It would take a hard heart not to fall for Changing Ends. It is a steamroller of a comedy, open, welcoming and beaming with easy charm. Written by Alan Carr and Two Doors Down’s Simon Carlyle, it tells the story of Carr’s early life in Northampton, joining him on the precipice of “big school” in 1986. Carr is not your everyday 11-year-old, with his penchant for scarves, earmuffs and Murder, She Wrote; that he ends up as a confidant of the dinner ladies, and not the football lads, is no great surprise to anyone. Still, it isn’t easy being different in the east Midlands in the 80s and young Alan has issues to deal with on all sides.
Carr himself appears as a sort of ghost of Christmas yet to come, albeit a more cheerful one, dropping in to scenes to narrate for a while, or crack jokes about the star he would become. But the show belongs to Oliver Savell, who is remarkable as the young Alan. Sometimes, on screen, you can tell when a child actor is just doing their best, but Savell is fantastic and manages to embody the real Carr without it seeming like an impersonation. He is camp, he is cheeky and he gets it just right. He deserves all the acclaim that will inevitably come.
