Every so often, Matthew and I would browse BBC iPlayer in our relentless search for something to watch, and we’d get some clips from the comedy series Live From The BBC. It’s been a few years now, first airing in 2016 before ending in 2018, but there’s a special episode that we’ll watch over and over again. That volume is of the comic based on Bristol Mat Ewins, who in this series appears as a self-styled adventurer, film producer and amateur video game producer promoting his latest creation Adventureman 7, a type of banker Indiana Jones book meets Tomb Raider type of deal.
He’s one of the few comedians who use a lot of media on their sets, playing self-made, self-made videos to help deliver groundbreaking lines. There’s a lot of nonsense in the Ewins scene here, but on occasion he’s also created an entire video game companion, styled like an N64/PS1-style affair between the 90s, during which – unsurprisingly – humorous antics ensued. Matthew and I loved it bit by bit, and I think that on this Lara Croft 25th anniversary, we should remember the incredible Adventurer and all of the great lousy video games he did. We join but we never get to play.
