Sir David Jason is back in this gentle comedy. His character Guy Hubble, in a kind of Peter Principle move, has been promoted from Car Park attendant to Royal Bodyguard due to an incident that was ultimately his fault. Cue plenty of slapstick fun, as if someone decided that the finest moments from Only Fools and Horses were when Sir David Jason was falling over or in some sort of calamitous situation and have provided The Royal Bodyguard to assuage our thirst for his physical comedy attributes.
Guy Hubble, a well meaning, yet clumsy and bumbling gentleman with an apparent long family history of royal service has been charged with the task of looking after the Royal Family. In the first episode he is involved in the security detail for the Queen’s visit to a conference in Scotland but, in several scenes that somewhat make it hard to suspend disbelief, he manages to give away security information to someone he has scarcely known a full evening. I am in no way saying that Guy Hubble couldn’t possibly interest an attractive young woman, he seems amiable enough, it’s just that he seems fairly lax regarding the ultimate security card that he has been given. Considering that his character is karate chopping suits of armour and claiming to have a 360 degree awareness in the first half of the show, he is quickly felled by a few drinks and a beautiful lady – which to me makes it hard to believe that he is truly as dedicated to his job as he ought to be. This leads me to wonder how much I should be dedicated to this comedy.
Sir David Jason has many fine attributes as an actor, his comedy timing is second to none and he can turn his hand to so many things but maybe in this show it just feels that his artistic hands are a little tied. Lots of TV shows need a little time to bed in and in the coming episodes hopefully SDJ will get the chance to flex his enormous talent.
To be perfectly honest, I’d watch Sir David Jason in just about anything – and have done with the exception of ‘The Darling Buds of May’ for some reason – and I really want this comedy to work but I fear that the public might miss Del Boy’s confidence, the wide eyed dreaming of Granville or Detective Frost’s gruff world-weary demeanor and the character of Hubble doesn’t quite live up to these high standards. Perhaps that as the series progresses we will fall for this Clouseau-esque charms. I, for one, will be crossing my fingers and hoping.
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