Gareth O'Callaghan: Small Prophets shows us how the monotony of life can still make space for magic

We were told as children that magic isn’t real. We’ve been the poorer for that ever since

Lauren Patel, Michael Sleep, and Mackenzie Crook star in Small Prophets.

Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol once said: “The human obsession with purpose is merely a distraction from the absurdity of existence”. Let’s face it — life is absurd, to the point where it makes little sense when you weigh up its pros and cons. We’re all just wandering in circles. Existence is a loop. Hence our obsession with purpose.

What we’re searching for is a magical realism that hides itself somewhere in the humdrum of daily life, only to pop up unexpectedly when we thought it was lost.