Dark British humor in a 1999 BBC telefilm that Tivo Suggests was considerate enough to record for me. Martin Clunes plays Ben Black, the host of TV show called Sex ‘n’ Death, who can’t sleep. He claims the insomnia is due to the heat wave but events suggest other causes, like his deep-seated cruelty to all around him and heartache over losing his new love (the luscious, leggy, breastful Jane Peachey) and his true love (the producer of his show, quite lovely herself, Caroline Goodall, who played Anne Hathaway’s mom in The Princess Diaries).
Besides several episodes of his own series, the movie provides Clunes with a rival host, or Presenter as they say across the Pond, named Neil Biddle (Martin Jarvis) as a foil. Biddle hosts Just for Laughs, a cruel variant on Candid Camera, and the two take turns setting each other up: Black crushes Biddle’s prized Corvette, Biddle puts Peachey onto Black for a (not to be consummated) sexual reconciliation, and finally Black sets ‘sister’ prostitutes onto Biddle.
All comes to a climax as Black confronts his internal demons, challenges his viewers to grow up and get over their infantile need to see others humiliated, and threatens suicide. Faked, of course, and hopefully a boost in ratings for the repeat.
Recommended for fans of Brit humor
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