Mackenzie Crook’s acclaimed comedy-drama ‘Small Prophets’ arrives on Apple TV, blending mundane suburban life with surreal fantasy and deep emotional resonance.
When Michael Sleep opens his garden shed to check on the jars containing tiny, humanoid homunculi, he isn’t looking for world domination. He is looking for the truth about the woman who walked out of his life seven years ago.
This is the beating heart of *Small Prophets*. the six-part comedy-drama created by Mackenzie Crook that arrives on Apple TV on October 7. The series, which originally aired on BBC Two on February 9, marks a strategic shift for the streamer. For the first time. Apple has acquired international rights to a finished production rather than commissioning the project from the start.
It is a rare move, but one that feels like a calculated bet. The series holds a 100% critics’ score on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer, anchored by a career-reinvigorating performance from Pierce Quigley. Quigley plays Michael. a man living in a Manchester close. surrounded by rooms filled with towering stacks of boxes and a permanent 1970s Christmas diorama. His life of quiet resignation at a hardware store is interrupted only by his sharp-witted younger colleague Kacey. played by Lauren Patel. and the prying eyes of neighbors Clive and Bev—played by John Pointing and Sophie Willan—who treat the street like a live-action social media feed.
Crook. who first captured public attention as the awkward Gareth Keenan in the original *The Office*. has spent the last decade carving out a niche for slow-burn. melancholic comedy. Following his BAFTA-winning series *Detectorists*, he once again finds profound depth in social outcasts. Here, that eccentricity is literalized through fantasy. Michael’s father. Brian—played by Monty Python legend Michael Palin. who returned to television at 82 after being captivated by the script—lives in a care home with dementia. When Michael discovers his father’s journals. filled with records of homunculi capable of speaking only the truth. his desperate search for his missing girlfriend. Clea. begins in earnest.
The tension of the show lies in the friction between the extraordinary and the banal. The homunculi, designed by the stop-motion experts at McKinnon and Saunders—the same studio behind *Corpse Bride* and *Fantastic Mr. Fox*—are rendered with a tactile blend of practical effects and CGI. They feel physical and immediate. grounding the show’s more surreal detours. such as a rabbit-shaped stain on the pavement or a mysterious meteor strike. in a tangible reality.
Beyond the magic, the series is a study in human connection. The friendship between Michael and Kacey avoids romantic cliches. offering instead a portrait of two people trapped by their circumstances and age gaps. finding solace in one another’s company. Characters like the pedantic shop boss Gordon or a neighbor who inadvertently purchases a green paisley carpet believing it is AstroTurf serve as reminders of Crook’s eye for the absurdity of ordinary life.
While the show occasionally leans into a milder. more earnest tone that may feel juvenile to fans of darker satire. its emotional stakes remain fixed. It is a story about the messy reality of grief and the hope that lingers in the quietest corners of the suburbs. With a second season already greenlit by the BBC. *Small Prophets* stands as a reminder that sometimes the most profound magic is found not in grand gestures. but in the people who dare to live just slightly outside the lines society draws for them.
Small Prophets Apple TV Mackenzie Crook Pierce Quigley Michael Palin British comedy streaming TV series