Blog: No Heroics

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Let my name be MR SHOWBIZ, for LO! last night I was off to an advance screening of the ITV2 sitcom "No Heroics". This was at the invitation of Mr Rich Johnston of Lying In The Gutters, who's just featured the video for It Only Works Because You're Here in this week's column. He's very kindly plugged quite a few of our VIDS recently, and it was GRATE to find out that, in real life, he's a dead nice chap. We met in the pub beforehand and almost inevitably fell to discussing what ALL British comic-reading Gentlemen of a certain age will ALWAYS end up talking about i.e. Alan Moore's run on Captain Britain. The word "VARRR!" was, as ever, spoken quietly.

We then wandered round the corner to a VERY posh Production Company where they were holding the screening specially for Comics Blog TYPES. Supplied with free BEER we sat and readied ourselves to rather nervously - it's a new comedy on a digital channel, and it's about superheroes, SURELY we were all about to EARN our beer with laughing politely?

NOT SO. It turns out that "No Heroics" is BLOODY GRATE! It was actually PROPER funny, witn proper likeable characters, DEAD GOOD special effects bits, and lots of LAFFS. I was EXTREMELY a) pleased b) RELIEVED, and I don't think I was the only one. After we'd watched the first episode they showed a DVD extra where the producer/writer wandered round the set pointing at all the amazing background details. Frankly, once they'd pointed out the clever names for ALL the drinks ("V For Vodka" being my favourite) and the MASSES of 2000AD references in EVERYTHING then we were all pretty much sold. It would've been SO easy to make a crappy Laugh At Comics Idiots MEAN show, but this was so obviously done with LOVE you couldn't help but like it. HENCE when we watched another episode the laughs were even BIGGER, and HAPPINESS reigned.

Afterwards we all stood around chatting, and I had a LONG talk to the director. This didn't start off to well as, like an IDIOT i said "Oh yes, Actors and Actresses, they're a bit weird aren't they?" He was, of course, MARRIED to an Actress, but I think we got past that and ended up discussing Carlos Ezquerra for AGES. Turns out both he AND the Producer were MASSIVE Comics Geeks (Drew The Producer was VERY proud that the fonts used in the Bar ["The Fortress"] was EXACTLY the same as 1940's Captain America!) of the same vintage of Rich and I and, indeed, everyone else in the room, and from the casual useage of PROPER TERMINOLOGY and the EXCITEMENT with which they spoke of everything else, it looks like the rest of the series will be as good.

I'm all excited about it now - it's on in September, I reckon it'll be GRATE!
It was, basically, not QUITE as glamorous as I'd thought it might be, but a LOT more fun. "No Heroics",
posted 16/7/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

I saw the link in LitG and had to come over to read your blog. If Rich hadn't have sold me on the show in his article, this definately would have.

Given that I'm an American I probably won't get all of the 2000AD references, but I absolutely love the "V For Vodka" and that they have pictures of Alan Moore and Grant Morrison hanging up.
posted 24/7/2008 by David

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