Big Train

1990s British tv comedy series

Sketch show presenting the every day situations twisted with absurdal humour.

In a way Big Train was made in the tradition of such shows as Monty Python’s Flying Circus or I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again - the every day situations were changed using the absurdal humour. Many of the sketches were promising, but lacked proper ending or the jokes just didn’t work at all, especially in the Series 1. Series 2 was a little bit better, but again the situations shown in the sketches were weird, sometimes wacky, sometimes grotesque, but they were going nowhere. Also it seemes that the creators of Big Train forgot the basic rule of comedy - timing is everything. Some of the sketches would be fine to last just 30 seconds or a minute, but they kept them going for 3 or 5 minutes and to be honest it is killing the pace of the show and sometimes even the point of the sketch.

Overall it is one of the less successful British sketch shows - comparing to Hale and Pace, Fast Show or even Alas Smith and Jones it looks rather depressing, which is surprising since very talented actors were involved in the show (like Simon Pegg, Kevin Eldon or Mark Heap). And the actors did really well, but without proper scripts it simply could not work.

Rating	3.6
Funny	2 / 10
Entertaining	2 / 5
Characters	2 / 5
Nonrepetitive	3 / 5