Deliberately anachronistic TV shows are suddenly all the rage, as TV execs have cottoned on that we all get a strange thrill from hearing the Elizabeth Bennets and Catherine the Greats of traditional period dramas say sweary words and/or break into the Macarana at the end of the episode.
It’s just funnier when they’re wearing ye olde bodices and puffy breeches, isn’t it?
The Witchfinder mines one of the slightly heavier episodes of English history for comedy: the burning of innocent women as witches if they did something as audacious as asking an insightful question or curing a child of the sweating sickness – back then, being a Goody Good was actually being a Goddy Bad.
Daisy May Cooper of This Country fame plays Thomasine Gooch, accused of being a witch when an old pig dies in her vicinity. Alan Patridge actor Tim Key plays the hapless and titular Witchfinder, who must transport Thomasine to the Witchfinder General ASAP in order to prove he’s a witchfinder worth merit.
There of course aren’t many witches to be found on the show, but unfortunately neither is there many laughs. It occasionally hits on the odd corker, but this humdrum sitcom mostly struggles to get the alchemy of its comedy just right.
Charged with an inability to bewitch its audience, Witchfinder would surely face the flames.
Guilty as charred.
The Witchfinder, BBC2, iPlayer
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