"Stacey Among the Mormons": Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over, BBC Review

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Break out the sofa bed – Stacey’s coming to stay. There she’s sat on the iPlayer splash page, cross-legged among pink sofa cushions, hands out flat either side, ginger hair bunned, scalp-wrenching Essex facelift framing moggy eyes, crinkled nose and smirk. Oh, Stacey! Safe to you, Stacey!

You can watch Stacey Dooley of Luton and Big Brother go stay over with crackpots representing different subcultures. And am I ironically above it all? Only in my style, not in reality – the style is a defence against the charge of liking something, whereas in reality I’m concerned to feel better than everyone else, to oversee universally and wryly the mass culture. What could I talk about sincerely? It would still be a deliberate style choice, to announce me as heartened, touched, only by the coolest of things which, by the way, not many people know about: the coastal foraging vlogs of “The Fish Locker” on YouTube, say, or the way graffiti artist ABUSE has a tag that’s meta, like it draws attention to how he’s abusing what he’s graffiti-ing, and that’s self-referential, moreso than say “Wizz” or “Blammo”, and to be seen in Dorney, Hayes, and other places in between – like a real-life videogame easter egg, so look out!

Anyway, in Stacey’s episode called “Mormons,” season 1 episode 5, after the “sizzler” – that 1-minute reel that’s the same in each episode of a series, here consisting of: an overdub of Stacey’s: “I’m fascinated by modern family life, & I wanna find out about Britain’s more unusual households”; thrumming, happy-go-lucky violin, twinkly piano in the backing track; unusual householder voxpops: “A throuple [pronounced ‘thrupple’] is 3 people in a meaningful relationship,” “We don’t recognise marriage between same-sex couples” [music skips a beat] – that was the Mormons – after the sizzler, Stacey’s on the way to meet the Prestons in Greater Manchester.

We learn that Mormons’ belief that Jesus appeared in America after the crucifixion has attracted both cri-i-cism and ridicule. Then our Luton lass gets let in by Lindsay Preston, and meets hubby Mark and kids Adam, Charlie, and JJ too. Lindsay offers a drink, but “I don’t have tea or coffee, sooo…” “Why don’t you have tea or coffee?” coos Stacey, flared nostrils, over-egged grin of fascination. Oh, Stacey, look at me male-gazing all over you and turning your facial expressions into judgmental turns of phrase. I’M SORRY!

“Ehmmm… they’re just not good for the body really,” coos Lindsay.

Congressing over the marble-top counter, Stacey asks the fam “what are the differences,” for somebody who knows so little about Mormonism and ya know the church. We pan to the boys, and Adam, eldest Adam, for all the world a lad in Adidas hoodie and skinfade, says “Ehh… it’s not that different, you just try… just try and be good really.” “Yeah,” hoarsely, proudly, softly, says dad, whose head hair’s gone down to his chin, and who’s crinkle-eyed & tired-wise, & ribald-wary of this documentary, and sporting.

The crux of the documentary as Stacey says while unpacking is “how you balance the sort of typical, normal, teenage loaf with being a responsible, religious individual… I can imagine that’s hard at times.” Then cut to Lindsay bringing dinner out the oven.

There’s a Mormon party at the church, for churchgoing kids aged between 14 and 18. “Macarena” is on, the disco lights are red, green, blue. Stepping out for some air, Stacey’s all, “I’d have probably come to something like this when I was… 12, 13. 17, no chance. I was down the town, like proper town, when I was 17. I was clubbing when I was 15.” Her and eldest Adam talk, he in red North Face puffer, and he admits that abstaining from sex is something he finds hard. Then he goes to play football for the under-19s local Waterloo team – his dad manages the team. Adam is the sole Latter Day Saint in his team. In their touchline natter, Lindsay reveals that Adam after college’ll be off to “serve mission” for 2 years. Like when they go to Africa in the musical The Book of Mormon.

Then he’s shadowing, on the high street, a couple of Mormons on placement in Manchester (from Idaho, and Ghana). Adam’s just signed up to be a missionary, explains Stacey, and Adam says “yeah, yeah,” nodding hyper-Churchill, well a fast loll, so nervous red embarrassed but also internally laughing – a cheeky chappy, a proper LAD.

At the end, after a final breakfast chat (Charlie and JJ school-blazered, brioche on their plates; Adam with hood up, hunkered over Cheerios), Stacey departs. “Adam, let me know where you end up,” she calls back. And in a small box against black background (landscape smartphone footage), mum, dad, and Adam are stood before a gathering, and Adam’s reading out the news of where he’ll go. “Aaw, that’s mint,” he says, and mum & dad are already beaming. “You are hereby called to serve as a missionary on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to labour in the Zambia, Lusaka region.”