Professor & Ace: Punchline

By: Jeremy Leadbetter

Narrated by: Sylvester McCoy

A perfect house...a perfect son...a perfect wife...WIFE? When your life is a '70's sitcom and every episode ends happily, why on earth would you want to change? In Suburbton, no one can hear you scream....

Written by Jeremy Leadbetter. Directed by Paul Ebbs. Postproduction and Music by Steve Johnson. Produced by Bill Baggs. Cast: Sylvester McCoy (Dominic), Susan Travers (June), Barry J. Gordon (Sir), Neil Bull (Kevin). Pseudonym for Rob Shearman.

A full-cast audio drama.

©1998 BBV (P)1998 BBV

Critic reviews

"When Sylvester McCoy says that something is the best thing he has ever done, within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre, then it tends to make you sit up - and acquire the story he is taking about. To be honest, it was only the McCoy recommendation that drew me to this, though - the idea seemed terrible. I hate naff sitcoms, and this seemed to be about that - until I read McCoy's comments. Starting with some sufficiently appropriate cheesy music we are flung into the world of the '70s Sitcom. There's four characters - Dominic Perkins (played by McCoy), June (his wife), Kevin (his son), and Sir (his boss). For the first half an hour we are within this sitcom fantasy. All the clichés are there, and the sitcom is riddled with repeated jokes and characters behaving exactly the same week in, week out. That's the idea of the whole thing - it thrives on the Naff Sitcom genre, and turns it into something very different. The script is darn clever. The opening half an hour, with its repeated phrases is just about to tire, when Dominic starts to realize things aren't quite right. There then follows subtle observations about sitcoms, and by the end we are completely in Fantasyland - and very close to Doctor Who - which of course inspired all these spin-off dramas. The way Jeremy Leadbetter builds up the sitcom world, then proceeds to pull it apart is terrific. His observations towards the end about what is real and what is not, what's important and what's not - is profound. These are the parts that McCoy so raves about, I expect - it's just very clever and poignant writing - from a very contrived initial premise." (Richard Radcliffe)