Sex Lives Of The Potato Men notwithstanding, British comedies featuring people off the telly are no longer the dread prospect of old. Shaun Of The Dead, The League Of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy were all perfectly decent entertainments. Still. Confetti. Shudder. It makes me think of wedding films, that unlovely sub-genre comprising the likes of The Batchelor, The Wedding Planner and – saints preserve – Runaway Bride.
Happily, this smart Brit-com fashioned in the same cheeky spirit as Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries, is neither a chick-flick nor anything to do with Richard Curtis. Following three couples as they slug it out to win a bridal magazine contest for ‘Most Original Wedding’, the entirely improvised Confetti was workshopped into being by practically everyone who has ever graced BBC3. Martin Freeman and Jessica Stevenson are the most normal of the bunch, with nuptials inspired by Hollywood musicals. “I’ve been told that if I wasn’t tone deaf,” explains the bridal candidate, “I’d have quite a good voice.”
Robert Webb and Olivia Colman are lovable nudist entrants unpopular with magazine executive Jimmy Carr for aesthetic reasons. “I do not want to see her muff,” he winces.
Less convincing are Stephen Mangan and Meredith MacNeill as ridiculously competitive tennis semi-professionals, but the starry supporting cast is on hand to paper over such cracks. Jason Watkins and Vincent Franklin are particularly good as wedding planners in the great tradition of English comedy poofs. Alison Steadman is equally impressive as a mother-in-law right out of a Les Dawson punch line.
Uneven certainly, but lively and likeable enough to equal Best In Show and Waiting For Guffman, it’s a wedding film even boys will sit through without fidgeting. If you’ve trained them right…