Boosh for some surreal comedy
A lot of currently running British comedies right now are excellent, but they're each catered to a particular sense of humour, and certainly not for everyone. This is how I would classify "Ideal".
But to this list of "acquired taste" comedies, I'd add the following first rate choices which are classics over here but lesser known in the US:
Currently Running:
The Mighty Boosh (as already mentioned)
Mock the Week (best of the topical comedy quiz shows)
The Kevin Bishop Show
Older Series, but still highly relevant:
Green Room
The League of Gentlemen
Bottom
Richard's posts are fantastic but he does seem to like riding the rails a bit with copyrighted materials - not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that.
re: #1
The OED sez: "Post-classical Latin Mancunium Manchester (earliest attested in one manuscript of the Antonine Itinerary (4th cent.), where it is probably a transmission error for Mamucium) + -AN suffix, probably after post-classical Latin Mancuniensis, adjective (late 18th cent. or earlier)." So... old Latin-obsessed nonsense.
@DanWarning:
My dictionary gives the etymology:
Latin Mancunium (probably an error for Mamucium), a Roman station in Manchester
..but flags it as doubtful.
@#1
Think that's bad?
I'm from Glasgow - and of course that make me a Glaswegian for some reason.
I like the idea that Moz lives a Bohemian life.
Being a huge fan of both British television (well, anything British) and weed I can't believe I haven't heard of this show before. Thanks!
QI (a directory of wonderful things in its own right)... Black Books... Spaced... The IT Crowd...
Ideal... heheheh.
My friend had a friend in NYC named Maxx Greene.
The first series of 15 Stories High was a work of genius.
Not so much the second, but then I never like the second series of any UK comedy series: not I'm Alan Partridge, not The Office.
Another much overlooked series (only one season, never repeated, not out on DVD): Is it Bill Bailey?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_It_Bill_Bailey
Good call - I've been a fan since Warren Ellis blogged about the first season. Anyone torrenting this shouldn't feel bad, since I can't picture BBC America importing this.
Though I could see a faux-edgy US remake that skips the drugs and just makes him agoraphobic.
Klingzilch @15 - agoraphobic, yet with so many visitors... not all of whom he's met before...
...and there are surely sponsorship possibilities in Cartoon Head...
Do people actually find Johnny Vegas funny? I mean,I find him occasionally and briefly amusing... but I can say the same thing about a particularly funny sounding fart.
That said, I'll still give the show a shot.
Jungletek @18 Yes.
Johnny Vegas was also excellent in the Paul Whitehouse show Happiness.
Jack M (#5), you may have missed Help, in two senses of the word. And did you mean Green Wing rather than Green Room?
Oh god, I watched two full series of Ideal as they aired and never got the joke until you just pointed it out...
@18, Jungletek: Vegas as an actor is a very different beast to Vegas as a comedian/character- if it wasn't for their shared, tatty-casual look, you would never otherwise associate the two.
/b
@15, Klingzilch: Forgot to add that G4 seem to be having some success with British comedy and/or drug references, if you're stateside and have access to the channel you could do worse than suggesting the show to them...
/b
"Look Around You." Not a sitcom but certainly the funniest British comedy I've seen in a good while.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=drE5cHe6c3s
hm watched about 20mins of the linked video and didn't really find anything funny at all. Its slow, and seems like they aren't even trying.
Look around you, on the other hand, is actually funny.
Torrent link please?
I was really excited when this came out, due to being a fan of comedy and weed, but I guess I'm the only one here who was really dissapointed. It's just a typical middle of the road cliched sitcom using stupid coincedences, basically Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps with weed.
Good call Richard.
Ideal is a very funny show and Vegas is great - although there's also a terrific supporting cast, many of whom you can see propping up bars throughout Manchester on a regular basis. The show is written by an extremely talented guy by the name of Graham Duff, who some might remember from the excellent theatrical show, the A to Z of Drugs 15 years or so ago.
The best thing I've seen Vegas do was Interiors, a one-man show he did at last year's inaugral Manchester International Festival. It was written by Vegas and Jerry Springer The Opera writer Stewart Lee and Vegas played a guy trying to sell his house - but in took place in a real house just down the road from me in south Manchester and the audience were the prospective buyers.
Seeing Vegas, close up and personal, was quite an experience, believe me.
My funniest memory of Johnny Vegas was him on stage picking on some guy in the audience for leering at a girl Johnny was talking to. This went on for a minute as Johnny continued to make sport of the guy, as most comedians might. The guy denies it, Johnny asks how he can believe him, the guy replies "I'm blind."
That was a comedy hole Johnny just couldn't dig himself out of.
@18 - You're right, I'm not a big Johnny Vegas fan but I do love Ideal although I would warn potential viewers that, like many other classic British comedies, it'll take a couple of episodes before you fully appreciate it.
Some of the later episodes get very, very strange and some serious violent undercurrents but suffice to say that British drug dealers do tend to be more like Moz and less like the US version - mostly since we have no need for guns.
Cartoonhead FTW!
#3/#5 and any others.. I second the recommendations on Mighty Boosh, 15 Stories High (the radio show is also pretty good) and Peep Show (and all the other Mitchell & Webb stuff).
I'd like to add the IT Crowd, Green Wing, Monkey Dust, Jam and Jerusalem (also aired on HBO a few months ago under some other name) and anything involving Chris Morris- Brass Eye, Jam/Blue Jam...
BTW- I'm an American, I thankfully get all of this awesomeness from a few UK private torrent sites. I haven't seen commercial American TV for quite a long time.
Surprisingly, I think the BBC does more and better analysis of American culture than we do. See the Dark Side of Modern Love/Sex series, Louis Theroux's stuff and a lot of the Storyville series.