Film

A sharp little satire, spoken wholly in verse,
This lively new Britcom’s not quite the first
Film to deliver its dialogue in rhyme –
Sally Potter’s ‘Yes’ comes sadly to mind.

Set among delegates at a sales convention,
This predictable farce runs low on tension.
But the style is playful, the humour biting,
As the film charts the effect of so much in-fighting
Between those converged at a high-class hotel
For speeches and lectures on a successful hard sell.

Romances are sparked, murky backgrounds revealed.
There’s a cracking performance from Harry Enfield
As an ageing Lothario, with a villainous moustache,
Who marries new widows and steals all their cash.

Simon Callow plays God – heavenly casting –
Orchestrating events and dryly lambasting
The quirks and the foibles of the mortals before us,
Narrating the action, a one-man Greek chorus.

The results are slight but old-fashioned fun,
Think less TS Eliot, more ‘Carry On’.
Still the dialogue’s clever, keen and accomplished,
Though a brief blast of rap is ear-wincingly rubbish.
The couplets are smart, some startle the ear,
Like finding a rhyme for a Ford Mondeo Ghia.

Johnny Daukes is the man who pulled it all off –
Still after 80-ish minutes, you think, okay, enough.