The Cutprice Guignol

Eventually, I assume, I will stop writing about shows with Lucie Shorthouse in them – but today, my dearest friends, is not that day. Let’s talk about Henpocalypse!

I include that exclamation mark not to heighten my enthusiasm (well, not entirely, anyway), but because that’s just the name of the show. 2023’s Henpocalypse!, written by Caroline Moran and directed by Holly Walsh and Jack Clough, has the kind of premise that sounds like random buzzwords crammed into one bizarre piece of genre television: a group of women from Birmingham end up trapped in a cottage in Wales after a man-killing virus wipes out most of the human race.

And it’s the kind of high concept that I’m a bit wary of, just because I’ve so often seen shows this inherently silly rely on that inherent silliness to sell the comedy. But God, let me tell you, Henpocalypse! does not fall into that trap. I can’t think of a show since Stath Lets Flats that I’ve seen that has had me literally heaving with laughter the way this one did – it’s crude, it’s big, it’s sweeping, and it’s so, so fucking funny, a veritable comedy flamethrower dildo to the face (and I mean that as a compliment).

Caroline Moran’s script is obviously excellent, but it’s the immaculate ensemble that really brings this to life. Callie Cooke (of THAT episode of the last season of Doctor Who, in case you spent six episodes trying to place her like I did instead of just going on her bloody IMDB and putting it to rest), Lauren O’Rourke, the aforementioned Lucie Shorthouse, and my absolute darling Kate O’Flynn as the bride and bridesmaids respectively are brilliant, but it’s Elizabeth Berrington, the mother of the bride Bern, who has my entire heart. That inscrutable, domineering matriarch of the post-apocalypse, I am helpless in the face of my huge crush on her and also her ability to deliver a line about fanny in the most deadpan way possible. It’s so rare that a cast comes together in this kind of blissfully brilliant comedic synergy, but Henpocalypse is a reminder of, when it does, just how special it is. Throw in an outrageously fun guest turn from Danny Dyer (everyone’s favourite slag), and truly, as a comedy alone, I’m going to recommend this show to everyone I run into on the street for at least the next six months.

But what I really love about the show – and what lifts it beyond just the very, very funny comedy at its heart – is the relationship between Callie Cooke and Lucie Shorthouse – maid of honour and bride, respectively. Through flashbacks, Henpocalypse captures a pretty sharp version of the toxic female-female friendship that can develop between women who have grown up around each other and formed themselves and each other in the process – the way kindness can mask cruelty, how sacrifice papers over guilt and self-doubt. While it’s more of an undercurrent in the show than an outright focus, I really appreciate the dynamic the show teases out here, and the excellent performances from Cooke and Shorthouse that bring it to life.

Henpocalypse! is a fabulous show, and I am starting a one-woman campaign to get everyone else to watch it so I can guarantee a season two. Consider these your marching orders – I’m holding you at dildo-flamethrower-point until I get what I want.

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(header image via British Comedy Guide)