Peter Pan Goes Wrong

Peter Pan Goes Wrong (2016) is a British comedy special you can watch online on iFILM — sixty-five minutes of a Christmas pantomime coming apart in front of a live audience.

The BBC has commissioned The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, a well-meaning amateur theatre group, to stage J.M. Barrie's classic for festive programming. Peter Pan is supposed to fly. Tinkerbell is supposed to light up the stage. The crocodile is supposed to tick. None of it works. Behind the production is Mischief Theatre — Olivier Award winners who have built a career out of theatrical disasters rehearsed to precision — and every wrong entrance, every failed wire, every forgotten cue has been prepared with the care that other companies spend on their best scenes. David Suchet narrates throughout with appropriate gravity.

The joke is simple: everyone involved is trying as hard as they possibly can. That sincerity is what makes each new collapse funny rather than just chaotic. Stream Peter Pan Goes Wrong online on iFILM.