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Home is a new Channel 4 comedy with a completely ridiculous premise, but one that is pretty engaging from the first episode.
On returning from holiday, Peter (Rufus Jones) and his partner, Katy (Rebekah Staton), find that illegal immigrant Sami (Youssef Kerkour) has stowed away in their car after sneaking into the country, across the border. Once they discover him, they instruct him to leave, but… he has nowhere else to go, and has become separated from his family along the way.
There’s some funny, dry humour in this, such as when Katy wants to help Sami, but then realises she has no spare cash, so offers her Cafe Nero loyalty card, in which you can have a free coffee once you’ve filled the card… but so far, she’s only bought 2 out of the 9 required. Also, Sami has little grasp of the English language, yet still knows the difference between “infer” and “imply”, and when Peter asks Sami the random question, “What side of the road do you drive on?”, he replies, “The one the tank’s not on”(!)
There’s also a chat with Katy’s young son, John, the former of which declares his new teen years as “Puberty: Three years of Pornhub and silence”, while he replies, discussing the pointlessness of pubic hair.
The situation instantly causes strife between Peter and Katy, who owns the house and, so, who has the final say, hence since the pair haven’t been together even a year, yet, he’d better comply.
This programme brings ‘home’ a decent first episode, even if it is a completely ridiculous premise, so I’m curious to see where it all goes. There’s also good pedigree involved, from producer Adam Tandy (Inside No.9) and director David Sant, whose face you’ll remember from Ideal, when he played Cartoon Head… and occasionally, Enrique 😉
The only problem I foresee is the title. I get the point of it, but if you search for ‘Home‘ on IMDB or Google, pretty much anything else will come up, the former especially, as this doesn’t come up without a search for the writer/lead Rufus Jones. Plus, the top search for ‘Home 2019’ (to try and give it a chance) is the next Spider-Man film… although I’d far rather watch this TV comedy than another Marvel film that’s the same as all the rest.
UPDATE Episode 2: There was more bizarre daftness when it came to Sami’s religion, plus problems being resolved simply by bumping into people they met earlier, but it was still quite funny.
UPDATES Episodes 3, 4 & 5: Both of these have passed 30 minutes apiece in an entertaining fashion, but I don’t feel like the plot is being advanced greatly, making this, now, okay but I don’t think I’d need another series of it once it finishes.
UPDATE: Episode 6 saw Sami going for his final interview at the Home Office, and this made a highlight of another average episode, mainly bcause the interview was led by Inside No.9s Reece Shearsmith. However, it did leave things on a rather odd cliffhanger regarding his wife not wanting to see him again.
Home begins tonight on Channel 4 at 9.45pm. The series is available to pre-order on DVD, ahead of its release on April 15th. You can watch each episode on All 4 for 30 days after transmission.
Episode 1 Score: 7/10
Episode 2 Score: 7/10
Episode 3 Score: 6/10
Episode 4 Score: 6/10
Episode 5 Score: 6/10
Episode 6 Score: 6/10
Director: David Sant
Producer: Adam Tandy
Writer: Rufus Jones
Cast:
Peter: Rufus Jones
Sami: Youssef Kerkour
Katy: Rebekah Staton
John: Oaklee Pendergast
Policeman: Andy Gillies
Immigration officers: Tania Mathurin, Dean Roberts
Station officer: Phill Langthorne
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.