| Worth seeing: | as a silly and unpretentious sitcom that just happens to use trainee police officers to delve into power dynamics with some harmless humour |
| Featuring: | Mark Heap, Sarah Parish, Abdul Sessay, Callie Cooke, Colin McFarlane, Halema Hussain, Jamie Bisping, Kiruna Stamell, Rebecca Humphries, Ricky Champ, Sam Pote, Sukh Ojla, Ukweli Roach |
| Key crew: | Sam Leifer, Victoria Pile, Fay Rusling, James Henry, Oriane Messina, Richard Preddy, Robert Harley, Victoria Pile |
| Channel: | ITV1, ITVX |
| Length: | 24 minutes |
| Episodes: | 6 |
| Broadcast date: | 20th July 2024 |
| Country: | UK |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A group of trainee police officers are doing their best to get though college, under the guidance of Superintendents Bob Weekes (Mark Heap) and Julie Spry (Sarah Parish).
Some of the recruits are bursting with enthusiasm – such as Geeta (Sukh Ojla) and Afia (Halema Hussain) but most have no desire to be a police officer at all; Steph (Callie Cooke) is there only to keep an eye on her ex-boyfriend, Sergeant Mike Gunn (Ukweli Roach), who’s one of the trainers; Leggo (Sam Pote) is just humouring his police officer parents, waiting for an excuse to get kicked out; Dev (Abdul Sessay) would much rather be an actor; and the hapless Paul (Jamie Bisping) is a member of a local crime family, sent in to gain intelligence.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Among all the heavy dramas and comedies that often take themselves too seriously, it’s a relief to see that there is still some harmless humour to be found.
About the most subversive thing about Piglets is its title – a title that wound police officers up the wrong way, long before it made it to our screens. But what could be a funnier, more tongue-in-cheek title for a comedy about hapless, young, trainee police officers.
This is not a show that highlights the police brutality – or two-tier policing – or anything that the police themselves might not want to be brought to the public’s attention. It’s nothing but silly situations that show that police officers can be just as insecure or self-important as anyone else.
From the trainees to their tutors, there’s not even a whiff of controversy or wrongful behaviour. Coming from the team behind Green Wing, it’s not as bold or daring but most of the humour comes from farce, self-mockery and gentle joshing.
There are no goodies and baddies – being about trainees, there aren’t any villains – and even the most hapless of them all, supposedly sent into the service to spy for the criminal gang from whence he came, is played for laughs, rather than trying to highlight corruption.
In many ways, the overarching storyline is simplistic and lacking in ambition – it’s a pure sitcom with nothing in particular to say about the police force; it just wants to have a bit of fun and the writers – having probably chortled at the potential alternative meaning of the word “piglets” just happened to choose a police academy as the situation for their comedy.
It’s not especially clever and it’s often somewhat arch – with some characters intentionally being more believable than others, but there are some interesting observations about power dynamics and it’s structured well enough for each character to have their own little narrative arc to resolve during the course of the series.
You won’t learn much about policing – or life in general – but you’ll be charmed by this bunch of harmless losers and their good natured banter.
As a sign of how it doesn’t take itself at all seriously, the two Superintendents challenging to take over the leadership of the college – one a self-confident woman and one a comic grotesque who, in reality, would never have got anywhere near his rank – seem to have different ranks displayed on their epaulettes in each scene – if the costume department just wants to have a bit of fun, maybe we can too.