I ought to be trustworthy and say that any storyline involving bitcoin tends to ship me to sleep faster than a scorching toddy with a Nytol chaser. Not solely is it laborious to make cryptocurrency look good on display, or seem like something in any respect in truth, however its worth is fluctuating so quick in actual life that any sense of its value is difficult to gauge. Fortunately, Romantic Getaway (Sky Comedy) has the decency to acknowledge not less than the primary a part of the issue. “Get it out, I need to see what 50 grand seems like,” says Allison (Katherine Ryan). “There you go,” says her husband, Deacon (Romesh Ranganathan), slapping a promotional USB stick on the automobile dashboard.
Ranganathan co-wrote Romantic Getaway along with his longtime collaborator, Benjamin Inexperienced, and though it feels like a title that got here earlier than a storyline, there’s loads of storyline on show. Allison and Deacon have been attempting to have a child, however after a miscarriage, they’ve been advised that their hopes of conceiving are slim, even with medical intervention. Their final roll of the cube could be IVF therapy at a top-end clinic, with all the prices that non-public medical care would incur. It’s unfair that such a life-changing service is simply accessible to those that can afford it, and it galvanises the couple into making a rash determination.
After admitting to one another that they’re determined sufficient for the possibility of a child to do just about something, they set about “borrowing” – or reasonably, fleecing – cash out of the property administration firm the place they each work, by transferring the funds out of some forgotten accounts and into Deacon’s bitcoin pockets. Their boss is Alfie, a pinstripe-suited skinflint who rages about Wagon Wheels being put by on bills and denies Allison and Deacon their rightful bonuses, however who will fortunately put afternoon “massages” and £300 bottles of vodka on the corporate card. Johnny Vegas is delightfully repulsive within the position of Alfie, alternately idiotic and threatening, relying on what time of the night you catch him.
Johnny Vegas because the boss in Romantic Getaway. {Photograph}: Kevin Baker/Sky
Thus far, so heist. However on the final minute, Deacon, enraged by his employer and the injustice of life on a middling wage in a nondescript workplace block in Berkshire, decides to do one thing out of character and stick it to the person by including an additional zero to the switch. Quickly, the couple’s deceit begins to spiral uncontrolled. Deacon neglects to inform Allison concerning the additional £450k, whereas she begins to doubt whether or not she needs a child in any respect. It’s a little bit bit romcom and a little bit bit thriller, and there are many references to Bonnie and Clyde and even Robin Hood, although whether or not stealing bitcoin from a sauna-loving tight-arse to purchase a brand new Prada purse has fairly the identical enchantment as robbing the wealthy to feed the poor stays to be seen.
The usage of IVF because the jumping-off level for a comedy caper is debatable, too. But it surely works properly, even in its occasional emotional moments, because of the calibre of its solid. It leans closely on the enchantment of its two humorous leads. Ryan and Ranganathan are higher generally known as themselves than as actors, although each have earlier sitcom expertise, in The Duchess and Avoidance respectively. Every leans into their standup comedy persona for his or her characters right here. Allison is bawdy and blunt, notably in the case of intercourse. When she says she is “very tough to upset”, it jogs my memory of Ryan speaking to Louis Theroux in November, in that nice and revealing interview. Deacon, in the meantime, is anxious and dry and reckless in all of the incorrect locations. It is a man who’s overconfident about his means to park in a decent area.
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There are moments at which Romantic Getaway feels as if it might have been a comedy or a drama, relying on the toss of a coin. However they plumped for comedy, and comedy it’s. As soon as it will get the scene-setting out of the best way, and establishes that they’re sort-of-good individuals doing a nasty factor for the proper causes, it begins to seek out its toes. As the stress rises, so too does the daftness. It’s best when it’s silliest, and Vegas, Ranganathan and Ryan make a surprisingly killer trio.