If Waiting for Godot is a play where nothing happens twice, then the charming adaptation of Rónán Hession’s Leonard and Hungry Paul goes one better. In this droll Dublin dramedy, nothing happens on an ongoing basis. Yet far from boring the socks off the viewer, the effect is absolutely absorbing – it’s like watching paint dry if watching paint drying was a gripping spectator sport.
Affable and so laid back it practically descends through the floorboards, the BBC Northern Ireland/ RTÉ co-production stars Alex Lawther as the eponymous Leonard – the human equivalent of a polo shirt buttoned all the way to the top. He is an introverted 30-something who spends his days inside his head and is rudely interrupted by reality only when his beloved mam dies.
His best friend is Hungry Paul (Laurie Kynaston), a Ludo devotee and An Post worker living at home with a doting mother (Helen Behan) and a father (Lorcan Cranitch) who watches quizshows in advance so that he can pretend to know all the answers. If whimsy is your thing, pull up a stool.
Why “Hungry” Paul? As with the 2019 novel, no answers are forthcoming. There is also no obvious reason why a series set in suburban Dublin (though the city is never explicitly referenced) should feature narration by Hollywood’s Julia Roberts – doing a decent impression of Ron Howard’s wry voiceover from Arrested Development.
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Still, the likeability of the lead actors – neither Irish but getting the accent more or less correct – helps the script bob pleasantly along. Leonard and Hungry Paul is slow moving and yet, in defiance of the basic laws of space, time and light entertainment, rarely dreary. There is some darkness – the story opens with death of Leonard’s mother. However, the first two episodes contain not a jot of nastiness – even when the clueless encyclopedia writer Leonard is lured on a date by a work colleague simply so to make her ex jealous, the feel good aura endures.
There is a vague outline of a plot when Leonard’s office welcomes newcomer Shelley (Derry Girls’ Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), on whom he develops a cripplingly geeky crush. She’s outgoing and straight talking, he is afraid of his own shadow. Surely nothing could ever happen? You will want to stay tuned to find out.
Whimsy can drive some people up the wall and it is true that anyone who never wants to watch another Wes Anderson movie or has had quite enough CMAT this year, thank you very much, might find Leonard and Hungry Paul deeply trying.
But for everyone else, this is a quietly uplifting show that celebrates the bittersweet banality of the everyday. How great moreover to see a portrayal of male nerdishness that doesn’t indulge in the stereotype – real but far from ubiquitous – of the privileged nice guy incapable of having a normal relationship with women and verging on full-blown incel. If there is a quibble it is perhaps that Leonard and Hungry Paul doesn’t get geekdom quite right: in the real world, the duo probably wouldn’t have much time for normie pastimes as Ludo but would be massively into Magic the Gathering and BattleTech.
The Irishness is an important component – but never overstated. The effect is essentially Normal People for nerds. Real Irish life has been put on the screen, without fanfare, pretension or any compulsion to call attention to itself. It’s great – and the less going on in the lives of Leonard and Paul, the more fascinating the results.
