Bring the Drama review: Bill Bailey fronts a moving, mesmerising new reality show

Bake Off, Pottery Throwdown, Sewing Bee, Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr, MasterChef... you might well be forgiven for feeling that the nation doesn’t really need another reality show that takes enthusiastic amateurs and tries to turn them into professionals at, well, whatever. Or, specifically in the case of BBC Two’s Bring the Drama, one that turns average folk into fine actors. I feared the worst because, well, I assumed that, among other things, wannabe actors would make Apprentice contestants look like monks who’d taken a holy vow of humility. Yet Bring the Drama confounds expectations, and actually is brilliant.

Against the odds, it deserves to be a terrific success, even in a telly scene saturated by reality shows. Bill Bailey, actor and comedian, is a warm sort of host, and entirely befitting this charming creation, where all those concerned seem to be so kind and generous to one another it’s quite hard to understand why they want to get into the notoriously bitchy world of theatre, darling. But they do, and we want them to succeed because the programme draws us in to their hopes and ambitions in a quite mesmerising way. There’s a seriousness about the proceedings that is sadly rare in these reality formats.

The format works like this: eight people, varying in age from 23 to almost 70, with little to no exposure to the world of theatre or television, are tasked with recreating scenes from real TV dramas, from Peaky Blinders to Silent Witness. At the conclusion of the six-part series, three eventual winners get the opportunity to forge a new career in showbiz with a professional agent.

In the first episode, we find the contestants on the set of EastEnders, preparing to re-enact a particularly moving sequence. It’s all done very professionally – no slapstick allowed – so we get a real BBC casting director on board, Kelly Valentine Hendry, who has cast shows including Bridgerton, Gangs of London, Ghosts and Broadchurch. She conducts proper auditions for parts in the scene, in this case one where Phil Mitchell’s son, Ben, collapses and almost dies in the Queen Vic – until Sonia Fowler saves his life. The actor who plays Sonia, Natalie Cassidy, is kind enough to assist as director/coach and dish out some forthright advice, and the cast are generally treated like the grown-ups.

The aspiring actors are divided into two teams, given their lines, and, after a few takes (as few as possible, given the soap’s rapid turnarounds), the footage is edited, viewed and judged for best collective cast performance and best performance in each lead role. Best “Sonia” is 67-year old Janice Sampson, who already has the look of “character actor” about her. She puts on a restrained but highly credible performance as the panicked Sonia, while best “Phil” is awarded to a very promising young talent named Jordan Skelly, who is wise enough not to try to impersonate the Steve McFadden version of Phil Mitchell. He does it his way, and he looks as though he’ll be a bit of a star as the series goes on.

An honourable mention must also go to contestant Chris Flynn, who “plays” the near-dead body of Ben, but one coming back to life with just the right degree of surprise and animation. If there were an Oscar for “best cadaver on a Walford pub floor”, he’d be a shoo-in. We don’t even see much of Bailey, whose presenting is kept low key, because it’s all about the actors, as it should be, and the show makes us want them all to win.

Bring the Drama is about people realising a personal dream, a fantasy, just as lots of reality shows are, with the audience along for the vicarious thrills. The difference here is that the creative, collaborative, emotional process of bringing a drama script to life is so much more engaging than watching someone wrestling with a mixing bowl or dropping a meringue on the floor. Things can get weepy in the Bake Off kitchen, but the emotion is much more visceral in Bring the Drama. Like the awestruck contestants who are tackling their acting assignments, the show’s viewers will be strung out by the end, but it’s worth it.