We Can Be Heroes » Reviews » Sydney Star Observer

Show of the week

Unless you are amused by the pumped-up artificiality of proclaiming an Australian of the Year - is that an icy blast around my ears already? - then this undeniably curious series may not click. But if it does attract in its modestly pleasing way, then this is entirely due to comedian Chris Lilley who tackles the whole flag-waving exercise and sends it up something rotten.

Lilley takes a mocking documentary approach, complete with a narrator in the guise of Jennifer Byrne, as he plays five ridiculous contenders for the title (and the twin brother of one of them), all of them fond of themselves beyond belief.

Lilley starts with Phil Olivetti, a former policeman from Brisbane who saved nine children from an inflatable jumping castle after high winds sent it hurtling into high-voltage power lines. If he struggles here, it is because we have not met any other contenders to compare Olivetti with.

When we meet Ricky Wong, a Chinese student and physics genius, we still need convincing, but then comes the turn of Ja'mie King, a North Shore schoolgirl - "I'm just rather good at a lot of things" - who has set a national record by sponsoring 85 children in a starving African village and goes on the 40 Hour Famine every week ("Two days a week without food keeps me looking hot.") Here Lilley is in his element.

This is appealing rather than funny ha-ha, but fingers crossed as these diverse characters face five more episodes.