Turn Up Charlie, Netflix
If Idris Elba is trying to boost his chances of becoming the next James Bond, he picked a strange way to do it – and though you’d imagine playing a DJ might do some good for his ongoing music career, his character in this Netflix eight-parter is the opposite of what the real-life Elba fancies himself to be. Charlie Ayo is a washed-up loser trading on former glories, who once had a minor dance hit but now lives with his Aunt Lydia (Jocelyn Jee Esien) and his stoner mate Del (Guz Khan) in a house belonging to his Nigeria-based parents. He talks to them on Skype while wearing a shirt and tie, the better to continue the deception that he’s actually a successful record company boss. They say they need a new cooker, he says he’ll send the money. Out of range of the webcam, Lydia rolls her eyes.
Comedy isn’t a genre we’ve seen Elba explore before, but it’s no surprise that he’s good at it, though he’d have been even better if the script had been a match for him. But it’s interesting to see him subverting his moody, tough guy image in what is essentially an odd couple story. At a friend’s wedding he re-connects with old schoolfriend David (JJ Feild), now a famous Hollywood actor married to superstar DJ Sara Caine (Piper Perabo). They've just moved to London with their 11-year-old daughter Gabrielle (Frankie Hervey) and, to cut a long story short, end up asking Charlie if he’ll become her nanny. Or “manny”, if you prefer. Charlie doesn't like either term and is appalled at the idea but ends up taking the gig – partly to help out his oldest friend but also to pay the rent. Oh, and he thinks Sara might give him some studio time in the swanky set-up she has in the basement of the family’s enormous London mansion. And so it goes.
Charlie’s problem is the thoroughly unpleasant Gabrielle. The viewer’s problem is the thoroughly clunky dialogue given her by former Hollyoaks and Skins writer Georgia Lester. Stressing the girl’s preciousness at every opportunity is no excuse for some of the lines put into her mouth. That said, Turn Up Charlie chugged along pleasingly enough and we did eventually see Gabrielle’s vulnerable side as her friendship with Charlie deepened following an incident at her posh new school. But ultimately the show is too crass to be charming, too adult to be whimsical and too obviously calibrated to appeal to an American audience to have any worthwhile specificity for a British one. A vanity project for Elba? Possibly. He does have a co-creator credit. Either way, he can do better than this.
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