Duration: 8:51

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From the makers of The Mighty Boosh comes new British comedy Mindhorn from Julian Barratt, Simon Farnaby and Sean Foley

Official Summary
A has-been actor, known for playing British detective Mindhorn, works alongside the police to catch a serial killer who will only speak to Mindhorn, whom he believes to be real.Barratt plays Richard Thorncroft, a grotesque has-been actor who back in the early 80s, resplendent with the handsomeness of a young Lewis Collins, had his moment of fame playing a TV cop called Mindhorn. This was a tough officer who was subjected to a bionic-style experiment: his left eye was removed and replaced with a hi-tech scanner set into an old-fashioned eyepatch – allowing him to beam supersonically into anyone’s mind and see through criminal lies.

His roistering adventures came to an end when the series was cancelled – and he managed to insult every cast member and everyone on the Isle of Man, where the show was set, on an ill-judged appearance on Wogan before heading off to LA where he assumed Hollywood fame was the natural next step.

But it never worked out and in 2016 the poor sap is now an unemployed, overweight, middle-aged actor living in a north London bedsit with his memories, his hairpiece (time has taken its toll on the luxurious mane) and his extensive collection of Mindhorn memorabilia. He has been fired from a TV ad for orthopaedic socks and replaced with John Nettles. His beautiful onscreen/offscreen flame Patricia Deville (Essie Davis) from those days is still in the Isle of Man, employed as a local TV journalist, happily married to a man who was once Thorncroft’s stuntman. To add to his humiliation and despair, an absurdly minor character from the show, played by Steve Coogan, became a huge success with a spinoff.