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Mammoth takes us back to France, 1979, for an Austin Powers-type situation, where our lead, Tony Mammoth (Mike Bubbins), was cryogenically frozen in time, following an accident in a school skiing holiday, as he was presumed dead following an avalanche.
45 years later, he’s alive and well and simply walks back into his old PE teacher job once his initial fame is over, as you do, and somehow, his house hasn’t been reclaimed, as well as the fact his ’70s car is intact.
With Parents’ Evening coming up, the misogynist dinosaur sees as an excuse to crack on to the single mothers, and while there’s occasional moments of amusement, such as the fact he even uses a multicoloured biro like we had back then, there’s plenty of lazy humour with him being confused there’s no woodwork dept “for the thick kids“, as well as throwing in a Jimmy Savile impression.
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After watching the first episode of Mammoth, I felt this was… okay. There’s only three, and I then did check out the other two, but if you’re wondering whether or not to continue, then note that your opinion won’t change. For me, watching all three was a painless experience, but certainly not a laugh-out-loud one.
Mammoth was a pilot on BBC Wales, but as this starts from the very beginning of his story, I presume we’re getting that pilot first, followed by two new episodes.
There’s also a brief mid-credits scene featuring his former drinking buddy, Roger (Joseph Marcell – I Hate You), which I’ll leave you to discover.
Mammoth is on tonight on BBC2 at 10pm, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. All three episodes are now available on the BBC iPlayer.
Director: Simon Hynd
Producer: Luke Mason
Writers: Mike Bubbins, Paul Doolan
Cast:
Tony Mammoth: Mike Bubbins
Mel: Sian Gibson
Roger: Joseph Marcell
Theo: Joel Davison
Lucy: Mali Ann Rees
Barry: William Thomas
Simon: Patrick Porreca-Lennon
Linda: Lucy Walters
Mr Cowley: John Weldon
Mr Evans: Sion Alun Davies
Mrs Taylor: Lynne Seymour
Miss Mason: Sarah John
Attractive parent: Ceri Bostock
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.