I’m not sure if it is possible to have a slow burn, under-the-radar sitcom these days. Everything comes with so much hype and baggage it either sinks or swims quickly in the glare of publicity and wildly hysterical Twitter responses.
Except for The Mimic. The first series went out on Channel 4 last year and had some positive reviews, but not so many that it was heavily scrutinised. But it did do well enough to get re-commissioned and it returns this week. I seriously urge you to watch it.
Terry Mynott is the star of the show. His previous biggest TV exposure was on The Morgana Show and Very Important Important People, where he majored in celebrity impressions. In The Mimic he plays Martin Hurdle, a low-key everyman with the ability to replicate the voices of everybody, from people he passes in the street to Hollywood celebrities.
The action – if one can use that word – revolves around Martin's daily life. His efforts to find work and form relationships. Martin’s family, like his personality, seems somewhat fractured. Neil Maskell, who played a brutal killer in Utopia returns as Mynott’s friend Neil. Jo Hartley plays his friend Jean, who, in the first episode buys a rather ostentatious car.
Apart from Jean’s shocking pink Fiat, however, everything else is played with a downbeat, oddly cheerful-yet-melancholy, restrained air. Even Mynott’s voices. Like Rob Brydon he is partial to a touch of Terry Wogan or Al Pacino, but he doesn't make a song and dance about it.
Inevitably the starry impressions recall The Trip, while there’s a hint of Andy Millman’s friend Maggie in Extras in Jo Hartley’s Jean. But thanks to the understated humour and Mynott’s unshowy performance The Mimic is a completely distinctive sitcom. It is simply not really that much like anything else at all and that is what will keep you watching.
What is most intriguing about the Mimic, however, is that it is written by Matt Morgan, who was previously best known as Russell Brand’s wingman. The mood here could not be more different to an in-your-face Russell Brand product. This is comedy very much without knobs on, and all the better for it.
The Mimic is on C4 on Wednesdays at 10pm.
