The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is British comedy series, released in March this year, created by Claire Downes, Ian Jarvis, and Stuart Lane. The series was directed by Ben Palmer and George Kane, and stars Noel Fielding as the titular Dick Turpin.
Starring alongside Fielding is the rest of the Essex Gang including Ellie White [Nell], Honesty [Duayne Boachie], and Moose [Marc Wootton]. The six-part series follows Turpin at the onset of his somewhat uninformed career choice of highwayman due to him being morally against his family’s butchering business as a vegan.
The show also boasts a supporting cast of Hugh Bonneville, Tamsin Greig, Asim Chaudry, and Mark Heap. Bonneville plays the villainous Jonathon Wilde, the Thief-Taker General of the 18th century. The series’ format sees the reluctant highwayman and his ragtag bunch of rogues on wild adventures which means episodes can be enjoyed individually but the show does benefit from the overarching threat of those who would put an end to the Essex Gang’s hijinks. Such hijinks include a wild goose chase through London, strategic knitting, and even a musical number.
The standout performance for me arrives in episode four, Curse of the Regglehag, where Jessica Hynes plays a demonic entity. Fielding and his brother Michael, are absolutely playing themselves as is par for the course (think Mighty Boosh), but I think this only serves to make the main character all the more likeable.
Despite all the anachronistic whimsy and fun, the series does have the lingering sense of being a bit underbaked. You get the sense that this series was a lot of fun to make, but perhaps more attention could have been paid to the final product. It is as though the creators favoured the sweet and silly tone over storytelling – which is absolutely fine, but not the best approach for a series which requires a little more character development and narrative arc. I think this is likely the result of the three series creators having quite a varied back catalogue of productions.
That being said, I was disappointed to reach the end of the series and found myself wanting more made-up adventures. All in all, The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is a series absolutely worth watching and I would recommend to anybody who likes their comedies with a fanciful dollop of silliness.
Final rating: 7/10
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