BBC Radio 4, 30 June 2017

Is the grass always greener the other side of the fence?

And now, as the old cliché goes, for something completely different. After the downbeat dystopian France of Siege, the antibiotic-starved NHS of Culture and the unusual bug problem of Metamorphosis comes Josie Long and Liam Williams’ Perimeter, a much more overtly comedic offering from Dangerous Visions than any we’ve had before. It’s satire done with a big stick – very much of the Spitting Image smack you in the face with things school of thought – and takes a bit of adjusting to at first.

There are some strong points made throughout, and some clever ideas that could easily have been spun off into a more straightforward drama, with Williams, Long and Pippa Heywood playing it absolutely straight. There are times that a joke is pushed just that tiny bit too much, and I’m not totally convinced that all the ramifications of the idea have been fully thought through – but in some ways that’s the point of something like this, using Big Ideas to make the point, rather than creating a fully credible society.

Verdict: An unsubtle but moderately effective drama. 7/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to listen to Perimeter on iPlayer