By Abby Robinson

Published: Friday, 11 November 2022 at 12:00 am

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When James Corden arrived on the scene some eons ago – he was just 22-years-old when he appeared in Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends, he’s now 44 – he was an unknown who could quite easily have faded into the background, as many do. But he proved his writing chops with Gavin and Stacey, his piece de resistance which he co-wrote with Ruth Jones, and quickly became a household name. 

Fast forward to 2022 and he’s now a global name courtesy of the The Late Late Show, on which he’s interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, and even belted out some tunes alongside them in the highly-watchable Carpool Karaoke.

While his career has experienced some extraordinary duds (Lesbian Vampire Hunters and Cats, we’re looking firmly at you), the picture is one of success. But the same cannot be said for his public image, which makes the decision to cast him in Prime Video‘s Mammals both interesting and risky.

The six-parter comes from award-winning playwright and screenwriter Jez Butterworth and centres on two couples in crisis: Jamie (Corden) and Amandine (Melia Kreiling), and Lue (Sally Hawkins) and Jeff (Colin Morgan).

Jamie, a Michelin star chef on the cusp of opening his own restaurant, discovers some earth-shattering news about Amandine, his French wife who works in market research. All the while Jamie’s sister Lue, who owns an antique shop, is becoming increasingly distant, much to the concern of her neuroscientist husband Jeff.

To go into any detail about what’s fuelling their respective plights would spoil the fun, so that’s as much as I’ll say on that.

But what I can say is Mammals is a riot. Butterworth’s script is funny and surreal – a brief appearance from Tom Jones is a bizzare yet brilliant delight, with the writing never quite going where you expect it to, although there’s a reveal further down the line that might not come as a total surprise. The other major development, however, will likely catch you off guard, although it tallies with what we know about the character in question, emphasising just how well-thought-out the story is.

Lue’s arc, which initially feels like it belongs in a different show, does make sense when you reach the latter stages, again showcasing Butterworth’s storytelling prowess – although some might find her reveries a distraction, or a little too fantastical. But Hawkins, as ever, is effortless, with Kreiling and Morgan also well cast.

And even when Mammals plumbs the very darkest depths, the writing isn’t excessive, never once tipping over into maudlin emotionalism, which is where the power of Butterworth’s pen really shines through. Even in tragedy, he seeks out the light or the peculiar, and always in a way that holds the truth of the moment. And with the episodes just 25 minutes-apiece, you’ll gobble up this beautifully made series in no time.

But there’s just one problem: Corden.

To be clear: this isn’t a personal attack on Corden, but simply an acknowledgment of the “cultural temperature”, to quote Kendall Roy.

You can’t mention Corden without someone declaring their dislike of him, and his name is sometimes prefaced with ‘Uh!’ in our increasingly divided world, making it hard to separate the art from the artist.

Most recently, the owner of Manhattan restaurant Balthazar described Corden as “a tiny Cretin of a man” and banned him from the premises for the alleged poor treatment of its staff.

“I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level,” Corden told The New York Times. After apologising to the restaurant owner, he has since been ‘unbanned’.

In an interview with The Independent in 2019, his Gavin and Stacey co-star Rob Brydon also revealed that he had given the actor a talking to about his conduct: “You would hear people saying, ‘He’s this, he’s that.’ So I took him out for lunch, and I was sitting there thinking, ‘When am I going to bring this up?’ And I just said, ‘I don’t like hearing people saying this, because that’s not the person I know. So you need to be careful.’”

During a segment on his own show in 2017, Corden was asked to “name two of the cameramen” in the room by Jimmy Kimmel, and he couldn’t.

And on a more serious note, there were the jokes he made about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault allegations while hosting a charity fundraiser back in 2017. He later apologised, but the damage had already been done.

While countless famous faces have been able to shake off their misdemeanours, worryingly so in certain cases, it feels like everything has stuck to Corden, regardless of whether it’s confirmed or alleged, which makes his presence in Mammals a distraction. Flicking off that switch and sinking fully into the story is difficult because every time he appears on screen, we’re reminded of the memory of the disastrous Reddit AMA he hosted, which saw him bombarded with scathing comments.

And there’s also an issue when it comes to the direction his career has taken. My first thought on seeing him in Mammals was, ‘It’s James Corden, that guy who cruises around LA with Adele and Lady Gaga and Will Smith.’ He’s operated in the showbiz space for such a long time that he’s now a presenter or an entertainer first, and an actor second, which also yanks you out of the performance.

It’s a crying shame because Mammals is very good, but even Butterworth’s talent can’t dilute the James Corden™ factor.

Mammals is available to stream now on Prime Video – you can sign up now for a free 30-day Prime Video trial. Take a look at the rest of our Drama coverage or check out what else is on with our TV guide.

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