TV Pick of the Week: Channel 4’s ‘Scrotal Recall’

Since it’s the inflamed, testicular elephant in the room, let’s get this out of the way promptly: Yes, the title of Scrotal Recall sounds like the bawdy headline in a lads’ mag; and yes, the show’s catalyst is that the main character gets an STI.

So far, so “phwoar, wa-hay lads, shag shag shag” etc. – but this is a column for sophisticated, refined tastes, so I’m pleased to say that, despite the crass name, and the slightly rank premise, Scrotal Recall is shaping up to be one of 2014’s best new comedies.

The story goes as follows: our main man, proficient pickle-hider Dylan Witter, gets an STI test and finds out he’s got chlamydia. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know who he got it from, so he decides to go through his list of sexual partners in order to find out how he picked it up. Imagine a sort of seedy cross between Poirot and Sun, Sex And Suspicious Parents and you’re almost there.

Dylan is a polite, meek, slightly dense protagonist, with wide eyes, a soft, polite voice (think Game of Thrones‘ Iwan Rheon) and a kind of non-obvious charm that suggests he looks like an absolute ride after four or five pints. He isn’t cocky, and he isn’t mean-spirited, but he isn’t perfect either.

Characters like Dylan living a solid “six out of ten” lifestyle are ripe for shows like this – shows that want to cross-examine why today’s twenty-somethings are such a hot mess – because they encapsulate that feeling you get in your twenties of being on course to turn into a total failure of a person.

The show uses moments in Dylan’s life to map out his story. In episode one we flash back three years to a wedding which Dylan goes to with his then-girlfriend, Evie. He’s accompanied by his friend Luke, who is, sadly, a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out of an utter chode, and the more charming Evie (the brilliant Antonia Thomas from Misfits).

Scrotal Recall works because it uses the STI as a conduit to get inside the head of a young man who has chosen to be defined by his sexual conquests, and looks at what happens when his identity is suddenly compromised by a burning sensation every time he goes to the loo. And like shows before it, Scrotal’s young men and woman are sceptical about pining for a Hollywood-sprinkled dose of romance.

As one character says: “Not everyone has to be the one. So I guess the question is… what do you do while you’re waiting?” and it’s this question that forms the central conceit of the show. The obvious answer is “sex with a load of randoms” but Scrotal is probably a bit cleverer than that.

There’s also some fantastic supporting turns from the likes of Vicki Pepperdine, who you might remember from Nighty Night as the customer whose divorce brought her eyebrows down. And while it remains to be seen whether Scrotal‘s going to avoid the obvious Dylan and Evie romance or eventually pander to it, at six episodes long, it feels like a show that’s confident in what it can and can’t do. At this point, all signs suggest Scrotal Recall is going to be as infectious as anything you’ll catch from a grotty stranger.