The Completely Made-up Adventures of Dick Turpin

It’s not going to change the world, and in 10 years you won’t see it on a list of the greatest comedies of the 2020s, but it’s smart, it’s ridiculous, and it’s defiantly unique in both style and substance. For six half-hour episodes, the world of Dick Turpin makes for a lovely escape.

The writers (including Jon Brittain, Richard Naylor, Ms. Downes and Messrs. Jarvis and Lane) get considerable mileage out of Turpin's given name. Which is infantile. But that doesn't mean you won't laugh. .... [Noel Fielding's] a very likable lead, one who has no delusions about what the new program is trying to do and who goes with the flow with his actorly sails unfurled.

The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin looks like it was a lot of fun to make, and thankfully its inherent daftness is a joy to watch, too.

Fielding has done so many panel shows and presenting gigs since The Mighty Boosh that I had forgotten what a singular talent he is. Here they just wind him up and let him go: he stands and he delivers.

Fans of “Monty Python” or “Blackadder” are the ideal audience for “The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin,” a family-friendly, often silly 1735-set adventure-comedy series that also brings to mind “Galavant” (without the songs).

It’s not a stretch to call Made-Up Adventures downright derivative; it wears its influences, from Our Flag to Python to Blackadder, on its anachronistic pleather sleeve. But if you love the thing a derivative show is derived from, is that really such a bad thing? We’d happily hand over our jewels to spend a little more time with this pack of ne’er-do-wells.

It’s as airy as the breeze that ruffles its hero’s famously silken locks, and like any breeze its impact is minor and fleeting. But it’s fun while it lasts, and asks nothing more of us than to sit back and let the show do its thing. Just don’t expect to get much more in return.

At times, it all feels like a slightly stoned, heavily costumed 1990s/00s panto (and one with a sizeable debt to Blackadder and Taika Waititi’s recent pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death) – but it’s nicely droll and silly, with a wry, surrealist kick.

Dick Turpin is an enjoyable romp, and a fun watch, but it left me thinking “what if?” more than “what next?”.

There are recurring gags (like dog walker Linda whose strolls take her past every hideout the gang has), there are knowing and ironic gags, there are purely silly gags and there are across the genre ones that work and ones that don’t.

There’s nothing strictly wrong with The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin — just that it’s underwhelming, especially considering the talents lining its cast list. There’s plenty to laugh about if you know where to look, but ultimately, you’re probably better off listening to “Stand and Deliver” than watching this non-committal gang shout it at coaches.

It’s a frothy and inconsequential comedy, and the snappy, jaunty score by Oli Parker and Nate Jackson is an anachronistic plus. But it’s hard not to crave more from your historical comedies.