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The Kemps: All True is a spoof documentary with Spandau Ballet brothers Martin Kemp and Gary Kemp, in the same vein as BBC2’s Brian Pern, with Simon Day – who also pops up here, because once again, the man asking the questions is Rhys Thomas, again portrayed as Rhys Thomas OBE.
Obviously, it’s difficult to compare either that or this with This Is Spinal Tap, but more recently we had another ‘mockumentary’ in the form of Bros: When The Screaming Stops, except no-one could work out whether it was real or a spoof. Either way, it was rather dull, in my view.
This time round, it starts off well with Martin stating how he wants equal screen time, and not all on Gary because he wrote all the songs, plus, “Don’t stitch us up to look like a pair of nobs.”
Plus, the narration tells us that back in the day, they sold 50 million MiniDiscs in Malta, alone; Gary remembers everything since being in the womb (well, most things), and one of the funniest moments is the secrets under the floorboards of their old house…
However, while there’s a handful of slight laughs, it’s nothing to really write home about, even if you’ve been there for months due to lockdown, such as the forced feeling you get when seeing the joke about creating a meat substitute called Wonge that even gets a showing on Saturday Kitchen, yet is actually partly meat-based.
In The Kemps, Martin and Gary are clearly sending themselves up, and they play it with neat, deadpan faces – such as when Martin’s too scared to ring Little Mix to tell them that Sia is singing True instead of them, but the situations are often too outlandish to be able to be effective, and they’re clearly enjoying it more than I was.
The Kemps is on BBC2 tonight at 10pm. The programme is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
However, you can buy Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys Of The Western World Limited Edition 3-Disc Boxset on Blu-ray and DVD (1-disc version), and Gold: The Best of Spandau Ballet on CD.
After broadcast, you can also watch it on the BBC iPlayer.
Score: 3/10
Director: Rhys Thomas
Producers: Francis Gilson, Rhys Thomas
Writer: Rhys Thomas
Cast:
Himself: Gary Kemp
Himself: Martin Kemp
Presenter: Rhys Thomas
Ross Kemp: Perry Benson
Dean: Simon Day
Himself: Christopher Eccleston
Himself: Alan Ford
Dr Quinn: Natasha Jayetileke
Herself: Shirlie Kemp
Himself: Michael Kitchen
President’s Wife: Shelley Longworth
Lorna Kemp: Anna Maxwell Martin
Himself: Daniel Mays
Various: Lucy Montgomery
Rag N Bone Guy: Tony Way
Actors: Matthew Clarke, Graeme Sanders, Siana Williams
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.