Gigglebox Weekly #79 – The Mimic

This week Channel 4 presented a slightly different take on impressionism, weaving it into a sitcom format.

The Mimic stars Terry Mynott (most famous for his appearances alongside Morgana Robinson in Very Important People) as Martin Hurdle, a seemingly-dull maintenance man working for a pharmaceutical company called Celpharm. However, Martin does have the abilities to do impressions, not just of famous people, but of those around him including his bosses. The opening episode features Martin undergoing a DNA test to see if he’s the long lost father to an 18-year-old IT whizz-kid called Steven (Jacob Anderson).

The first episode opened well, with a sequence where Martin is stuck in a traffic jam. The voice-over sounds like he’s listening to Terry Wogan, but the camera shot soon reveals that there’s a gap in his dashboard where his radio should be, then it cuts to Martin doing the impression.

His Wogan is good, as is his Alan Carr and Dale Winton. There’s also an entertaining scene where he voices a battle Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones. Some of the other impressions are a bit ropy, though – like his Ronnie Corbett – and others I’m not able to judge on.

The opening episode’s somewhat on the heart-warming side, but it’s not got ‘too soft’ yet. Whether it can keep up the right tone, and quality of voices, is something to be judged as the series goes on, but at the moment The Mimic gets the thumbs up from me.