Ten Percent

Ten Percent is the British remake of French hit Dix Pour Cent (or Call My Agent! here) about Parisian agents scrambling to keep their clients happy. Netflix bought it from its French makers and it proved to be hugely popular across the international streaming platform. The British version is written by Jack Morton, of W1A and TwentyTwelve, and is packed with a cast of similarly heavyweight players. Jack Davenport plays Jonathan Nightingale at the fictional talent agency, Nightingale Hart, whose life becomes more complicated with a family tragedy and the arrival of a new assistant to one of the agents. The characters are directly lifted from the French version and the storylines appear almost identical (accidental incest is portrayed in a surprisingly jaunty way). Veteran class acts Jim Broadbent and Maggie Steed appear, and Helena Bonham-Carter has a big cameo, wafting around in steampunk sunglasses like a 19^th century mad professor (her off-duty style). Lydia Leonard is ambitious, commitment-phobe Rebecca Fox and Prasanna Puwanarajah is Dan Bala, an aspiring actor-turned-agent. 

It’s all very slick, with tinkling shots of Soho and capering piano music. As it fizzes along nicely, there are some gentle jokes involving unintended nipple pasties and the like. A particular highlight is Rebecca Humphries as Jonathan’s pathologically adoring assistant, Julia, who is self-deprecating to a deranged degree. Her performance is genuinely funny and owes a lot to Rebecca Front as a sublimely awkward neighbour in the overlooked BBC sitcom, Ideal. Tim McInnery is both charming and heartbreaking as a vintage actor struggling with sobriety and a lack of roles; he is the embodiment of affability and a joy to watch.

These are good points, but somewhere along the way it starts to sag. The pace does not thrum in quite the way the upbeat music suggests. It strays into mawkish territory and this undertow of sentimentality washes away any possibility of biting satire. It was a huge risk to include the storyline about the receptionist actually being an extremely talented actress, who has been right there under their noses all along – some might say it was an ill-thought-out risk.  In order to be believable and avoid coming off as silly, the actress playing the character actually has to be good, otherwise the whole conceit falls down. Sadly, Fola Evans-Akingbola, who plays Zoe Spencer, is not: her timing is off and, in a cast of seasoned naturalistic players with a script trying to be all about the back and forth, this does stand out. Dan goes to see her play in the back room of a pub and is blown away: look, here she is at a kitchen sink, crying! For ages! And here she is ending the play with a speech in, wow wow wow, an American accent. Dan is reduced to tears and signs her on the spot. It could be that this is another subtle joke, but it seems to declare “heartfelt”. It’s at this point the show loses it: the whole plot point is clichéd and brings down any feeling of ironic winks at the audience as there is a glaring lack of self-awareness.

W1A and TwentyTwelve are works of understated genius that excel in authenticity and absurdity. Being a remake, Ten Percent seems to have been lost in translation. 

Jessica Wall

Ten Percent is released on Amazon Prime Video on 28^th April 2022.

Watch the trailer for Ten Percent here: