1 March 2010 (2010-03-01) – 12 February 2014 (2014-02-12)
This Is Jinsy is a British comedy television series. The pilot was first broadcast on 1 March 2010 on BBC Three. The programme is about the bizarre residents of the fictional island of Jinsy which is based on Guernsey, where the two writers are from.[1] The show was written by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb who also play the leading roles. Although the pilot episode was made for the BBC, the full series of eight episodes was picked up by Sky Atlantic.[2][3] The first series began airing with a double bill on 19 September 2011 and ended on 31 October 2011.[4] A second series was commissioned and was first broadcast on 8 January 2014.[5]
While Maven prepares for an interview with the editor of Glove Hygiene Monthly, the beard-growing contest is disrupted by an attacker with a taste for facial hair.
Time is of the essence as Maven races against the clocks to get his accounts done in time. The only problem is, Jinsy's ink-addicted accountants have gone feral, forcing him to strike a deal with the Chief Accountant involving his daughter, Berpetta.
Maven and Sporall are in high spirits as they attend Jinsy's Firelock Festival, but the mood soon sours when they stop by to see Madame Astralina. The local astrologer specialises in rat bum-reading and she's got some dire news to share with poor Maven: he's going to be assassinated.
Party pooper Maven is dreading the arrival of forbidden festival Nacken, so much so that he's being extra vigilant about everyone taking their nightly bye pills.
Preferring crackpot theories to common sense, Maven is convinced that the island is going to be overthrown by a group of subversive residents communicating via coded textile messaging. His evidence? The number of islanders wearing novelty knitwear.
The Great He orders Maven to dispose of a resident when the island population exceeds its limit of 791. Favourite for the chop is Jinsy's oldest inhabitant, the romper suit-wearing Robunce Barnatty, but an unexpected revelation changes everything.
Maven is shocked to discover that he's been wearing a makeshift woggle and sets out to retrieve the official one from former Arbiter, Roley Jenkins. Obstacles arise, however, in the form of his wife Joan and a pesky parrot.
Production
The pilot of This Is Jinsy was produced by the Welded Tandem Picture Company and filmed at Greenford Studios in July 2009. It was directed by Chris Bran and Justin Chubb; the script editor was Emma Kennedy.
Production for the first series started at the end of January 2011 and was directed by Matt Lipsey. Charlie Phillips, who worked with Lipsey on Psychoville, is the editor.[11]
Reception
The Radio Times described the pilot as "infectiously funny as an overstuffed owl. A full series please."[12]Time Out described it as "a lo-fi joy to behold".[13]
Alice-Azania Jarvis, reviewing the first two episodes for The Independent, calls it "brilliantly done" and "genuinely surreal".[14]
Keith Watson writes in The Metro, Bran and Chubb "teetered on the brink of drowning in the ocean of whimsy", but that "This Is Jinsy pulled off the trick of turning its multifarious influences into something that felt fresh and new."[15]
Awards
The pilot episode (directed by Bran & Chubb) was nominated in the Sitcom category for the Rose d'Or 2010.[16]
Series 1 of This Is Jinsy (directed by Matt Lipsey) was nominated in the Best Sketch Show category for the British Comedy Awards 2011.
^Jarvis, Alice-Azania (20 September 2011). "This Is Jinsy Review". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
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