Thompson (1988) User Reviews

Uneven, but some rather hilarious bits here and there

[sphinxvictorian · 6/10 · 27 December 2007]

Unlike others who have seen this show and hated it, I have a very mixed view of it. I find several of the skits painfully unfunny, but then something hilarious or really moving will come along. The Victorian sketch about the "mouse" is particularly hilarious, and showcases both Emma's mother and her sister, as well as herself. The sketches she does with Kenneth Branagh are very good and rather funny, in particular the Robin Hood sketch. My favorite sketch is the one with the two 16th century peasant women gossiping about their husbands. There is also the very strangely moving tale of the dinner party, and the amazing performance by Emma's mother Phyllida Law as a woman in a tree. So if you can ever track it down and see it, do so. You can wince through the worse bits and make it through to the funny ones.

Of course, all of this is contingent on whether your sense of humor matches mine, which it might not, but if you're an Emma Thompson fan, it's something you should at least see once, if you can.

It was not good.

[a-nesbitt · 1/10 · 16 February 2016]

It was without doubt one of the worst shows English TV produced in 1988. It was predicated on a fantastic idea. Namely, the BBC giving Emma Thompson a six week half hour slot to do whatever she wished. Writer, producer, star. The results were appalling. What ever credit Thompson had with TV critics evaporated very quickly. The smugness, the self satisfaction, the pretentiousness, the ego run riot. It limped to the end of Its run, the BBC never recommissioned a second season, and she never did It again. Even now watching clips of It on YouTube. It makes me wonder If you can take someone that pretentious, that narcissistic, that ego-centric seriously? Me? I'd rather not.

Dreadful

[tonygillan · 11 September 2003]

Emma Thompson's career in the years following this series rightly cemented her reputation as a performer and writer. This, however, was not a good start.

Quite how someone as talented as Miss Thompson could come up with something as godawful as this is a mystery.

Thompson fans who have never seen this show, do yourselves a favour and avoid ever watching it. It can only spoil the magic.

Unfair to dismiss completely

[sandrito69 · 10/10 · 23 November 2007]

I watched this series when it was aired 19 years ago in 1988 and recorded video of some of it which I still enjoy watching. Yes, it was very hit-and-miss but certain sketches/segments of it were excellent and brilliantly funny, demonstrating Thompson's gift for perfect comic timing and ingeniously original ideas - such scenes as Celebrity, Witchfinder's daughter, No puddings from the sweet trolley, the Dry cleaner's, Rapunzel. The problem was that it didn't know what it wanted to be: a comedy sketch show, song and dance, monologues...... So if you only saw the odd episode, then you didn't get the full breadth of what was being endeavoured. Over all though it was worth watching because the good bits were very good and very clever without being pretentious.

US / UK divide

[goldgreen · 2/10 · 4 October 2006]

Back in the eighties someone in TV land bought into the idea that Emma Thompson is a young up and coming star, with a wide range of abilities & brains. So, they reasoned, lets push the boat out and give her a TV series. The show as I remember it was a mix of comedy, dance and singing. However, getting her own series brought out the very worst in Thompson, encouraging a lack of internal self-censorship about what were good ideas and what were bad. Many of her comedy sketches are bafflingly unfunny, ironically the title sequence where she does this little spin and then turns her body into a T shape (ie 't' for Thompson), as if to say 'Look Mum, I can do anything', is the height of unintentional comedy. When this programme came out in the UK there were only four TV channels, so programmes then came under a great amount of scrutiny. The general verdict at the time, was 'I can't believe anything so bad could be made by the BBC', and 'What an awful conceited person she is'. Since then many in the UK have held a grudge against the programme and Emma. In the US where such connections are lost, I guess it was just seen as more of an exotic, off-beat piece of whimsy from Europe and people could just take or leave it.

How can I put this delicately?

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 3/10 · 24 May 2006]

I find Emma Thompson extremely sexy, not merely because of her classic English-rose beauty and her physical grace, but also because of her keen intelligence and sense of humour. 'Thompson' was meant to be a showcase for her talents as a comedian, dancer and scriptwriter, in a format permitting her and her friends to put on a wide range of accents and disguises. Unfortunately, an utter lack of discipline queered the project ... and, frankly, it was only Ms Thompson's charisma and physical appeal that kept me watching this dull tosh.

Part of the problem is that Thompson seems to have caught here a dose of Tracey Ullman Disease: she seems to be more interested in impressing us with what a wide range of characters she can portray, with different accents and physical crotchets, rather than developing any of those characters in a funny skit. Also, Thompson seems to be borrowing half a leaf — only half of one — from the Monty Python lads, by larding these sketches with high-end intellectual references. The Pythons did that too, but they were careful to balance the Proust references with low comedy and cheeky bawdiness. Ms Thompson seems to be pitching her jokes at Mensa.

I did enjoy the musical sequences, in which Thompson dances gracefully to the simple accompaniment of a piano. These sequences are evidently ad-libbed ... or, maybe not. It's clear to me that Thompson and her accompanist have carefully planned and choreographed the beginning of each routine, as well as its ending, leaving the middles to be entirely free-form. Unfortunately, this becomes a bit too obvious when each dance sequence fills its allotted time, and Thompson and her pianist make a lurching transition from total improv to tightly-rehearsed finale.

I watched every episode of 'Thompson', but frankly I did so only because I enjoy listening to Emma Thompson's voice and watching her face and body. The script material on offer here, alas, just isn't interesting. And Imelda Staunton ceased to be funny when she left "Is It Legal?". I'll rate this ill-thought experiment just 3 out of 10. A much earlier British series — "What's On Next?" — had a similar format, but was much funnier.

Smug

[princealbert23-1 · 1/10 · 18 May 2022]

I remember watching this at the time and being taken aback by how lacking in self awareness it was. There was a group of established Comic Strip players who dominated 80s comedy on TV. This series tried to be clever, clever and failed to be funny.

One of the funniest British TV-shows ever produced!

[merlin-105 · 4 August 2000]

I would love to see this show become available on video. This is Emma Thompson before she became a big movie star: an incredibly funny, quirky comedienne, a great dancer (yep!), a totally engaging presence, bursting with creativity and supported by a great cast including then-husband Kenneth, and her friends from her Cambridge days. A sheer delight!

Delightful!

[merlin-105 · 7 December 2003]

Interesting how different viewers can have a completely different take on the same show. My friends and I watched this in the early 90's, when it was broadcast in California. It was our first introduction to Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, and the rest of the gang, and we thought it was hilarious! There's one skit I remember very clearly that had us rolling on the floor with laughter. We've been waiting for years for the tapes to become available here, alas, no luck so far. The show was written by Emma Thompson herself, who, as we all know, is not just brilliant, but very funny. She's not a bad tap-dancer either, as she proves in the titles. Absolutely recommend it to all Emma-Fans.

Pretentious and Unfunny

[west_trevor · 9 November 2005]

Oh, how I would love this show to be released on video so I could show it to my children. It was the most pretentious, middle-class and unfunny series I can remember and no words from me could ever do it justice. It was like watching a train wreck each week - you didn't want to watch but couldn't drag your eyes away. I like some films Emma Thompson has been in since then, but to think that she had monumental arrogance then to think that she could write comedy, sing and dance and carry a series on her own - it just beggars belief. I URGE you to see it if you get a chance and defy you not to sit for each half hour with your mouth wide open in disbelief and your cheeks red with embarrassment.

Appalling nonsense

[phiggins · 27 March 2002]

Yes, it's Emma Thompson and her comedy chums. This really was "comedy" as white-knuckle ride into hell. If the sketches didn't kill you, how about the "dance" routines? I'm not making this up - there really were dance routines. All in all, a truly atrocious and embarrassing mess.

My favorite sketch show of all time

[caaro1947 · 23 April 2005]

I, too, was devoted to this show when it played on public TV in Missouri in the early '90s. I found this show fresh, funny and feminist. The best sketch ever involved Imelda Staunton as a medieval peasant explaining to her neighbor (Thompson) how she had 'accidentally' split the atom while tidying her husband Wilf's lab and playing around with his figures. She couldn't tell anybody about discovering the greatest source of energy in the history of the world hundreds of years before schedule because, "Wilf would DIE!". Every sketch wasn't a gem, but the show was hilarious and smart and the acting was far, far above average. It would be great if it was available on video so I could SHOW friends what I've been trying to describe for years.

Cute

[Aubries · 19 September 2003]

I saw this show twice, about ten years ago. I don't remember it well enough to be very specific, but I do remember finding it funnier than some others who have commented on it here. I wish it were available on video so that I could have another look. I do remember one sketch where Emma and another woman were at a nice restaurant, having an animated discussion about flatulence. I don't generally find potty humor amusing at all, but this one I thought was very, very funny. The punch line had me in stitches.