Ingham Infiltrates

Perry Ingham is an investigative reporter, dedicated to exposing the activities of con men and criminals. I saw one of these short spoof films recently and, although it was pretty much a one joke affair I actually quite enjoyed it. Clearly going after the inflated Macintyre, Campbell and Wilson have simplified their "infiltrations" to allow the exaggeration of Ingham's actions, all the time allowing him to constantly name-drop his military training and background.

It doesn't do much else other than this but it still works and I did find it consistently amusing. The gags are funny and I did laugh out loud once or twice within the ten minutes but even when I wasn't it did still work as a spoof of the Investigates programmes. People outside of the UK might not get the humour but it did work well if you are familiar with the target. Ten minutes is a good running time for each section because, as it is rather limited in scope it doesn't risk outstaying its welcome. Not something I could watch for an hour but nice in small chunks.

Campbell is a good lead and his ability to play it straight is well used (as it was, to more serious effect, in Martha & Me, his biggest success to date). Wilson pops up briefly but his main task seems to be the camera and he does it well, recreating the hand-held, covert style well. Overall an amusing spoof that works well in small doses.