Newfangle is a radio sitcom written by Adam Rosenthal and Viv Ambrose. It follows the adventures of Newfangle, a young hominid who lives in the swamps of Africa in prehistoric times and who recently invented words, something the rest of his troop are having difficulty coming to grips with.
Newfangle (he invented names too) is a caveman ahead of his time who constantly comes up with new radical ideas to make life better for his troop, such as language, music, fire, shelter, and diplomacy. His new inventions have a tendency of putting him at odds with the rest of the troop — particularly Alf (Hugh Bonneville) the alpha male, who either decides Newfangle's ideas are too confusing and beats him up over them... or actually likes the ideas, claims them as his own, and beats up Newfangle anyway.
Newfangle's domineering mother Coco (Maureen Lipman) is less than impressed with her intellectual-but-wimpy son, and much favors his brother Crag (Gabriel Vick), whom she is grooming to become the troop's next Alpha male. Crag, for his part is a dimwitted Gentle Giant who likes and admires his brother, but lacks the willpower and initiative to actually be much use to him.
Other important members of the troop are Alf's mate Lucy (Amy Shindler), who may be the real power behind the throne — and of course Snaggle (Pippa Evans), the local Soapbox Sadie, whom Newfangle is constantly pining for but never manages to get with because he tends to put his foot in it at just the wrong moment.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Coco is a terrible mother, even by the standards of the day. Newfangle gets the worst of it because she sees him as essentially useless to her; she dismisses and verbally abuses him, and according to him didn't even bother to take care of him when he was a baby. In contrast, she dotes on Crag and does everything in her power to make him the troop's new Alpha... but it becomes increasingly clear that all she actually cares about is becoming First Lady again. In Episode Three, when it seems Newfangle is going to make it big, she begins doting on him instead and starts dismissing and verbally abusing Crag.
- Aerith and Bob: Newfangle, Snaggle, Crag ... and Lucy. Justified in that she is clearly named for (and is implied to actually be) the most famous Australopithecus, AL 288-1, nicknamed "Lucy."
- Affectionate Nickname: Alf refers to Lucy as his "little marmoset."
- British Brevity: There are only six episodes of the show.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Newfangle has ideas and inventions that won't be properly appreciated for millennia to come. Snaggle is in a similar position; while not the great innovater Newfangle is, she's a lot more socially conscious and will often speak up for women's rights and communital issues in an age and society where people just use savage violence to get their way.
- The Cast Show Off: In the episode "Changing Tunes", Pippa Evans (Snaggle) known as a musical comic, gets to perform a Bob Dylan style folk number "The Apes, They Are Evolving."
- Chew Toy: Despite beind a bonafide genius for his time, and many of his inventions greatly benefitting the troop, Newfangle can never catch a break. He remains the bullied, put-upon "loser" of the troop no matter what he does.
- Double Standard: Alf is furious when he learns Lucy has been "ogging" Crag but considers his own infidelities a benefit of both being alpha and acceptable because he is a male.
- Expy: It'a not too hard to see who Simian the talent scout is based on.
- Foreign Cuss Word: "Ogging" is used as a minor expletive generally used for mating. A few other made-up curse words are also heard, mostly based on nonsense words Crag thought up when he wanted to invent some language too. Newfangle initially didn't see any point in words that didn't mean anything, but later found a use for them as insults to sling against people you're angry at.
- Gentle Giant: Crag. He's big and strong, but unfailingly good-natured to the point that he sometimes borders on Extreme Doormat.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: It is implied Coco was quite the royal terror before she was ousted, once sacrificing the child of one of her enemies as an intimidation tactic (and because she was hungry.)
- I'm a Humanitarian: Coco is very blasé about the idea of occasional cannibalism.
- Insufferable Genius: Newfangle can head into this at times; he's quite aware that he's the smartest guy around and sometimes ends up getting a big head about it. He's particularly prone to put upon airs around Crag, who really doesn't share his brains.
- It Will Never Catch On: Much of the humour of the series comes from this.
- Jerkass: Actually, most characters in the show fall into this trope with some regularity, some more than others. Alf and Coco are the biggest examples, but even the nicer characters like Newfangle and Snaggle can grab the Jerkass Ball on occasion. Pretty much the only one who never does is Kindhearted Simpleton Crag, who is Innocently Insensitive at worst.
- Jerkass Ball: Upon discovering shelter, Newfangle ignores Snaggle's request for a school and a residential home for the elderly in favour of being paid large sums of fruit. He late becomes a property baron, moving debts around the troop and spending time with a group of the local bimbos. Of course, this comes to bite him on the arse very hard.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: Newfangle's brother Crag isn't very bright and gets led around by his domineering mother, but he is generally a pleasant soul and one of the few members of the troop who doesn't bully his brother.
- Lady Macbeth: Coco is constantly scheming to have her eldest son Crag take the throne lost by his father. Her successor, Lucy, is a somewhat more benevolent example, helping her alpha male husband Alf keep the throne by less brutal means.
- My Beloved Smother: Coco is obsessed with getting her son Crag into his father's old position as alpha male, enabling her to become first lady again.
- Nice Guy: Newfangle is generally this, though he does have a tendency to slide into Insufferable Genius territory and start treating others like they're worth less than him. It gets really bad after he invents shelter (or mud turtles) and undergoes a level in Acquired Situational Narcissism.
- Posthumous Character: Newfangle and Crag's father, posthumously named Fangle, was the troop's Alpha before Alf. He died long before the start of the series, but his absence is still felt — mostly through Coco. who is still bitter about not being First Lady anymore.
- Portmanteau: A Running Gag of the series is Newfangle (often prompted by one of his troop members) coming up with a new word by combining two other words, which usually ents up as a joke in and of itself — such as "intelligent + ineffectual = intellectual."
- Punny Name: Newfangle is the son of Fangle (and is also a pun on the term "newfangled"), whilst Alf is the (alph)a male (though he was previously known as Nutjob). There is also Simian; an Expy of Simon Cowell.
- Regent for Life: Coco's secondary motive for Crag becoming alpha male is openly that she becomes first lady and takes up this role, though she also clearly wants him to achieve his potential as well.
- Smart Ball: Crag has a breakthrough and devises the idea of building mud shelters out of wood instead. Unfortunately to do this he cuts down most of the trees in the area, which were providing the troop's fruit (and, it is implied, will lead to the destruction of the rainforest many years on.)
- Soapbox Sadie: Snaggle. She's community-minded, feminist, and almost as future-oriented as Newfangle is — which means that she's similarly ahead of her time, so though she's never afraid of letting her opinions be heard, it's rare that she gets anyone to actually listes.
- The Unfavorite: Newfangle. His mother neglects and downright abuses him, focusing all her attention on Crag.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Newfangle just wants his mother to accept and love him the way she does Crag. Problem is, Coco doesn't really love any of her sons, she just sees them as tools to get her back her position as First Lady — and Crag is the one she thinks will succeed.
