We Can Be Heroes » Reviews » Preview

So rare is it that we score a comedy success these days that we check and double-check its birth certificate, its lineage, and just what quirk of nature might have delivered it to us. And, indeed, wether it really was as amusing as we first thought. Well, not only is We Can Be Heroes as dinki-di as they come, but it is a delightfully fresh, entertaining and funny take on our obsessions with mates and champions. It also puts a young Sydney comic actor, Chris Lilley, up there with the best of them. In this new character comedy – the sort of show you might just have expected from, say, The Office’s Ricky Gervais – the chameleon-like Lilley introduces five unique competitive Aussies who feel they are worthy for consideration as the Australian Of The Year. The six-part series, written and starring Lilley and directed by Matthew Saville, is presented as documentary, with familiar, credible format and the narrative imprimatur of Jennifer Byrne. Lilley brings us Brisbane policeman Phil Olivetti, who, having saved nine children from an inflated jumping castle accident, feels Eric Bana could portray him in a movie. There is Melbourne University’s Ricky Wong, crazily caught between solar energy research and Broadway musicals. Perth housewife Pat Mullins is determined to roll her way from Perth to Fremantle. Sydney schoolgirl Ja’mie has adopted 85 Sudanese schoolchildren, while South Australian country boy Daniel Sims wants to donate one of his eardrums to his hearing-impaired twin Nathan. They’re already winners. The only question now is wether they can keep this gag going.