The Cutprice Guignol

Sex, lies, and the most extraordinary amount of bureaucratic red tape you’ve ever seen – let’s talk about Paul Abbott’s forgotten masterpiece The Secret World of Michael Fry.

Abbott’s career, at least in terms of British television, has been a pretty damn illustrious one; from the journalism thriller classic State of Play to long-running cult hit Shameless, he’s proved pretty reliable in turning out dense, character-driven stories with a sharp sense of humour that keeps things from getting too bogged-down in seriousness (nobody asked, but you will not convince me that the best example of his work is not No Offence, and it’s not just because I am the head of the Joanna Scanlan fanclub). Which makes it even stranger, I think, that one of his early works has slid almost completely into obscurity, and that’s The Secret World of Michael Fry.

Secret World follows the titular Michael Fry (Ewen Bremner), a town planner and single father who discovers a bizarre underbelly to his Welsh hometown after he is called upon to shut down a hotel that doubles as a sex dungeon. It broadcast on Channel 4 in early 2000, and, like so much of the TV of that era and especially of Channel 4’s output at the time, it’s preoccupied with the sexual mores of the turn of the millennium, especially where they overlap with the internet – but the way Abbott uses it to tell this off-beat story of the way the old encroaches on the new is really what elevates it into brilliance that I think deserves a lot more love.

The world that Abbott creates here is something like Terry Gilliam’s Brazil as seen through the bureaucracy of a British government agency – it’s got a slightly surreal edge, the corporate jargon taking on a weirdly fantastical edge with Abbott’s sharp dialogue. Bremner is the perfect choice of leading man to follow into this world, charmingly guileless but not devoid of character or purpose as he does his best to protect his child and navigate his relationship with sex worker Donna (Rosie Marcel). On the subject of sex and sex work, too, the show takes a relatively forward-thinking approach towards it; Donna’s not some tragic heroine in desperate need of rescue, and the sex work itself is generally played as another layer on to this surreal world rather than for obvious titillation. The intimacy here is of as much importance as the sex, with the two overlapping in genuinely interesting ways rather than serving as stand-ins for each other.

But the main focus of the show is the fictional Welsh seaside town of Llangrych – which, as someone who spent a lot of time on British seaside holidays around the time this show is set, is beautifully-drawn, that perfect level of scuzziness that flies under the radar as long as you just stay focused on the chippie teas and arcade lights – as Fry uncovers a conspiracy to bring the town into the twenty-first century and revitalise its dying tourism industry. Abbott knows how to create a good conspiracy, imbuing it with moments of noir and thriller amongst the endless red tape, and the way the show treats the absurd plot with the utmost seriousness makes it impossible not to find yourself invested. The opening of the show, with the closing-down of the sex dungeon and porn production house, isn’t the salacious drama it seems, but rather another part of the town being excised for the sake of a more appealing investment opportunity. The unpicking of the town’s history and legacy – however small and unimportant it might seem – is posited as a genuine tragedy, one that puts council houses and faded arcades at the forefront of the conflict.

Even though it’s just a couple of episodes, The Secret World of Michael Fry is a unique and memorable little slice of 2000s British TV that doesn’t deserve to have sunk as far into obscurity as it already has. Did you see when it came out, or have you given it a watch since then? What did you think of it and where does it rank up again Abbott’s other work for you? Let me know in the comments below!

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(header image via Channel 4)