Trigger Happy TV: Best Of Series 2

Prankster Dom Joly adds a marvellously surreal edge to the hidden camera show in this, his second collection of highlights from Trigger Happy TV, all of which are once again set to a great soundtrack of downbeat anthems. Joly not only waylays unsuspecting members of the public and minor celebrities, he subjects them to any number of odd or downright bizarre scenarios. Among many other gems here we have the millionth customer at the sex shop, the MI6 recruiting officer whose potential recruitee is frighteningly willing to become an assassin, the infuriating traffic warden (“You can’t park here”), the workmen who eat and sleep in the middle of the street, the cultured punk, the obvious burglar, the park warden who eats all the birds, and the ice cream man who is incapable of serving anything. Best of all, perhaps, are the creature features: the snail literally crawling across the zebra crossing, the vain gorilla-gram, not to mention sundry sadistic squirrels, dangerous dogs and randy rabbits. Oh yes, and there’s still that guy with the huge mobile phone, though it must be increasingly hard for Joly to find anyone who doesn’t know this character by now. Trigger Happy TV gamely exploits the British public’s unwillingness to confront strangers, but it also hearteningly demonstrates their innate politeness when placed in awkward situations. In how many other countries could he approach people in the street to insult and bemuse them without running a serious risk of assault?