The Pretend Men – Police Cops in Space

By Ron Bingham

The Pretend Men – Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson and Tom Turner – have been playing these characters in Police Cops (which is on earlier in the evening in the same venue) for a few years now, but in this show they have added a new dimension, by taking their story out of the atmosphere to new and exciting worlds.

The story line involves one Sammy Johnson, the son of Jimmy Johnson, the greatest Police Cop in space, who was killed by an evil robot. Sammy is the last space cop but he’s ended up as a space bum and now the robot is coming after him because he is the only thing standing in the way of ultimate robot domination. Can Sammy get to Earth with his slightly warped pilot and a demented service droid, get the training from the Police Cop sensei, and defeat the evil robot? Only the narrator knows.

The energy this trio expend in Police Cops in Space is just mind blowing and the props are brilliantly imaginative. There is a lot of physical comedy, some role swapping, a couple of scenes with very tiny costumes, a bit of dancing and an action packed finale.

The Saturday night audience were raucous and only too ready to laugh and even gave the show a standing ovation at the finish. I haven’t seen the original Police Cops so I don’t know if there is much crossover and there were some in-jokes/references that went over my head, but this show was a masterpiece of top notch action comedy that I would heartily recommend.

Police Cops in Space is on at Assembly George Square Studios until August 26
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/police-cops-in-space