[jekylljuice]

Stella Street: Series One

Did you know that when some of the biggest stars of the stage and screen of the past forty years aren't off in Hollywood exercising the tools of their trade, they like to reside in the ostensibly ordinary Stella Street? No kidding, they're all here - Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, David Bowie, and more - all courtesy of the magic of John Sessions, Phil Cornwell and a string of entertaining impersonations. The episodes are pretty short and filmed on quite a low budget, but Sessions and Cornwell are far from hindered by the constraints of this, and manage to produce a sitcom that's very original, interesting and uncoventional. Admittedly, I seldom found it to be laugh-out-loud funny to begin with, but I got more and more roped as it went - there's quite a lot of subtle and understated humour which it may take a little time to fully appreciate, and, beyond the sheer novelty of the impersonations, the celebrities themselves do strangely start to grow on you as characters as the series progresses.

I particularly liked the portrayal of John Hurt - depicted here as foul-mouthed, egotistical and constantly inebriated - though his appearances are rather few and far between. Also great is football pundit Jimmy Hill, who's portrayed here as kind of the sad, desperate village idiot of the bunch, and of course Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of Rolling Stones notoriety, who manage the local corner shop. Plus, there are a few "ordinary" residents, including Len, a peculiar gardener whom Dirk Bogarde becomes convinced is plotting to murder him.

Yes, good stuff. Now I need to move onto Series Two, which is when I hear that Sir Alec Guinness shows up...or maybe it's Series Three.