Mat Ewins: The Six Million Dollar Ewins

Imagine Bond with none of the smoothness and you’re somewhere near this kooky spy parody. Beyond the tux, Mat Ewins bears little resemblance to 007 as he fumbles through a knockabout caper that keeps its ugly bits out for all to see.

As contrived plots go, it takes some beating. Agent Ewins has been gunned down while tracking an international baddie, then rebuilt as a bionic man. Now he has to scour his memory to figure out who’s planted a timebomb in the venue. Why would they do this? Because!

But that’s precisely the point: we’re repeatedly reminded that it’s not so much a story as an excuse to cobble together a few screwball routines and inventively silly games, not to mention the sort of DIY filmmaking that would have Cubby Broccoli twirling in his box.

Ewins delivers this nonsense with ironic pizzazz. A running dialogue with the technician finds him grumbling about how wrong it’s all going, and he crams his script with asides to make sure that where there are criticisms to be made, he’ll be the first to make them. It’s overkill, all this nudging and winking, and after a while it begins to wear.

Luckily the videos, co-starring some of London’s weirder comedians, provide ample respite. With Russki henchmen whose only line is “Sputnik” and a chase on the Tube featuring some extremely special effects, the clips recall the low-rent appeal of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. The effort that’s been put into them is genuinely impressive, and with commitment like that, it’s hard to grudge Ewins his licence to piss about.