You’ve got to admire comedian Patrick Kielty for putting his neck on the line in his first dramatic role. In Prasanna Puwanarajah’s directorial debut, Kielty plays Shane, a budding standup who can painstakingly recount favourite scenes from Only Fools and Horses but has no discernible comic skill of his own. Far from being a deranged Rupert Pupkin figure, Shane harbours a troubled past, which makes him well placed for some odd-couple bonding with Eileen (Seána Kerslake), an acerbic young cabby who ferries him each week from his self-imposed exile in the coastal village of Ballywalter to his comedy course in Belfast. Why can’t he take himself? Ah, that would be the driving ban. Tragic backstory alert!
It’s clear that Eileen has issues too, from the moment she reverses into a motorbike then zooms off, leaving the owner fuming over the wreckage – she’s a car-wreck of a woman. Luckily, the weekly 40-minute drive is just long enough for her and Shane to swap hard-luck tales and perform some mutual healing through friendship. After a sticky patch, they are soon bringing out the best, and the beast, in one another. When he challenges her to be “less of a bitch and more of a taxi driver”, it visibly delights her: at last, this sad sack is showing some vim. At his first gig, she encourages him to put the dad jokes aside and let comedy emerge from truth.
