Dewi Humphreys gives comic actors time to make a disagreement funny. His Absolutely Fabulous work earns our recommendation, though its success is shared with other directors and a cast that needs little encouragement.
Fi1m perspective
In Absolutely Fabulous (1992), Edina prolongs a complaint and Patsy's disdain lingers until somebody answers her. Dewi Humphreys is well suited to comedy that needs actors to take their time. We rate his handling of these exchanges: he gives the performers room without making the situations unnecessarily big. Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley supply the selfishness, irritation and stamina. With this cast, an ordinary disagreement provides enough trouble for a scene, and Humphreys has the good sense to let it do so.
His television directing began with drama in 1990, before he moved into comedy with The Vicar of Dibley (1994), working with Dawn French. Long runs on My Family, beginning in 2001, and Still Open All Hours (2013) gave him sustained work with familiar ensembles. He directed all eight episodes of the fifth series of Absolutely Fabulous in 2003. The one-off Peter Pan Goes Wrong (2016) sits alongside those longer commitments; established sitcoms have been his principal business.
On Absolutely Fabulous, Humphreys belongs to a directing roster that also includes Bob Spiers, so the programme's comic habits should not all be assigned to him. We laughed at Edina's persistence because Saunders makes a complaint last well beyond any reasonable expectation of sympathy. Giving her time to become that aggravating is an important directing decision. The half-hour format helps: we get enough of these people's company to enjoy the aggravation without having to live with it. The celebrity appearances are less useful, sometimes interrupting better jokes from the regular cast.
Neverwhere (1996) provides a caution: the six-part Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry series drew criticism for its garish, overlit video appearance. We would not make a case for Humphreys as a distinctive visual stylist from his sitcom timing alone. Start with his fifth-series episodes of Absolutely Fabulous for the regular cast.
Biography
Dewi Humphreys is a Welsh television director specialising in situation comedy. Born in Bangor in 1947, he began his career as a camera operator on feature films including Chariots of Fire (1981) before directing for television from the early 1990s.
He has directed episodes of many BBC comedies, including The Vicar of Dibley (1994–1999), My Family (2001–2007), Absolutely Fabulous (2003), Nighty Night (2005), The Green, Green, Grass (2006–2009) and Still Open All Hours (2013–2019). Other credits include the television film Peter Pan Goes Wrong (2016) and episodes of Neverwhere (1996). He has received BAFTA Television Award nominations for his work.
