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Charlie Higson stars as the would-be ladies man and car showroom
owner in the BBC3 sitcom "Swiss Toni". The show
is based around the strangely named Swiss Toni, a character
who regularly featured on the very successful and popular
sketch programme "The Fast Show" before gaining
his own sitcom.
Although the focus is on Swiss there is also much humour
gained from his employees; the laid back, cynical drunk Geoff
(whose drinking is tolerated because he's a good salesman),
the thick office junior Paul, and the object of everyone's
desire Miranda. Ruth, Swiss Toni's timid wife and his dragon
of a mother who is always quick to point out her son's innumerable
shortcomings also appear.
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One achievement that can never be taken away from Charlie
Higson is that through Swiss Toni he brought a new catch-phrase
into popular British culture by comparing everything to 'making
love to a beautiful woman'. For example "Making a cup
of coffee is like making love to a beautiful woman. It's got
to be hot. You've got to take your time. You've got to stir...
gently and firmly. You've got to grind your beans until they
squeak. And then you put in the milk."
The success of the series is in fact largely due to writer
and star Higson; turning a short sketch into a sitcom is usually
dependent on sustaining interest with strong supporting characters
and sufficiently varied storylines, in this case they've just
about managed it but only thanks to Higson's carefully judged
performance, pitched somewhere between farce and reality.
It certainly is an achievement to add a layer of 'niceness'
to the puffed-up, pompous, snobbish Swiss Toni as on paper
he seems totally unlikable!
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Series 2, broadcast in the summer of 2004 on BBC3, started
off with Swiss making a desperate attempt to earn some money
and save his ailing car dealership by employing a barking
mad troubleshooter, she succeeds only in turning the business
upside down. As the series goes on things don’t get much
better for Swiss as we see him living with his mother as a
single man, having to downgrade his show-room and pull out
the stops to turn his business around. Can a robot really
help pull in the punters? Or will his own TV show get him
the adoration he so desperately wants? Will Swiss be able
to win his estranged wife Ruth back or will Geoff steal her
for good? How will Swiss cope as everything crumbles around
him?
The increased status of the programme is obvious to see as
this follow-up series sees cameo appearances from Paul Whitehouse,
Lisa Faulkner, Phil Jupitus, Adam Buxton, Mark Heap and many
more. All eyes are now on BBC3 to see if they think there
is enough material left to make a third series.
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