5 ROFL moments with 2022 SAFTA nominee GIL

Grobbies Internasionale Lughawe (Grobbies International Airport – Grobbies is a play on the surname of the airport’s owner, Grobler), abbreviated as GIL, will have you giggling from the first episode when the airport’s new manager Barry (Bennie Fourie) arrives and snaps a selfie at the GIL Lughawe signpost.

This is Barry’s dream job! Before this upgrade, he was the manager of Wollie Se Woelige Glywaterpark (a waterpark). The fact that the GIL signpost falls off shortly after should’ve given him an indication that he’s headed for his career’s lost luggage bin rather than the VIP lounge. But nothing can get Barry down. As Kreef (Frank Opperman), GIL’s air traffic controller, once shouts at him: “Do you always have to be so damn optimistic?”

Imagine a cross between the series The Office and the Afrikaans mockumentary Hotel, sprinkled with a bit of the old Fawlty Towers, and you get GIL – just better, as proven by the nine SAFTA (South African Film & Television Awards) nominations the series received, from best achievement in makeup and hairstyling, to best wardrobe, sound, art direction, directing, best supporting actor for Frank Opperman as well as best actress for Ashely de Lange (Rietjie, the information lady), and Bennie himself for his brilliant turn as Barry.

Every episode feels like a first-class experience, even if the staff will leave you wondering how it’s even possible for this airport to exist, with Kreef smashing golf balls from his operating tower. And Barry has a mission: He wants GIL to be named the best airport in the West-West Cape. And if he has to make up words for it, train the staff and put up with the obnoxiously funny Clive Grobler (yes, the big boss’s son, played by Hendrik Conje) who thinks he actually owns the airport, he’ll do it.

Oh, and they are both in love with Rietjie. But nothing will stand in the way of Barry’s gilliant day (his smush-word for GIL and brilliant).

Here are 5 of the funniest moments in the series – but, mayday mayday, the series ends on a cliffhanger.

1. Lurking lion – episode 4

In episode 4, Letricia (roll that “r”, she likes it), played by Michelle Burgers, announces from her “broadcasting plane” that a lion has escaped from a nearby reserve after a storm. The two baggage handlers, Prof (Gerswhin Mias) and Tips (Ruan Wessels), discover a lion skin in the lost and found baggage pile, and concoct a plan to go home early. After all, if someone sees the lion, surely for their own safety everyone should go home?

Armed with a speaker with lion sounds, Tips hides in the veld with the suit. But the plan backfires spectacularly when a flight with a couple of international tourists arrives and Barry tells them that everyone has to spend the night at the airport. Prof can’t help but play lion sounds to keep everyone entertained, while it gives Barry and Rientjie the opportunity to get a bit closer.

2. Baby blues – episode 5

Barry knows it will be a plus in the best airport competition if they all have first aid training. But when the trainer doesn’t arrive in episode 5, Barry decides he will train the team. He’s printed a guide from the internet, so of course he knows what he is doing. Letricia volunteers to be the one pretending to go into labour.

It’s a scream – and all eyes travel to Kreef when Letricia puts on such a good show that it seems the fake baby will be popping any time. After all, it’s hard to miss their not-so-secret rendezvous … And don’t miss the end of the episode when someone really does go into labour and while Barry is passed out cold, the team steps up to deliver baby Grobbie.

3. Give me a gun! – episode 7

Sure, GIL is quite safe – except for that lion, which turned out to be real. But Princess (Vele Manenje), the formidable Xhosa security guard, isn’t satisfied with a mere stick to keep the peace. In episode 7 she wants a gun, and when Barry refuses, she asks her cousin to pretend to attack and rob everyone at the airport.

But while Barry and Rientjie are tied up together – literally – Letricia doesn’t fall for the burglar’s tricks. Being an actor herself she knows a fake when she sees it, so she decides to give him acting lessons. But just as Letricia asks the man to really come at her and grab her, lover Kreef walks in and attacks him with his golf club. Princess might not get her gun, but there’s always round two.

4. Viral virus – episode 9

What to do to keep the girl of your dreams away from your airport manager? Invent a new virus. A strain of Covid, but from the Congo and it’s so, so much worse. Keep your four metres of social distance in episode 9, please.

Clive can’t come up with an excuse fast enough why he wants Barry and Rientjie to stand away from each other, and Kongo-vid is invented on the spot – complete with tests. Sneaky Clive uses pregnancy tests – claiming that the pregnancy test people helped to invent the rapid test, as Kongo-vid is present in the urine.

So everyone has to take a test … but why isn’t Barry’s test the only one that comes back positive?

5. Dead silence – episode 11

It’s D Day in episode 11. The committee is here to assess the airport to see which place they will get in the competition. Everything is in place…uh, except for a dead passenger. Tips and Prof notice someone in a wheelchair who has missed his flight, but upon closer inspection, he is what we in the airline industry might call Dead On Time. They have to hide a body from the inspecting committee as they tour the grounds of GIL.

The only one not in on what’s really going on is Clive, but he can smell something fishy (not yet dead). Kreef has a cold one as he chills with the corpse in his tower, and when the committee asks whether the tower smelled like alcohol, Letricia is there to defend her man by inventing a new perfume. As for the dead passenger… No more spoilers!

Bonus – Strike for your right! – episode 13

A pretend strike to keep Rientjie from leaving ends up in a proper strike. Princess demands her gun, Kreef wants to play golf all day, Tips wants to smoke weed wherever he gets the urge, and Letricia wants to read those steamy novels out (very) loud as entertainment for the passengers. Barry will have to think on his feet to stop his angry mob of employees and get Rientjie on her flight in time.

All episodes of GIL Season 1 are streaming on Showmax.