The Comic Strip, Part 15 - In it for the money

"The Supergrass" - Feature Film, 1985

I decided to go have a rummage and dig out my old cassette tape of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Welcome to the Pleasuredome." The album came out when I was in High School and it was the most brilliant thing that was ever created from the beginning of time. The thing that was so brilliant was that between the songs there was all of this stuff: monologues about nuclear war, Orchestral fiddley-bits, some guy yelling "The world is my oyster! Wahhhh-hayy-yaya." It was just sheer top-down classy.

What I somehow didn't realize at the time was that the good bits was all the stuff between the songs. When the songs started proper, we all started jumping up and down, and for all anyone cared, the band could have done three minutes of arm-farts with a back beat, because the ramp-up was so brilliant.


One of the best moments in "The Supergrass" starts with Robbie Coltrane walking across the beach. It is wonderfully shot on a windy, blustery day. The waves are crashing, and there's this incredible background music playing. As Robbie Coltrane walks out onto the jetty, the water beating on him in this incredible set piece, I finally figured out what I was listening to as the music resolved into Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Two Tribes." And as this amazing shot was unfolding, I had to think to myself: "Man, this song really isn't that good, is it?"

We have two seasons under our belts, time to venture forth onto the big screen. I'm not sure how the Comic Strip crew got the green light, but I'm sure that they were delighted for the opportunities that the jump provided. The story of the film: Dennis Carter is a chronic liar. In the process of pretending to be involved with a drug ring so he can impress a girl, he is overheard by some police officers who take his tale seriously. One bluff leads to another, and Dennis has now become a well paid informant, even though he doesn't have any concrete information to share. He is given a sportscar, a big wad of cash, and two undercover cops to pose as his friend and girlfriend, and sent to Devon to wait for the big shipment of drugs that he invented. When it transpires that there really is a drug smuggling ring waiting for a shipment of drugs, wackiness ensues.

Well, moderated wackiness. Nobody seems to be much of a threat to anyone. Even the actual drug smugglers who manage to really actually kill someone in a threatening, scary way, come across as being not terribly dangerous. The protagonists (Ade Edmonson as the "Supergrass," Jennifer Saunders as Lesley, the cop posing as his girlfriend, and Peter Richardson as the other cop, who is in love with Lesley and has to watch them sort of pretend to be a couple) are straight to the point of being overly bland. It seems almost like they were afraid of being too broad, and decided to err on the side of sweet. They take advantage of the ratings freedom to throw in a light smattering of swearing and nudity, but it's all rather (if you'll pardon the phrase) half-assed. It's like watching a bunch of high school kids doing Mamet and realizing halfway through that Grandma is in the audience. The plot too - it feels like they didn't trust it to actually go anywhere. Apart from the two cops realizing that they are, in fact, in love with each other, there is nothing that feels like any sort of climax.

The one thing that they take advantage of well is the set pieces. The opening scene of Dennis coming ashore, the Robbie Coltrane on the jetty sequence, the bit where they get pulled over by Alexi Sayle's motorcycle cop (and I'm amazed that it's taken this long to see him show up in one of these - glad to finally see him here). It's these little images and shots that the whole series has done well, and it is great to see that they have an opportunity to take their time and really let some of them come together. But ultimately it is a lot like that Frankie Goes to Hollywood album. All the interstitial bits are wonderful, and the actual meat that it's supposed to hang on is, in retrospect, a bit crap.

Another opportunity that they had was to put together a soundtrack album, so the film is definitely nailed down to its era. At one point Dennis takes Lesley to a town hall dance; he is dressed in a replica of the jacket that Michael Jackson wore in the "Beat It" video, she's wearing a "Frankie say Relax" shirt, and they get out of the car as "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" starts up. I'd like to think that they were doing a piss-take, but they're just so sincere.