Funland

Funland is a comedy / thriller serial, produced by the BBC that was first screened from 23 October 2005 to 7 November 2005, on the digital channel BBC Three. Created by Jeremy Dyson (of The League of Gentlemen) and Simon Ashdown, the series consists of a fifty-minute opening episode followed by ten half-hour instalments. Plot A prudish couple, Dudley (Kris Marshall) and Lola (Sarah Smart), arrive in Blackpool by bus from Stoke-on-Trent, and find themselves in a seedy boarding house run by the sinister Leo Finch (Philip Jackson). At the same time Carter Krantz (Daniel Mays) arrives from London, thrown out of a car naked and carrying only a key and a piece of paper with the name "Ambrose Chapel". He thinks that this is a man responsible for his mother's murder, but after roughing up an innocent taxidermist, Ambrose Chapfel, (Mark Gatiss), he discovers it is actually a disused church, now a nightclub called "Sins" which is run by Shirley Woolf (Ian Puleston-Davies). Shirley and his second wife Connie (Frances Barber) are in conflict with Shirley's mother Mercy (Judy Parfitt), a wheelchair user and owner of a lapdancing club. Meanwhile, the mayor of Blackpool, Onan Van Kneck (Roy Barraclough) has launched a campaign to clean up the town, but is constantly harangued by journalist Ken Cryer (Simon Greenall), who accuses Van Kneck himself of corruption. On his first night in Blackpool, Dudley is inveigled by Finch into joining a game of poker, where he loses £3,000. When he says that he is penniless, Finch tells him that his wife will have to earn the money for him. Lola is forced to become a stripper at Mercy's club. Initially terrified, she discovers both that she is good at it and that she enjoys it. Later, Shirley Woolf offers her £1,000 for sex. Dudley encourages her to do it, and stays to watch in case she needs him to intervene, but is upset when he sees that she enjoys it more than she ever enjoyed sex with him. Krantz links up with Cryer, who says he can get information on Ambrose Chapel. When he goes to meet Cryer, however, he finds his things strewn over the beach and, under a bucket, his head. His only clue, once again, is a scrap of paper that says "Malcolm Carpet". Mercy holds a birthday party, which Shirley and Connie are obliged to attend.