I’ve always felt like Noel Fielding’s brand of comedy is the kind of thing that takes some getting used to, sort of like an American in the UK having to adjust to driving on the left side of the road. It’s not so much the things he says and does, but how he says and does them — with his inoffensive cheekiness and bumbling buffoonery, a vibe that extends from characters like the weird guy who lives in the server room on The IT Crowd to Dick Turpin, the foppish brigand that Fielding plays in an upcoming Apple TV+ comedy.
In The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, the 50-year-old funnyman brings to life the character of a highwayman who actually existed while, at the same time, putting Turpin’s story through a zany, historical ringer (a la what the Monty Python troupe did to the Arthurian legend). Hijinks of the slapstick sort and witty dialogue abound, as do the requisite jokes about Turpin’s name (“I want this Dick in my hands as soon as possible!” thunders one of Turpin’s many pursuers).
The story: Fielding’s Turpin, a vegan who loves herbal tea and is terrible with a musket, ends up the reluctant leader of a gang of outlaws when he accidentally kills their leader. His nemesis, meanwhile, is a corrupt lawman played by Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville.
In the Apple TV+ version of this 18th-century story, “Turpin is the most famous but least likely of highway robbers, whose success is defined mostly by his charm, showmanship and great hair. Together with his gang of lovable rogues, Turpin rides the highs and lows of his new endeavors, including a brush with celebrity, all whilst trying to escape the clutches of the thief-taker.”
The other wacky characters here include a teenage proprietor of the ne’er-do-wells’ favorite pub; a rival highwayman who despises Turpin; Bonneville’s underworld kingpin; and a true-crime writer whose breathless pamphlets about Turpin’s “exploits” bring him ever closer to his quixotic ambition: To become a legendary freebooter.
Release date: The first two episodes of the show debut on Apple TV+ on March 1, followed by a new episode every Friday through March 29. From the batch of screener episodes that Apple made available to the press early, a thought struck me: If there’s still a Jolly Roger-sized hole in your heart after Max’s cancellation of Our Flag Means Death, I suspect this new Apple comedy will be right up your alley.
Check out a trailer for The Completely Made-Up Adventures Of Dick Turpin below.