Maybe it’s joke fatigue – the audience’s funnybones worn down by a lathe of relentless puns – but it tends to be the case with A Touch of Cloth that the second half feels a little less punchy and fresh than the first.
It happened in Series 1, it happened more so in Series 2 and, while not quite so severe as either, it happens here too.
What’s a shame is that A Touch of Cloth could be the British Police Squad! if someone somewhere wasn’t so concerned with each story filling a two-hour slot. It never feels like there’s enough plot to last that long, and the jokes can only do so much. By the time we get to the villain reveal – and it’s Gillan the villain! – it all feels inconsequential amid the background gags.
Like Naked Gun precursor Police Squad!, Cloth is a show that perpetrates a hit and run on your sense of humour with each second, and yet over the course of an hour, even over two nights, those seconds soon add up to an exhausting total. It’s not a question of patience but of perseverance.
By the second ad break of Episode 2 it feels like the comedian who has overstayed their welcome. You’re increasingly numb to all but the best jokes. The comedy has practically become anaesthetic. Especially when many of those jokes are the tired Old Man and Cloth puns, which seem to be getting increasingly desperate (Saddle Cloth, Altar Cloth, J-Cloth…).
Still, John Hannah’s shouty thistle of a performance is consistently enjoyable, and one or two really good dialogue-based jokes will have pushed more than a chuckle from your diaphragm. There is something about Hannah shouting ‘Cocks in aspic!’ that appeals to the irreverent monkey at the controls of your brain.
Perhaps A Touch of Cloth‘s greatest strength is that it and its plentiful humour will age well. The barbs at police dramas are funny and broad enough to be time-proof. A Touch of Cloth III was filmed two years ago, but apart from the fact Karen Gillan has her own hair you couldn’t tell. It’s good to know that you’ll be able to enjoy the show years later, at your own pace.
You may have to. No further Cloth has been commissioned. Perhaps all the Cloth puns have been wrung out.
Aired at 9pm on Sunday 10 August 2014 on Sky1.