Supermarkets have been held responsible for decimating UK farming, then replacing
family businesses with low-paid, soul-destroying jobs, and Michael Ross looks at
both these aspects of the story in
Happy to Help, which starts promisingly
but soon reveals itself to be a fairly flaccid black comedy. After a prologue where
Tony (Charles Armstrong,) the representative of multinational chain Frisca, buys the
land from a farmer his company bankrupted in the first place, we flash forward 15
years to when Tony's become the UK MD of the company and, on the whim of his
American bosses, has been sent to work the shop floor incognito as an "undercover
boss," and get first hand experience of his staff's lives. Store manager Vicky
(Katherine Kotz) knows his true identity, but seems more than committed to treating
him exactly the same as everyone else, if not worse.
