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After Cucumber came Banana, focusing on younger relationships, the first episode continuing the story of Dean. One problem is that, if you only have access to Freeview channels, while you can watch Channel 4 in HD, you can only watch E4 in SD.
And then came Tofu, an online ‘sex manual’ with chat from various talking heads. It’s on 4OD only, which never does anything n HD.
There’s cast members and various members of the public, talking about good sex and bad sex in this first episode, plus a futuristic vignette, where everyone watches everything through ‘Google Glass’-style glasses, so a variety of information is depicted in front of them in chart and ratings form, while emails and videos appear on the window of your taxi, and you can even rate the sexual adequacy of your latest conquest for everyone to see – like a more sexual version of Plenty of Fish and giving us a near-future glimpse that we’ve also seen recently in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror series.
And you’re forced to watch adverts before Tofu starts!
At a near-two hours a week for the whole trilogy (Cucumber runs for an hour, including adverts. Banana for 30 mins, and Tofu a mere 11 mins 53 seconds), and for something which was below average as a whole, the chances of me coming back for second helping are not… fruitful. In fact, nveer mind the firmness of a cucumber, this show was a flop.
The first episode of Cucumber had far less than the hour’s worth of content we had to sit through, and while Banana continues the story, the trailer which I’ve seen for episode two, Scottie’s Story, seems rather more interesting as a young black girl finds the object of her desire in a middle-aged woman played by Rosie Cavaliero (Prey, Jam & Jerusalem, and a million other things – if her name doesn’t ring a bell, you’ll know her as soon as you see her).
But whether you watch any more of this trilogy, look on the bright side – at least Russell T Davies doesn’t get to ruin Doctor Who any more. (We have Steven Moffat to do that for us).
Catch up with all three shows on 4OD at these links: Cucumber, Banana and Tofu.
Overall Score: 4/10
Cucumber credits:
Director: David Evans
Producer: Matt Strevens
Screenplay: Russell T Davies
Music: Murray Gold
Cast:
Henry Best: Vincent Franklin
Lance Sullivan: Cyril Nri
Dean Monroe: Fisayo Akinade
Freddie Baxter: Freddie Fox
Saul: Jan Uddin
Max: Jamie Zubairi
Steve: Andy Burke
Jules: Christian Dixon
Raymond: Darren Lawrence
Cliff Costello: Con O’Neill
Sunil Merchandani: Sagar Arya
Cleo Whitaker: Julie Hesmondhalgh
Tofu credits:
Director: Benjamin Cook
Producer: Michaela Eccleston
Cast:
Dan: Charles Russell
Becca: Emma Tierney
Dan’s Boss: Chris Baxendale
Jenna: Ashlie David
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.