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Truth Seekers begins with a young woman dreaming of her mum being on fire, then she’s in the hospital, seeing zombies, before the action switches to Gus Roberts (Nick Frost) at home, who feels very put upon because his Dad, Richard (Malcolm McDowell… yes! Malcolm FREAKIN’ McDowell!), is having issues with the stairlift.
As Gus remonstrates to why the man should still use underwear whilst on the stairlift, the next line from the combative old man reminds me of my mother when you present something quite normal to her, but she retorts (as he does): “STOP TRYING TO CONTROL ME!!!!”
Gus is tasked with training young Elton John (Samson Kayo) – yep, Elton John – into learning how to install broadband and fix TVs at someone’s home, but it’s only since Gus has had company from this lad that while he picks up mysterious signals on the radio, there’s one station which has only ever broadcast somoene saying the number ‘one’, but now is also occasionally saying ‘five’… Spooky!
It therefore shouldn’t be a surprise that Gus is also a Youtuber called The Truth Seeker, so, the Derek Acorah of the internet, basically. He likes to hunt ghosts, and might even bust some…
Gus is employed for a company run by Dave, played by Simon Pegg in a dodgy wig, both of whom also write the script with others, and the main visit for this episode – since the series seems to have a ‘story of the week’ – is a visit to a house owned by Miss Connelly (Patricia Brake, aka Gwen Lockhead on classic ’90s soap Eldorado!), who’s having some rather bizarre issues with her TV, but to divulge what happens would be to do the episode a disservice.
Naturally, in this world, everyone goes to a Comic Con, making it feel like an extension of 2011’s Paul, which wasn’t great. It has Simon Pegg and Nick Frost involves, but not Edgar Wright, and when they’re not all working on a project, it’s hit and miss.
However, what starts off rather slowly develops into something akin to Tales Of The Unexpected or, later, Inside No.9. The key happening in this first episode is something that could’ve been developed further, but then it brings in the woman who we saw at the start, so I can see that in addition to ‘story of the week’, there’ll be a story arc going through it, so I will check out more.
Truth Seekers is on Amazon Prime now.
Episode 1 Score: 7/10
Director: Jim Field Smith
Producer: Richard Webb
Creators/Writers: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Nat Saunders, James Serafinowicz
Music: Robin Foster
Cast:
Gus Roberts: Nick Frost
Richard: Malcolm McDowell
Elton John: Samson Kayo
Helen: Susan Wokoma
Astrid: Emma D’Arcy
Dave: Simon Pegg
Elara: Taj Atwal
Dr. Peter Toynbee: Julian Barratt
JoJo 74: Kelly Macdonald
Doctor Connelly: Jon Rumney
Astrid’s Mother: Denise Stephenson
Terry: Ranjit Krishnamma
Bjorn: Mike Beckingham
Mary Colford: Kate Nash
Miss Connelly: Patricia Brake
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.