Slings & Arrows: so good it gave David Simon writer-envy

"The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself." So quipped Oscar Wilde. In the spirit of passing on good advice, even if it's somewhat late in coming, I would urge any fan of excellent television drama to get their hands on a copy of a Canadian TV series called Slings & Arrows.

There are certain TV box sets I would wholeheartedly recommend: The Sopranos, The Wire, Tremé, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Deadwood – and Slings & Arrows, which began filming a decade ago, has the same level of powerful writing, fine acting and creative originality. I stumbled on it by chance, after reading a quote from Wire creator David Simon, who said: "There's a wonderful Canadian show called Slings & Arrows, about a Shakespearean theatre company, that was so clever it left me with pure, distilled writer-envy."

It lasted only three seasons (from 2003-2006), each one of only six episodes – because it followed a British mini-series model and was influenced by our House of Cards. It's based around a Shakespeare-oriented Canadian theatre festival. The series was created and written by Susan Coyne (an acclaimed playwright); Bob Martin (who went on to win a Tony Award for his work on The Drowsy Chaperone) and former The Kids in the Hall member Mark McKinney. All three appear in the series, along with a talented ensemble cast (largely made up of theatre actors from Toronto) and the whole thing was directed by Peter Wellington.

Each season is built around a different Shakespeare production – Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear – and the fictional New Burbage Festival’s often hapless attempts to stage the Bard. It all comes together in a delicious alchemy too rarely seen on television. It was a big hit in Canada, winning 22 TV awards for acting, writing, direction, editing, and was shown to rave reviews in the United States on the little-viewed Sundance Channel. When it was remade in Brazil as Som e Fúria, it attracted audiences of 18 million.

Even if it's a pipe dream to imagine that the BBC would try to create something as ambitious and good set in an English theatre company, it does seem a crying shame that it has not been shown on UK television. Surely, there's room even now, in between the endless repeats of embarrassing bodies and tedious gameshows?

_{Luke Kirby and Rachel McAdams}

The lead actors – Paul Gross, Stephen Ouimette, Martha Burns, McKinney (as the absurd and ultimately odious theatre boss Richard 'Big Dick' Smith-Jones) and Coyne – are terrific, yet whether it's young starlets such as Rachel McAdams, or theatre veterans such as the late William Hutt, the cast throughout the 18 episodes is impeccable. There is even a wonderful send-up of a newspaper theatre critic, with comedian Seán Cullen's portrayal of the self-important Basil Thume.

What makes it such a triumph (without going into spoiler plotlines) is that it deals with serious personal themes with such humour. It neatly satirises and yet tenderly explores the fear and insecurity of an actor's life; and I'm sure every long-suffering stage manager will delight in the drunken and foul-mouthed outburst by Burbage stage manager Maria (played by Catherine Fitch) when she has reached the end of her tether.

The humour sometimes comes close to farce – the get-naked Belkovsky Exercise scene, the absurd hit musical, the phoney marketing firm called Frog Hammer and the ultra-pretentious director Darren Nichols (Don McKellar) – but more often it's in the very fabric of the characters and their dialogue, as when the two ageing queeny troupe regulars Frank and Cyril, perennial bit-part Shakespearean characters, say:

“I wish I’d played Lear.”
“Oh, don’t be stupid! All that huffing and puffing…”

The seasons just get better and better and the King Lear-themed climax is deeply moving. Slings & Arrows is a reminder of just how complex and clever television drama can be.

Slings & Arrows: The Complete Collection (Acorn Media)