ONCE MORE (THE KEMPS: ALL GOLD)
And now for the second bite.
Having given us a spoof BBC2 rockumentary in 2020 with 'The Kemps: All True,' Rhys Thomas and Spandau Ballet's Martin and Gary Kemp are back parodying themselves and other celebrities.
'The Kemps: All Gold' this time takes pot shots at the split between Princes William and Harry, Taylor Swift rerecording her back catalogue, rock biopics and McBusted.
But have the lessons been learned from the 2020 spoof which promised more laughs than were actually delivered?
The new show picks up on plot points from the previous show with more references to Gary's failed vegan meat free product Wonge and the return of their pretend brother Perry Benson's Ross Kemp (not that one).
The mockumentary follows the same formula of Rhys Thomas interviewing the lads and following their misadventures, while delivering a shoddily researched narration.
There's a lot of celebrity cameos again from the likes of Christopher Eccleston, Michael Kitchen, Francis Rossi of Status Quo, Tamzin Outhwaite, Adil Ray, actor and director Dexter Fletcher, ITV News host Tom Bradby, the BAFTA winning 'Am I Being Unreasonable Star?' Lenny Rush and Martin Kemp's wife Shirlie.
In fact one of the running gags in the show is that Martin is not only married to her but to her 1980s singing partner Pepsi.
This, he says, is a source of tension between him and Gary and in Prince Harry fashion he publishes a tell all book about his family feud, reliving in a Tom Bradby interview a violent assault by his brother.
Obsessed with his two wives and six kids getting a fat heart, he sleeps in the garage and is shocked when Shirlie kicks him out and announces both she and Pepsi want divorces.
Forced to pay child maintenance to both, Martin travels to Norfolk to persuade Gary to bury the hatchet and let him live with him.
However he also wants him to help him cash in on their Spandau Ballet days so he can make a living that isn't drained away by all the child support.
Seeking the counsel of their world weary manager, Michael Kitchen's John Farrow, they decide to star in their own biopic written by Martin and directed by Dexter Fletcher.
Adil Ray is cast as Spandau Ballet's lead singer Tony Hadley after generously funding the film and Tamzin Outhwaite plays their mum.
To get over the fact both Kemps are in their sixties, de-ageing visual effects similar to those deployed on Harrison Ford in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' are used.
One of the problems that they encounter is they can't use any of their original music because the rights and the master tapes have been sold to an entertainment corporation.
© BBCFarrow and the Kemps decide to re-record their back catalogue Taylor Swift-style, with the help of Christopher Eccleston's droll Mancunian producer Luke Dunmore.
However they quickly change course when Luke comes up with a plan to get their hands on the originals.
The other money making wheeze they land on is persuading BBC1 to give them the coveted midnight gig slot on live TV after the New Year's fireworks.
Because Tony Hadley won't work with them, they start to woo Harry Styles to form a new McBusted act called Spandau Harry.
They almost land him until Martin promises the gig to Status Quo lead singer Francis Rossi after a drunken night out.
The only problem is Rossi wants to play Spandau Ballet hits in the style of Status Quo and he also insists they resemble him onstage.
Along the way, the brothers get into a dispute with some dodgy builders, played by Danny John-Jules, Ellie-May Sheridan and Lenny Rush, who promise to build a cultural centre on Gary's farm that will enable him to stage 'Spandau - The Ballet'.
Ross is roped into helping Gary get rid of boxes of Wonge which brings them to the attention of the Norfolk Police.
Martin is offered a knighthood which really irritates Gary.
One of the problems with 'The Kemp's: All True' is while it went some way towards sending up celebrities, it refused to go all in and properly roast them.
Unfortunately Thomas and the Kemps make the same mistake again, only going half hog.
If anything, 'The Kemps: All Gold' is less funny than its predecessor, barely raising a smile.
© BBCOnce again, the gags are reduced to really poor dad jokes - a quip about music acts that came together digs out that hoary old gag about Dire Straits joining forces with Chris Rea.
A fairly decent joke about Martin getting paid £85 a pop for fan videos on Cameo gets really flogged to death.
A sequence about Gary's farmhouse being haunted and Martin terrified of potential witchcraft descends into toe curling amateur dramatics.
Once more, the shadow of the Bros documentary 'After The Screaming Stops' and the unintentional humour it generated overshadows everything in this second Spandau Ballet spoof.
'The Kemps: All Gold' is also no match for classics of the mockumentary genre like 'This Is Spinal Tap' and 'The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash'.
But that's because no-one involved is prepared to cut really deep with the gags.
Thomas and his co-creators are just far too tame.
'The Kemps: All Gold' would benefit from being a bit more like Ricky Gervais' 'Extras' and 'Life's Too Short' where big name celebrities like Daniel Radcliffe, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, George Michael, David Bowie and Liam Neeson were prepared to go all the way in parodying themselves.
The show lacks fangs.
Unfortunately all we get are false teeth.
('The Kemps: All Gold' was broadcast on BBC2 on December 29, 2023)
Comments
Post a Comment