{"id":752604,"date":"2026-06-22T09:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752604\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T09:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:49:13","slug":"small-prophets-review-mackenzie-crooks-new-british-comedy-series-is-a-gentle-unhurried-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752604\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Prophets review: Mackenzie Crook\u2019s new British comedy series is a gentle, unhurried masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Small Prophets \u2605 \u2605 \u2605 \u2605 \u2605 <\/p>\n

If TV feels full of loud, fast-paced, drippingly slick shows, then here is the antidote. A gentle, jewel-like, unhurried masterpiece that is funny, profound and manages to break and mend your heart in equal measures.<\/p>\n

Small Prophets is a six-part, 30-minute British series, created and written by Mackenzie Crook (Detectorists<\/a>, The Office). It follows the story of Michael Sleep, a lonely but not sad man whose partner, Clea, disappeared seven years ago.<\/p>\n

\"PearcePearce Quigley (right) as Michael Sleep and Michael Palin as his father, Brian, in Small Prophets. <\/p>\n

Still believing she will return, Michael (played by British actor Pearce Quigley) lives a quiet life in an overgrown house at the end of a suburban cul-de-sac. He works at a Bunnings-like hardware chain and visits his father in a retirement home. His days are marked by noting the differing formations of his pressed wheat cereal pieces and taking the mickey out of his boss (played by Crook with thick glasses and a magnificently long and thin ponytail) and every hardware store customer.<\/p>\n

\u201cS\u2019cuse me, do you sell buckets?\u201d asks one customer of Michael, both of them standing before a mammoth wall of stacked blue buckets.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Gold<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBuckets?\u201d Michael replies, deadpan. \u201cNo. No call for them. Old-fashioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

What follows is a conversation traversing disbelief, self-doubt and puzzled acceptance as Michael\u2019s mischief leads his prey further down the garden path. We see many innocent customers lathered with utter tosh in early episodes.<\/p>\n

Longhaired and bewhiskered, Sleep is filled with steady self-belief and optimism. But his life stopped when Clea didn\u2019t come home. He has turned their living room into a shrine to a Christmas 50 years ago, and he is being chased by Clea\u2019s oily and broke brother, Roy (Paul Kaye, Game of Thrones), who believes he should inherit his sister\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

\"MackenzieMackenzie Crook, the creator and writer of Small Prophets, as store manager Gordon.<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s father, Brian (Michael Palin), a well-travelled man now living in a retirement home, builds intricate contraptions between entering magazine prize competitions. He tells his son about homunculi, tiny prophesying humanoid spirits formed from medieval alchemy who answer any question correctly. Brian believes they\u2019ll help find Clea and urges Michael to find his stored-away homunculi recipe and grow some.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Pierre<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael thinks this is nonsense but finds the recipe. He turns his garden shed into a laboratory, finds six big glass bottles, fills them with rainwater and adds a range of ingredients \u2013 amethyst quartz, an old silver coin, a gold ring, a brass key, a pen nib and a plain button.<\/p>\n

Without giving anything away, he gets results. Crook\u2019s use of stop-motion animation here, rather than CGI, brings another layer of old-school analogue to a show that already feels nostalgic.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s full of secondary characters built with depth, from Michael\u2019s next-door neighbours \u2013 agitated, leaf-hating Clive; buoyant, slug-feeding Olive \u2013 to Kacey (Lauren Patel) whose aimless life as Michael\u2019s co-worker blossoms when she joins his quest for answers from the homunculi. But it\u2019s Quigley\u2019s Michael whom we want to find happiness and the answers to where his great love is now.<\/p>\n

With its unhurried pace, beautiful writing and affecting non-belly-laugh humour, Small Prophets is a marvellous study of non-toxic masculinity, too. It\u2019s strange and beautiful and bears a poignancy that can crack the heart. The last episode ends with the words, \u201cTo be continued\u201d, to which I gave a great sigh of relief. This is a magical slice of TV.<\/p>\n

Small Prophets premieres at 8.30pm on Tuesday, June 23, on ABC Entertains and ABC iview.<\/p>\n

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