The Witchfinder - why??????

[JimmyDurham]

OK, I sat through the first episode, which was slow and not over-burdened with jokes, on the basis that the first episode of any comedy is more about setting the scene that getting laughs, but OMG episode two was worse. I quit after 10 minutes and have no plans to return to this.

I think the BBC know something's up as you can view the whole series (but why would you want to?) on BBC I-player.

There's some serious comedic talent going to waste here with 5th rate material.

Still it has achieved one thing. Eldorado is no longer the worst thing the BBC has ever put on air.

Yeah I thought it was a bit blah and gave up after ep 1.

Shame as it has "Kerry" from This Country in it so I thought it would be good.

Talking of things beginning with 'W' being rubbish, The Windfall, new release on Netflix- what a waste of time

Ditto.
This article summed it up perfectly

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/mar/08/the-witchfinder-review-a-comedy-with-so-much-wasted-potential-it-makes-you-sad

Gave it about 15m because of the cast but I've never been a fan of the lead actor/comedian and its his humour so agree with you!

I didn't mind it, but I wasn't fully paying attention and still managed to follow the story.

It wasn't belly laughs but it was just about OK while there was nothing else I fancied watching and I was pratting about on my phone.

My brother was artistic director on this. I watched the first one and was very meh on it. Won’t watch more.

Glad it's not just me who thought this. Loved "Kerry" in This Country, so thought it would be good. I was wrong.

I watched the whole thing, as I always live in hope! 3 hours of my life I'll never get back.

@Jumpking

Glad it's not just me who thought this. Loved "Kerry" in This Country, so thought it would be good. I was wrong.

I watched the whole thing, as I always live in hope! 3 hours of my life I'll never get back.

Thanks for this. It'll stop me thinking it might be worth another try. What Reece Shearsmith and Jessica Hynes were thinking of when they agreed to do this dross I cannot imagine.

I watched all of it, I really wanted it to be good. It wasn't.

Agree that it is awful. How did anyone not notice how bad the script was before it was even commissioned?

It was absolute rubbish. Didn't realise it was supposed to be a comedy.

I was really disappointed in it, so many missed opportunities

I’m currently watching it, about three episodes in. It’s ok to have on in the background while folding the washing

I wanted to like it but it's so clunky & obvious. Tim Key seems out of his depth and Daisy May Cooper is phoning her performance in. I don't think we'll watch the rest.

I wanted to love this as the cast was great, and Daniel Rigby is so funny in Small Scenes/St Elwicks podcast but... it was amusing at best. Maybe because Tim Key seemed to be doing a rubbish David Brent impression throughout? He never quite rang true. The production style reminded me in some ways of The Detectorists, which didn't have many (any?) laugh out loud moments but was funny and moving because it cleverly touched on deeper emotions. This wasn't that, though.

I absolutely loved it. For the people who didn't, fair enough, it's just not for you.

I've never after not enjoying a programme thought 'must start a mumsnet thread to whinge about this'.. Don't get why you'd spend any more time thinking about it.

Well I liked it far more than anticipated after reading that Guardian review. Kind of a nice "hangout" comedy. But if you find Tim Key grating/ annoying, he's in it A LOT, so maybe not for you. I thought the supporting characters were great and it was a pleasant, funny meander.

I tend to like comedy that the average person doesn't, though...

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Aworldofmyown; ah. Hadnt noticed. As you were

I think it's actually interesting to discuss why something with so much potential doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts: I enjoyed The Witchfinder and was happy to sit there, sort of experiencing it without actually laughing out loud, but when I try to unpick why it wasn't funnier I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it wasn't meant to be? Maybe that combination of actors/script was always going to be more low key humour?

Yes, I definitely had chuckle moments and wanted to love it. I can't work out why Ghosts is so much better; it seems to be a very similar meandering show. Odd.

I really liked it.

I really wanted to like it as the cast were so good. But I just couldn’t.

Also DH said, honestly, that he didn’t think it was really appropriate to make a comedy of the persecution of women who the rest of the village took against for no reason other than looking different or not having children.

I enjoyed it - it wasn't Blackadder standard but I thought it deserved more than two stars from the Guardian. I would have liked to see Daisy May Cooper be a bit less early modern Mucklowe, though. I think she's got more to her than that.

@Aworldofmyown

Yes, I definitely had chuckle moments and wanted to love it. I can't work out why Ghosts is so much better; it seems to be a very similar meandering show. Odd.

Ghosts is a very tightly written script, that has storylines that tie up in a pleasing way, character-driven too, a problem to overcome in each episode.

Witchfinder is more dialogue-based, shooting the shit kind of thing. You join them on their travels, what actually happens is sort of irrelevant, random characters do random things then move on.

One style isn't better than the other, but Ghosts is more 'traditional' I'd say.