Matt

Matt exists mostly at the other end of a phone line, the voice of Steve Coogan's professional life intruding on a leisurely restaurant tour of the English countryside. He is brisk, transatlantic, entirely business — a reminder that somewhere beyond the food and the impressions, actual work and actual ambition are still waiting.

Kerry Shale never needs a scene to make an impression; a phone call is enough. The character works precisely because he's kept at a distance, a clipped American voice cutting through Coogan and Brydon's meandering banter to reassert that real careers, real stakes, exist outside this holiday of impressions and tasting menus.