Bloods

An unlikely pairing of Famalam’s Samson Kayo and Absolutely Fabulous star Jane Horrocks has resulted in a tickling witty new sitcom set on the emergency services frontline. Bloods follows the daily escapades of paramedics Maleek and Wendy, who despite appearing as chalk and cheese when initially partnered together, soon prove to be a support to one another in more ways than could be imagined as they race across London from one emergency to the next.

With a multitude of colourful characters bringing in the support, the show is a well written and capably developed sitcom from Kayo and Nathan Bryon that will appeal to a variety of demographics. With episodes running at just 20 minutes long, the series is blended into a Casualty meets Peter Kay’s Car Share style presentation and is all to easily consumable in one quiet evening. Each plot line is fairly simplistic, rarely delving deeper into more complex themes and the narrative itself is fairly straight forward, using the usual writing mechanisms to manifest an eventful drama injected with loud comedy. That said however, although the storylines may not be the most imaginative, there is a place for the argument that it doesn’t really need to be too complex. After all, it’s the laughs the viewer is after in a series like this.

Horrock and Lucy Punch provide the best of the comedic blows, the former once again showing what a legend of the game she is and the latter giving the energy and comedic timing to split countless ribs. The dialogue is mashed together with modern and topical humour, overloaded at times, but this does make each scene carry through at a terrific pace to match the extravagance on of each action-packed episode. To match this, the creators have also chosen to go with an upbeat and contemporary soundtrack, making the on-screen combination of Horrock and Kayo, a duo who ooze chemistry, all the more exciting to behold.

Commendably, the sitcom was successfully filmed during the Coronavirus pandemic, successfully proving the possibilities that can be achieved during unprecedented times, thankfully providing some fresh viewing for many tele-viewers who have grown bored of watching old box sets on repeat for the past 12 months. Whether or not Bloods will be a big enough hit to warrant a second season is up for debate, but as a new release, the series will certainly bring joy into a number of living rooms, with countless humorous sequences and performances that will live long in the memory bank.

Guy Lambert

Bloods is released on Sky on 5^th May 2021.

Watch the trailer for Bloods here: