Never Try This At Home (Birmingham Rep)

Never Try This At Home takes a trip down memory lane for anyone who grew up watching Saturday morning television. The overly happy presenters, the unbelievably cheesy catchphrase, the excessive use of innuendo and some form of fight involving a plate full of foam.

Fictional 70s Saturday morning show SHUSHI was suddenly cancelled when disaster threatened to strike. Now, so many years later, T.V. host Niall Ashdown speaks to all those involved to determine what exactly went wrong on his television program, Looking Back Together. He is joined by the show's presenters, Stephen Harper and Petra Massey, their assistant, Dudley Rees, the show's producer, Ged Simmons and SUSHI super fan, Okorie Chukwu.

Directed by Birmingham born Paul Hunter, the SHUSHI flashbacks offer quite a different perspective than the Saturday morning T.V. I remember watching from the late 90s. The only female presenter, Massey, is constantly humiliated and abused by her male colleagues, and the casual racism that carried through the show was met by the nervous giggling from the audience. If you can put all that aside, then SHUSHI was still the typical much loved, fun-filled, ridiculously over the top children's television show.

Every Saturday morning show needs a house band and SHUSHI is no different. The alternating bands, The. Future. B and The Heist, showed incredible talent for such a young group. Never Try This At Home and Told by an Idiot give an opportunity for young school bands to perform in front of an audience as they open and close the show for SHUSHI.

Every night offers a new story, as the show combines script and improvisation so seamlessly that it is barely noticeable. There is no storyline too extreme for these actors. Despite being totally absurd and the humour derived from a sense of schadenfreude, you won't forget this one for a while.

Never Try This At Home continues at Birmingham REP until March 15 before a short national tour.