Joe Lycett vs Sewage evaluation: Comedian’s trademark mixture of silliness and righteous anger is powerful

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“Have you seen Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet?” asks Joe Lycett, as he makes awkward eye contact with a sewage scientist by means of a murky brown tank. This, properly, crappy model of Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes’s iconic meet-cute, the place they first lock eyes by means of an aquarium, units the tone for Lycett’s newest campaigning documentary, Channel 4’s Joe Lycett vs Sewage, by which the comic tackles a topic that’s each very severe and actually fairly gross with chaotic humour.

After confronting oil companies over greenwashing and calling out David Beckham for his assist of the Qatar World Cup regardless of the nation’s legal guidelines in opposition to homosexuality, Lycett has now turned his consideration to the huge quantity of untreated sewage that is being launched into Britain’s waterways. It’s “one of the worst environmental scandals in decades”, he says – and of course, it’s the right alternative for some rest room jokes.

First, Lycett heads off to a lab to find out about how sewage is processed, sporting a T-shirt emblazoned with photos of You Are What You Eat’s Gillian McKeith, presumably in a tribute to Channel 4’s reigning queen of poo. Between the quips (“I went to an Airbnb on a stag do, it had a hot tub that looked just like that,” he remarks whereas observing a effervescent vat of greeny-brown water), he supplies us with a fast primer on our damaged sewage system. This community of underground tunnels was constructed by the Victorians, and though it has expanded since then, it hasn’t saved up with the UK’s inhabitants development; add in extra rainwater and there’s merely an excessive amount of to deal with. Cue billions of litres of sewage ending up within the rivers and the ocean.

After a fast jaunt to Aldwick, a seashore in Bognor Regis the place the native swimming membership frequently braves the not-so-inviting sea (residents have branded the seashore “S***wick”), it’s time for a handful of fever-dream sequences spelling out precisely how Britain’s waterways turned overwhelmed with waste. First, journalist Jon Sopel seems in a tub as a way to clarify the legalities, as if in a really low-budget recreation of Margot Robbie’s The Big Short scenes. Then, for some purpose, Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden crops up within the again of a limo to inform Lycett concerning the UK’s water regulators (maybe she simply wanted to flee from listening to Steven Bartlett speaking about Huel).

Particularly enlightening (and infuriating) are two extra severe moments. In the primary, Lycett speaks to a water trade whistleblower, who claims that corporations aren’t being clear about spills as a result of they’ll get fined, so “the more spills reported, the less bonus you’re likely to get”. And within the second, he exhibits the shut relationship between the water corporations and the regulators, with high-up executives typically shifting between each: it’s an trade, it appears, full of poachers turned gamekeepers: “Cosier than a pyjama party at Mary Berry’s house,” because the comedian places it.

Lycett being Lycett, it’s not lengthy earlier than he begins masterminding a mad headline-grabbing stunt, performing as a Trojan horse for his extra severe message. This time, the convoluted plan contains pretending to do what each single different celeb has already accomplished: launch a podcast. This one’s known as “Turdcast”, and it’s all about poo. The first “guest” is Gary Lineker, who gamely seems to talk about that notorious on-pitch accident through the 1990 World Cup. Every good podcast wants a launch occasion, so Lycett travels as much as the Albert Dock in Liverpool for an extravaganza involving a large rest room and some faux sewage.

However you are feeling about scatological humour, it’s laborious to not nod in settlement with Lycett’s larger level: that water corporations ought to put money into higher infrastructure, somewhat than specializing in paying dividends to their traders. Of course, it shouldn’t be as much as Lycett alone to carry them to account. But his trademark mixture of silliness and righteous anger is a powerful one – hopefully it’ll get everybody speaking s***.