Telly Talk: Heading Out
out in time
Years ago – just over a decade – Sue Perkins was outed live on television by her ex-girlfriend Rhona Cameron on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here. It was an accident, a slip up, and one we can hardly remember. Sue did a stand up show a couple of years later addressing coming out. Susan Calman joked recently on BBC Radio 4 that coming out stories can be a bit of a competitive sport. Now, Sue Perkins has written and is starring in an entire six-part comedy series for BBC2 about a 40-year-old vet urged to come out by her friends, or they’ll push her out to her parents. If Susan Calman is right, Perkins may just be the competition’s only comeback kid.
“Perkins may be the competition’s only comeback kid”
Inkeeping with the niceties of BBC2 (as opposed to the broad strokes of BBC3’s comedy) Heading Out is gently written, utilising Perkins’ sharp wit and balancing any edge with a soft fondness for her haphazard amalgam of issues of a likeable character. Remember people, this is written by a woman who has been witty and interesting about baking cakes – she made the WI cool tea-time viewing. Anyone trusted with, and running with, The Great British Bake-Off is not to be underestimated.
So from the pen of a trusted friend comes this first foray into situation comedy. With no laughter track, it is situation comedy rather than a sitcom. The characters feel real, allowing the situations not to be. Really, who ends up bringing a dead cat to a netball game in their handbag? But it doesn’t feel like a stretch. Very much what your friend’s sister’s best mate did because that’s just how scatty they can be.
It does feel as if we’ve just dropped in on Perkins’ actual slice of life, from the fridge full of yoghurts to the lopsided long socks. The plot progressions and attire, like the netball ‘haka’ and opening scene with Moseley the cat, are much more the punchlines of a stand-up come to life. Something normal, something normal, a right turn that’s just plausible, is the formula.
Episode one has served its purpose in setting the tone, delivering the exposition and introducing us to the quirks and ticks of the characters, and started on the journey that is the story arc.
In fact, the ensemble is not dissimilar to that of a gay Bridget Jones, with her pals really loving her but using a thin veil to disguise that this may be the only reason they put up with her. And including a hot love interest who is smart, savvy and can suss out the not so suitable love interest a mile off. Could Sue Perkins have written the chick lit flick without a dick?
I’d like to give her more credit than simply adopting somebody else’s story (which was in turn adapted from Jane Austen’s story). In fact, this feels like a much deliberated over and cared for script and delivery. It may be, in the strictest sense, about facing up to coming out, but Perkins’ protagonist lies about other things too, from her profession to her age. This is set up to be about a woman, just turned 40 facing up to a lot more than simply telling her parents she likes girls. And with that substantial meal on the menu, peppered with a few more plot turns and revelations, it promises to be appealing and entertaining nourishment for the television soul.
Heading Out, BBC2, Tuesday 26 February 2013
