Comedy troupe Casual Violence produce a pro-quality ‘horror-comedy whodunnit’

Trailer released for Murder For Dummies

Comedy troupe Casual Violence have made a broadcast-quality ‘horror-comedy whodunnit’ series for the web.

The six-part series Murder For Dummies is due to premiere next month, having raised more than £10,000 towards production through crowdfunding.

It has been written by troupe member James Hamilton, who is head writer of Netflix’s animated sci-fi comedy series Dogs In Space, and directed by J.W. Roberts.

Hamilton said: 'From day one, the idea was to develop something we could make entirely by ourselves. Studios are increasingly reluctant to make anything that isn’t based on big-name IP [intellectual property]. We made Murder for Dummies because we love making weird, stupid comedy together, and we didn’t want to have to ask permission.’

The show takes the form of a true crime documentary investigating the unsolved murder of Britain’s best loved ventriloquist Keith Flapp (played by real-life ventriloquist Sean Garratt, below) in 1999 – a time when ventriloquism was ‘bigger than Princess Diana and the Spice Girls put together’.

Garratt in Murder For Dummies

Every interviewee, from his money-hungry manager to his double-act dummy partner, seems to have had a motive – but then the mysterious killer returns, bumping off the suspects in increasingly theatrical ways.

The group say a ‘worryingly significant’ portion of their budget was spent on ventriloquist puppets, with Hamilton saying: ‘I had to stuff ventriloquist dummies in my luggage and fly them back to London with me. I gave dummies to visiting friends to bring back home. Airport security thankfully never asked questions.'

Casual Violence also includes actor-comedians David Arrondelle, Luke Booys, Greg Cranness and Alex McCallum, while the show co-stars comics Thom Tuck, Kath Hughes and Edward Easton (both from sketch group Tarot) as well as Claire Marie- Hall, Amy Rockson, Beth Eyre and Lucy Farrett.

Booys said: ‘We’re lucky to have been able to make this completely independently. We spent our twenties rehearsing every Sunday, taking shows up to Edinburgh six years in a row, making our own short films on top of that; that gave us the experience, the relationships and the resources to pull off something this ambitious, and do it our own way.’

The troupe say they were influenced by mystery writers include Agatha Christie to Rian Johnson, as well as the comedy of Chris Morris’s BrassEye and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.

Here’s a trailer for Murder For Dummies, which is out on October 10.

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Published: 5 Sep 2024