The more things change the more they stay the same. Or something like that. Earlier today I published a review of Noel Fielding's new Dick Turpin comedy and then I watched Things You Should Have Done, which has more than a hint of The Mighty Boosh about it.
TYSHD was created by and stars Lucia Keskin who made her name with her off-the-wall online clips of vegetables and celebrities such as Claudia Winklman. TYSHD has a more mundance domestic setting but every now and again there's a surreal Booshy element to it. Lucia talks to her toys in her bedroom which talk back and small people play with mouldy cheese balls in her kitchen cupboard.
A few minutes into the first episode childlike twentysomething Lucia's life gets turned upside down when both of her parents are killed in a car crash. There's no big trauma, just a scene on Ramsgate beach where she scatters their ashes and they blow over her trainers (an old gag but one that will always appeal to anyone with a morbid sensibility).
The sit in this sitcom comes when the will is read (by a solicitor played by Sunil Patel, last seen in a banking ad and C4's Alice and Jack). It transpires that Lucia inherits her parent's house on the condition that she does a list of things. The kind of things that will make her a grown-up, such as opening a bank account, learning what a clock does and in the opener learning to drive. Her aunt Karen meanwhile, played by Selin Hizli from Am I Being Unreasonable? thinks the house should be hers and is plotting her Cruella-style revenge...
The series follows "Chi" as she ticks the things off her list. She certainly doesn't go about things in a conventional way. She sets about learning to drive by flagging down a passing driving instructor mid-lesson and getting into his car. For reasons too complex to go into the instructor (played by Steve Brody) ends up playing Twister with her back home, much to the annoyance of Karen.
While some of TYSHD doesn't make a lot of sense there is much nonsense to enjoy here, from the aforementioned surreal touches to watching Lucia navigate adult life in her own deranged way. I'd call her dysfunctional but she is probably the most normal member of her dysfunctional family judging by Karen, her hubby Dave (Daniel Fearn) and his son Lucas (Jamie Bisping) who Karen gets to spy on Lucia.
Things You Should Have Done is certainly different. Any programme that starts with a bereaved daughter eating a ready meal retrieved from the car crash that killed her parents is fine by me. Maybe, though, like that ready meal, an acquired taste.
Things You Should Have Done, Thursdays, 9pm, BBC Three
Picture: BBC
