This is Joel Fry’s last episode of Drunk History: UK, and I think it’s my favorite. He has a good-sized role in his story, and this is the best narrator he’s had. Really fun!
Again, just two stories. We learn about “The Great Train Robbery” and “Beatrix Potter & Peter Rabbit.”
Joel Fry is in the first story this time around, so I’ll quickly cover the Beatrix Potter story and then come back around to his stuff. It’s narrated by Kerry Howard, who did the Queen Victoria story from his first episode. There’s no gross humor this time around, but I’m still not really a fan of her narration style. The way she does character voices and stuff, it feels like she’s trying too hard to be funny, and part of the beauty of Drunk History is the narrator not trying to be funny. There are a couple good bits in here. I like the note that Peter is Beatrix’s favorite rabbit in her garden to draw because “the guy…the guy’s like Kate Moss. He knows how to pose.” And when Beatrix is trying to publish a paper she wrote on mycology, I’m amused by the sexist gatekeeper shooing her out of his office, saying, “Get, woman! Get! Get out of the science box.”
When I heard “The Great Train Robbery,” I assumed it was going to be about the famous silent film from the early 1900s. So color me surprised when our setting was “the swinging ‘60s”—I didn’t realize there was a real English train robbery with the same name (which I assume it got because of the film.) This story is narrated by Joe Lycett, who I think is the best narrator within these three episodes. His delivery is really fun, veering from ultra laidback to sudden bursts of energy where he just shouts out of nowhere. I especially love this line, from the police officer called to the scene: “They’re within thirty minutes of this location. Scour! I have foiled their plan, those fucking pricks. ‘Cause I’m a clever cat. Meow!” Ha!
Joel Fry plays Gordon Goody, a thief/hairdresser and one of the masterminds behind the robbery. He approaches Bruce Reynolds with the initial idea, and they assemble a crew to pull it off. He’s terrific throughout the reenactment—he follows the varying pitch of Lycett’s delivery throughout, cranking the intensity up or down on a dime as needed. Note: Lycett doesn’t always say who’s speaking with his dialogue, so as I talk about my favorite parts, I’ll put Gordon/Fry’s bits in bold:
One thing I always love on Drunk History is when the cast lipsync the drunken narrator’s verbal slips, and we get some fun instances of that here, like as Gordon cuts Bruce’s hair while they conceive the robbery. “Bruce says, ‘Literally all I can afford is this haircut, so I’m really hoping this is a good haircut, Gordon.’ And Gordon’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m very good at women’s hair—men’s hair.’ ‘What’d you say?’ ‘...Men’s hair.’” I get a kick out of Fry’s facial expressions as Gordon realizes the slip and emphatically corrects it.
And this exchange in the middle of the robbery is just hilarious. I love everything about it—the dry delivery of the absurd dialogue, Fry perfectly lipsyncing along as Lycett stumbles over his words, and the impeccable “you have got to be shitting” me facial expressions/body language:
“‘I can’t drive this train. The trains I’ve driven have been slightly different in the—kind of, in the buttons and stuff.’ And they go, ‘Well, it says go or stop.’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know which one to press on that one.’ ‘Peter, surely, if you—if you’re—if you really think about it, probably go is the one.’ ‘Yeah, I mean that’s what they want you to think!’”
Oh my god, it’s so funny! The whole exchange plays out fantastically, with the perfect cap of Lycett finally announcing, “They press go, they’re going. Thank fuck for that.”
Side note: it’s interesting that Joel Fry plays white historical figures in all three of his episodes on the show. Drunk History has never shied away from racebent casting where appropriate—the first episode I watched of the main show featured John Cho as William Shakespeare!—but given that Fry made multiple appearances, it feels a little surprising that he didn’t play a Black person at least once. I wonder if the UK version of the show didn’t have as many stories about BIPOC historical figures.
All right, that’s it on Drunk History: UK! Final thoughts:
Accent Watch
Not applicable—he’s lipsyncing other people’s words.
Recommend?
In General – Slightly complicated question. The pilot is pretty yikes, but the two season 3 episodes I watched are great! I don’t know if it’s just the first episode that’s bad, or it took them a while to settle into things. Maybe start from the end and work your way backwards so you can stop if it gets awful?
Joel Fry – I would! Fry does a great job with the format, and his performances here are always funny.
Warnings
Smoking/heavy drinking, language, sexual content/references, strong thematic elements (including jokes about nonconsensual sex in the pilot,) violence, and strong gross-out humor in the pilot.
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