TV review: I’m Spazticus

17 May, 11.40pm

STAR RATING 5/5

Beware the disabled. Although having a sentimental soft spot for
the memorable goldfish-eating scene from Candid Camera of many
years ago, I have hardened my resolve against TV shows that involve
“pranks”, an “unsuspecting public” and a “hidden camera”. However,
this edition of Channel 4’s Comedy Lab series is unremittingly and
brilliantly funny, writes Graham Hopkins.

You end up with a feeling about just how useless we are at dealing
with things that are not perceived as ordinary. The couple who give
directions to a talking guide dog are so priceless you fear as
viewers that we’re being stitched up. But no: they are genuine.
Having given directions to the tube station they check with the
dog: “Did you get all that?” In its best cockney, the dog replies,
“Yeah, sweet as a nut.”

From the cracking opening scene in an art gallery where four
disabled people are on display, and a gallery viewer is asked
through a predator cerebral palsy voicebox, “What the f*** are you
looking at?” to a one-armed man in a diving suit running out of the
sea screaming “Shark! Shark!” this is biting stuff. And it makes
use of a fabulously relevant soundtrack to accompany each set
piece.
This is revenge TV: “That’s what you get for parking in our f***ing
spaces” we are told at the end. Sweet as a nut, indeed.