The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin; Dead Hot; Things You Should Have Done

“Noel Fielding essentially plays himself in a tricorn hat, bringing his brand of absurdist, knowing humour to the most tousled of shaggy dog stories – a grab-bag of cock-and-bull tales about the legendary highwayman Dick Turpin. Yet what could have been a painful piece of self-regard or a British comedy love-in quickly turns into something very promising. Fielding has done so many panel shows and presenting gigs since The Mighty Boosh that I had forgotten what a singular talent he is. Here they just wind him up and let him go: he stands and he delivers.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“There are recurring gags, there are knowing and ironic gags, there are purely silly gags and there are across the genre ones that work and ones that don’t. There is a lot of goodwill here, and like The Witchfinder two years ago, it is stuffed with prestigious comic talent. Nevertheless, The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin does share with The Witchfinder the feeling that it is more the result of a group of mates who have got together to do someone a favour rather than any rush of attraction to the material, and it faces the same refusal to cohere or take flight.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“Its leads, Vivian Oparah from Rye Lane, and Bilal Hasna, last seen in the underrated Extraordinary, sparkle their way through their scenes, lighting up what might otherwise have been a humdrum mystery. I say mystery, but it’s also a comedy-thriller-horror-romance. There is a lot going on. However, it doesn’t quite manage to assemble its components into something more solid and palpable.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“There’s a lot that doesn’t work, but also a lot that does. Far too much early on, for example, is spent watching people messaging on phones. By contrast, when Oparah and Hasna get to play two-handers (they are both first-rate), or when Penelope Wilton or Peter Serafinowicz are thrown into the mix in a pair of brilliant supporting roles, Dead Hot comes alive. It is what I believe is called something of a hot mess. But at least it’s hot.”
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph

“This mischievous slice of cringe-comedy stars Lucia Keskin as Chi, a bone-idle woman of 21 who can barely feed herself, let alone get a job, and sponges off her parents — until they’re killed in a car crash. Chi inherits their house (to the fury of spiteful Auntie Karen, played by the brilliant Selin Hizli) and a bucket list of things to do: learn to tell the time, do the washing up, show some sort of compassion for another human being. If you loved This Country, these Things are well worth discovering.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Chi operates on a five-second delay from the world around her, yet Keskin’s eyes never flicker, and no smirk curls at her lips. The performance is a deadpan masterpiece; it takes an incredibly sharp comic actor to play dim this well.”
Isobel Lewis, The i