Have you ever watched a show and thought to yourself that there is no way you could like something like that – and yet end up realising it’s brilliant? That’s the story of Toast of London and me.
Toast Of London is a brilliant comedy about a middle-aged actor, Steven Toast (Matt Berry) and his mental life off-stage, on-stage and mostly in recording studios. Constantly at war with his arch-enemy Ray Purchase, Toast is either found at his agent’s office or hooking up with the forever-in-lingerie Mrs Purchase or recording absurd voice-overs at the Scramble SOHO studio.
Throughout the series, Toast is found lending his incredibly rich baritone to voice-overs for car GPS systems, a single word ‘Yes’ with a little more emotion, ‘Mind the gap’ for the Tube, voice-over for a gay porn movie and obvious mumbling – to list a few of the most frustratingly awesome sessions.
From a Nigerian woman who ends up looking like Bruce Forsyth because of a botched cosmetic surgery, to revealing the end to a murder mystery play still playing decades after first opening to the public, from secret societies to playing Charles Dickens the tour guide,from being buried alive to being England’s top high winds actor –the gags in the show are unbelievably hilarious and unlike most things you’ve probably ever seen. Parts of the show are undoubtedly crass (the working title of this piece was Toast of London –Comedy and Cringe) but the humour is undeniably unique and much too underrated.
The highlight of each episode though is a musical number at the end, written and sung by Berry. If you don’t get offended too easily – do watch. Even if you do (I do, I get offended all the time, but I really enjoy the show), it is worth the binge.