TV review by Steve Bennett

Greg Hemphill has achieved what the Daily Mail has been trying to do for years: silenced Frankie Boyle.

In the Still Game co-creator’s new short for the BBC, Gasping, the brutal stand-up plays an alcoholic trying to give up the booze – and doesn’t say a word.

Boyle has spoken before about his 11-year battle with alcohol from the aged of 15, which may be why he’s so effective at portraying this character’s fragility and resignation using only weary facial expressions and a distant physicality.

He plays Harvey Higgins, whose wife Vicky (Julie Astin) initially jokes that he’s a ‘stupid prick’ for staying out late with his mates. But when she finds a bottle of whisky hidden in their daughter’s wellies, it’s soon established that the problems run deeper.

Eventually she decides to leave, and he loses his job too, sacked by his boss, played buy Absolutely’s Gordon Kennedy. As a parting gif he’s given a whisky decanter – albeit full of lemonade. That’s typical of the irony that runs through Hemphill’s script, which has a wit as dry as Higgins is hoping to be. Even the posters in the background at the airport contain a joke.

Higgins reluctantly goes to Alcoholics Anonymous, but his resolve is tested daily, given the ubiquity of booze in Scottish life. When he finds a new job, it’s at  a distillery. ‘That’s like an paedophile working at the Early Learning Centre,’ the exasperated Vicky rages.

Gasping could be the Trainspotting of whisky, as Higgins tries to go cold turkey: sweating, trembling and hallucinating as he’s tempted at every turn. The short, which also marks Hemphill’s directorial debut, also shares with Danny Boyle’s film the disorientating effect of disjointed scenes played through a numbing filter.

And while we’re led to think Higgins just about conquered his demons, he ends up bandaged and reeking of whisky, a set-up for a deliciously dark punchline. 

• Gasping aired on BBC One in Scotland on Monday night and is now available on iPlayer.

Review date: 1 Jun 2016
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett