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A Touch of Cloth |OT| Detective/Crime Spoof by Charlie Brooker

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W

Wes

venison crêpe
Titular Reference

A Touch of Frost: Critically acclaimed British television detective series.
Touching Cloth: "When the turtle head of ones faeces pretudes to the extent that it touches the cloth which comprises ones underwear."

Synopsis

DCI Jack Cloth (John Hannah) is a maverick, heavy drinking loner who has thrown himself into his work following the mysterious death of his wife. The damaged, haunted Cloth is teamed with plucky no-nonsense sidekick DC Anne Oldman (Suranne Jones). Together the pair investigate a series of increasingly grisly murders and find themselves on the trail of a devious killer. As you do. If you're a detective.

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Trailers

Trailer One
Trailer Two
Hoody Chase Scene

Episodes

The first in the trilogy is set to launch this August and the second 2 x 60 series has commenced filming with transmission set for next year and a further 1 x 120 film will follow.

Reviews

Peter Bradshaw said:
Charlie Brooker's crime drama spoof, in which John Hannah and Suranne Jones gamely play characters not too dissimilar from ones they play in actual cop shows, is stuffed to the rafters with jokes. Very good jokes, less good jokes, clever jokes, stupid jokes, visual jokes, knowing jokes, new jokes, old jokes, surreal jokes, puns, nods, winks. There is no let-up, it's relentless – like there's a joke machine aimed at your head, and Charlie's not letting go of the trigger.
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Kieran James said:
It’s a great comedy, with Monty Pythonesque silliness, well aimed criticisms, and some well worked Brechtian elements too. Clever but ludicrous, Sky One have produced another good one here and their admirable push for quality new British shows continues.

It’s a great comedy, with Monty Pythonesque silliness, well aimed criticisms, and some well worked Brechtian elements too. Clever but ludicrous, Sky One have produced another good one here and their admirable push for quality new British shows continues.
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Sean Marland said:
The TV schedule is jam-packed with troubled detectives, so if any genre is ripe for a damn-good spoofing, it's the police procedural.

We're all familiar with the catalogue of clichés such dramas relentlessly throw at us: detectives with pasts that make a Leonard Cohen album seem cheerful; people in trench coats walking at the camera; conversations conducted almost entirely of accronyms and hammy interrogation scenes in which unhinged coppers lose it with a sneering villain.

This is Airplane humour at its best and the writers have more material to play with than a comedian riffing on John Terry.
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Wes said:
If you like Police Squad!, Naked Gun and Airplane you will love this. There are so many jokes it requires multiple viewings.
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Y

Yen

Member
Thought this was absolutely FANTASTIC. So many gags, and I loved the Naked Gun-esque visual gags. Delighted to hear it's been renewed for 2 more 60 minute episodes and a 120 minute episode.

edit: which I see you mentioned in the OP.
 
S

Speedymanic

Banned
Watched episode 1 earlier, all kinds of amazing. A little heavy on the jokes though, but most of them were pretty well done and it's great to see John Hannah in another OOT role. The guy is just so well suited to them.

Oh and the morgue scene...what.the.fuck. o_O. I couldn't choose between shock and laughter, brilliant stuff.
 
B

Busty

Banned
rogue_pigeon said:
Was I watching the same programme as the rest of you? I thought it was atrocious :(
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I've been hearing this for months but it seems that the inclusion of one Mr Brooker and everyone is foaming at the mouth with praise.

Personally I didn't seen anything worth watching in this and so I didn't bother tuning in.
 
S

Spectrum128

Member
I have to admit that I didn't even pick up on it being a spoof from the tv adverts. I should have known from the name though.... I should have known.
 
B

Bo-Locks

Member
rogue_pigeon said:
Was I watching the same programme as the rest of you? I thought it was atrocious :(
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It was.

Way, way too many jokes, and how they managed to make it an hour long, I'll never know. There is just no respite from the jokes. It's relentless. I didn't even find it particularly clever or funny.

EDIT: Christ. I shudder to think of how many jokes they can squeeze into 120 minutes.
 
L

LFF

Neo Member
Excellent show. So many subtle gags I'll be able to watch it several more times and still find new stuff. Looking forward for the next series.
 
V

Vinegar Joe

Member
"You're coming apart at the seams, Cloth!"

"The bodies keep washing up, Cloth!"

"I want those reports in the morning on my table, Cloth!"

etc
 
R

RobotNinjaHornets

Banned
Well that was fucking hilarious. More silly than I was expecting from Brooker, but still obviously him. And my god there was no letting up. Was there a single line that wasn't a joke?
 
S

Spotless Mind

Member
Hilarious stuff. Brooker has yet to step a foot wrong with his shows. I've loved them all.

Vinegar Joe said:
"You're coming apart at the seams, Cloth!"

"The bodies keep washing up, Cloth!"

"I want those reports in the morning on my table, Cloth!"

etc
Click to expand...

All those killed me, lol.

I feel like i need to watch it again, because the pacing of the jokes was just relentless.
 
P

Pookmunki

Member
I only knew of this when advertised at the start of last week so no real hype or anything. The show was relentlessly funny / punny and I'm looking forward to the next 2 sets. God only knows how straight faces were kept.

I dont think I have ever seen anything that daft since Vic & Bob / Chris Morris were at their peak.
 
G

Gomu Gomu

Member
Busty said:
I've been hearing this for months but it seems that the inclusion of one Mr Brooker and everyone is foaming at the mouth with praise.
Click to expand...
To be honest with you, I never heard of Brooker before. I don't know who he is or what he did before. All's I know is this is a funny show.
 
S

Spiffy_1st

Member
The intro was 30 seconds of John Hannah turning his head to face the camera, so needless to say I really enjoyed it.

Also, the lesbian woman is Kima from The Wire, with her girlfriend telling her the job has taken over from their relationship.
 
A

arena08

Member
8bit said:
Has it got any Fila Brazilia music in it?
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New favourite poster. I'm going to listen to some Fila Brazilia right now.

Also, saw this advertised with no mentioned of Brooker's involvement. Surely an oversight by Sky. I would have had no intention of watching it until finding that out.
 
W

Wes

venison crêpe
Spiffy_1st said:
Also, the lesbian woman is Kima from The Wire, with her girlfriend telling her the job has taken over from their relationship.
Click to expand...

The subtle winks were great. Boss' foreign sayings were all nods to Forbrydelsen, Borgen and Spiral I believe.

The morgue scene had me cracking up.
 
2

21st century cowboy

Member
Gag a second. I thought it was hilarious. I can't wait to watch it again.

The exact same 2 second clip of John Hannah turning to camera being repeated and repeated and repeated set up the show perfectly.
 
M

Mecha_Infantry

Banned
Got it on Sky+

Looks amazing. Best gag in the trailer was te "YOU CAN'T GO IN" an the doctor

At first I thought it was real! Then recently sky had to put the warning saying that it was a comedy spoof
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
Oh my god, I need to see this. It's been ages since the last decent spoof. Seriously, if you count Austin Powers I think that may be the last one, maybe Not Another Teen Movie. After those it was all pure dreck. I want more akin to Airplane! Naked Gun, Hot Shots! and such. Those were my youth.

Definitely checking this out.
 
C

Cosmonaut X

Member
"Oh, don't look at me like that. This isn't the first time I've stood here clutching a dripping pussy is it, Jack?"

An absolute blast from start to finish, and I'm baffled by the complaints about "too many" jokes - it's relentless in the way Airplane! et al were, and it's all the better for it. Delighted to hear there's more on the way.

EDIT:

...and Hairy Hand! The never-ending lines of police tape! The cascade of double entendres in the court flashback! :)
 
C

Cindres

Vied for a tag related to cocks, so here it is.
Just caught up on the first episode. Holy shit that was good. As a huge huge fan of Police Academy and Airplane this was right up my street.

Was gonna pick out specific bits but it's impossible, there was just so much every minute, fucking hilarious.
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
Just watched it. I loved it, absolutely fucking hilarious! Best spoof I've seen in years.

This is made my people who actually understand the genre rather than those buffoons that did Epic Movie and the like. You need to pick a genre and expose its innards and then play them up, not just imitate well known scenes from popular movies. You need to have a decent story and likeable characters to hang the jokes on, not just throw whatever you think of at the screen. This may be a silly genre, but to make it work you have to really think it through.

I'm so glad this came along, it used to be one of my favorite genres and I this is a very very good entry.
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
Just watched the second episode. Almost as good as the first. The first seemed to have more gags, but it's still funny as hell. This has inspired me to watch Black Mirror and Dead Set (also by Charlie Brooker).
 
W

Wes

venison crêpe
Count Dookkake said:
Why would you explain the joke of the title? How lame.
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A lot of non British people would have never had heard of A Touch of Frost and the fact that the real title is a joke on a detective show explains the whole premise of this program. It is the perfect title.

In fact I could've just put those two definitions in the OP and been done with it but to have left them out wouldn't be right. I want to entice people to watch it, not make them think "why would I want to watch a show named after poop touching underwear?".
 
E

EliCash

Member
I laughed out loud a few times, pretty silly for Brooker but you could still see it was his writing. Chris Morris and Brooker should do something.
 
A

arena08

Member
EliCash said:
I laughed out loud a few times, pretty silly for Brooker but you could still see it was his writing. Chris Morris and Brooker should do something.
Click to expand...

They did Nathan Barley together. I do agree though, they should do something else together. Actually a second series of Barley would be brilliant.
 
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