'The Franchise isn't funny enough, so thank goodness for Richard E Grant'

If HBO’s new superhero movie parody The Franchise had a fancy deep-voiced cinema trailer it would probably begin a little something like this: "From the people behind The Thick Of It, Succession and James Bond…" That would be enough to grab the attention of even the most casual comedy fans and screen observers.

When you throw names like Richard E. Grant, Himesh Patel, Lolly Adefope and the Guardian’s much-celebrated satirist Marina Hyde into the mix you’re approaching must-see territory.

Which is why I was so surprised — not to mention a tad disappointed — to discover in the opening episode that Armando Iannucci, Jon Brown, Sam Mendes and the rest appeared to have broken the cardinal rule of comedy: they’d neglected to put any jokes in.

It was fortunate then that their collective reputation preceded them. Without that and the magnificence of Grant I may have been tempted to start pumping my own 'Invisible Jackhammer' and got the hell out of there.

The good news is that the gag count increased substantially in the second and third episodes. The less happy news is that even though Grant remains magnificent, The Franchise continues to fall between two spoofing stools. It boasts neither the machine gun brilliance of a classic such as Airplane, nor the arch satirical skewering seen in the likes of Veep and The Thick Of It.

There are lots of wry smiles and plenty of I-see-what-they-did-theres, but there is nothing to stop you in your tracks or split your sides.

There’s a fair few misses along the way too, including one, erm, running joke about a movie extra who wears an adult nappy. Had that appeared in Mrs Brown’s Boys, it would have no doubt drawn almost as much opprobrium as the much-maligned BBC sitcom’s recent "clumsy racism" incident.

Sadly, The Franchise’s biggest crime is perhaps what also prevents it from being anything approaching a masterpiece. If the opening triple-bill is anything to go by, it doesn’t appear to come from a place of love — which is a problem if you believe that in order to truly spear something you must first have to love it a little bit. It feels like there is a lot of sneering going on here, directed at both the Marvel multiverse and those who — sometimes, a little too obsessively — enjoy it.

Admittedly, it does a good job of capturing the ridiculousness of the genre and highlighting the way it continues to eat itself to death. The thing is everyone — even the biggest fans — already knows that superhero movies can be ridiculous. Therefore, calling a movie Tecto: Eye Of The Storm and featuring superpower accessories like The Invisible Jackhammer and The Stick Of Maximum Potency feels like more of a grudging nod than a vicious headbutt.

The aloofness, coupled with far too many in-jokes which are no doubt hilarious if you actually work in the genre, can make watching The Franchise from the pews of the broad church a bit of a chore at times. What saves it is the array of fine performances put in by the cast.

As I may have mentioned, Grant is the standout. I’d argue he’s having even more fun here than his fellow thesp David Tennant is in Jilly Cooper’s Rivals on Disney+. (NB. If you do have only room for one of these shows in your binge-watching diary you should definitely go for Rivals.)

Grant’s character, a legendary theatre actor called Peter, is what I’d like to imagine Withnail (Grant's most famous role) would have become had his agent ever managed to secure him an audition.

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No wonder then that Grant is given all the best lines, with the pick of them coming as he and his co-star Adam (Billy Magnussen), who are at passive aggressive loggerheads over who has top billing in the movie, hang together forty feet above the set following a high wire stunt.

"Imagine plummeting to our deaths," says Peter. "Big news story. Then we’ll see whose f***ing name comes first."

At the risk of sounding like a killjoy, even that line had a whiff of familiarity to it. Likewise, the show’s other most quotable exchange, which takes place between mouthy male studio boss Pat (Darren Goldstein) and his new female producer Anita (Aya Cash).

Pat: “I don’t want to man explain this.”

Anita: “It’s mansplain.”

Pat: “I don’t think it is.”

In another nod to Withnail, Peter also boasts a fondness for — and mastery of — the c-word. Whether a grown-up Withnail was Grant’s or the writing team’s intention all along, I’m not sure. I’m grateful it turned out that way though.

I’m also grateful for the efforts of Patel and Adefope as 1st Assistant Director Daniel and his assistant, 3rd Assistant Director Dag. Patel brings a much-needed human touch to proceedings and Daniel is the closest The Franchise gets to having a character we can root for.

Meanwhile Adefope’s Dag feels like a breezy combination of two previous roles, the skittish Kitty from Ghosts and the steely news reporter Ruth Duggan from This Time With Alan Partridge. Adefope certainly fares better than the other notable British comedy actress on the cast, Jessica Hynes.

I wouldn’t say Hynes is totally wasted here, but her talent and reputation is not at all well served by The Franchise. Still, I guess she can at least comfort herself with the fact that she’s not alone in that.

The Franchise airs on Sky and streams on NOW.