Noel Fielding’s fantastical comedy works best when Julian Barratt is there to take it seriously. We like the warmth and casual confidence Fielding brings to their partnership, though the writing sometimes gives a weak joke too much time.
Fi1m perspective
In The Mighty Boosh (2004), Noel Fielding’s Vince Noir looks comfortable beside Julian Barratt’s solemn Howard Moon. Fielding brings a casual confidence that lets Barratt make the harder work of staying serious funny. We laughed at that effort to remain dignified, with Vince so much less troubled by the nonsense. Neither performer needs to win every exchange, which makes their company more inviting than the strangeness might suggest. We rate Fielding highly here because he makes the fantasy friendly.
The partnership developed through stage shows and a radio series in 2001 before The Mighty Boosh reached television. That is the useful starting point for his work: the odd inventions belong to a comedy built around two people whose temperaments differ. The solo Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy (2012) put his visual experimentation at the centre, though its first series could be short of jokes. Animation and music are part of his comedy, but they cannot be asked to make up for a weak gag.
On The Mighty Boosh, the supporting performers help vary the pace and volume. Michael Fielding’s restraint as Naboo the Enigma is especially welcome, while Matt Berry makes Dixon Bainbridge’s emphatic delivery precise enough not to tire us. Rich Fulcher’s Bob Fossil is more testing when the programme is already noisy. The writing, credited to Barratt, Fielding and Richard Ayoade, is less reliable about judging when enough is enough. A weak idea can be given as much time as a good one, and even half an hour can feel overextended.
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin (2024), which Fielding wrote and starred in, continues his work in narrative comedy. His turn to hosting The Great British Bake Off from 2017 has not meant giving that up. What we would like from the writing is more willingness to cut a passage once the performance has made its point. The warmth need not go with it. Start with The Mighty Boosh for Fielding and Barratt together, and allow for the occasional joke that stays after we have stopped laughing.
Biography
Noel Fielding is an English comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for co-creating, co-writing and starring as Vince Noir in the BBC Three series The Mighty Boosh (2004–2007), alongside Julian Barratt.
Fielding has appeared in The IT Crowd (2006) as Richmond and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace (2004). He won series 4 of Taskmaster (2017) and has served as a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Since 2017 he has co-presented The Great British Bake Off. In 2024 he starred in the Apple TV+ series The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.
