With Paul in a comatose condition in a hospital bed and John the Angelic Killer having been reborn from a twinkly-eyed, ghost-faced horror into a muscle-bound naturist (whilst still retaining his taste for human flesh), things have never looked bleaker for Neil and his dwindling band of unascended ghost-spotting, apocalypse-forecasting heroes. For those of us watching at home, however, things have never looked better. Unlike Mac’s endless wittering diatribes about sci-fi, the longer The Fades goes on, the more enthralling it becomes.
Having become used (over-used, in some cases) to the regular cast, it’s refreshing to meet a new character; and Joe Dempsie (Skins) is excellent as both incarnations of the reborn Angelic Killer – the perfectly reasonable-sounding psychopath with an offhand line in immortality (‘I died for a bit… and now I’m alive’) and the shambling hobo who vomits crude oil onto the pavement and practices saying his name in a hospital bathroom like Michael Palin’s character in A Fish Called Wanda tortuously introducing himself at an X-Factor audition.
Going through more changes of clothes than Beyoncé at Glastonbury and with a crush on his foxy Fade subordinate Natalie (who happily also becomes human again in this episode, although mysteriously she doesn’t get to cavort around in the buff like her boss) John is pretty engaging for a harbinger of doom, and it’s no surprise that he fools Paul, who spends most of the episode moping around spectrally like he’s dead. Oh yes – he is.
Except of course, he isn’t. While his mum and Jay weep hopelessly and Anna tries her best to sum up how she feels in her own inimitable way – ‘You remember that time you blew a raspberry into my twat and I didn’t speak to you for a week? Well, this is worse’ – Mac gets proactive and contacts the Angelics, convinced they can help.
Eventually, they do… but not before Neil has tortured Natalie, fallen out with his friends, tried and failed to kill the Angelic Killer (not even bellowing ‘Die, you fucker!’ seems to help) and suffered a drawn-out period of existential doubt. In an hour crammed with excellent moments of melancholy, self-doubt and recrimination, it’s the desperately weary, much put-upon Karl Pilkington-lookalike we feel most sorry for.
Not everything is perfect about this episode, of course. Mark’s arrest for the murders committed by the Fades turns out to be nothing more than a pointless filler sub-plot and it remains to be seen how this likeable character fits into the rest of the series, particularly now he’s told his ghostly ex-wife to ‘fuck off… please… out of my life’. Anna is still unlikeable, even when she partakes in a deus ex machine – sorry, a soul transplant – to save her brother’s life, while Mac’s unerring ability to ruin a touching scene with tedious banality is still peerless.
Howeve, you can’t fail to be wowed by the final scene in which Paul is brought back to life, a hail of butterflies bursting forth from his throat with a baffled, elated, exclamation of ‘Fuck!’ close behind them. It’s moving, exultant and transcends any gripes that may be lingering.
Aired at 9pm on Wednesday 12th October 2011 on BBC Three.
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