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Post by Bungle on Dec 20, 2007 22:48:09 GMT
So I'm working my way through this: www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=567407It's very difficult to decide which is the worst as they're all so terrible, and interchangable. But I think that 'Only When I Laugh' is probably the one that is laziest and most laugh-free (so far), while Mollie Sugden's 'My Husband and I' loses points for having a cliched singing happy black slave tealady straight out of a classical Hollywood musical, as well as seemingly not having a single joke. Honestly, not a single actual joke, even the audience seem a little embarrassed to be laughing at the waiter mixing the white and red wine, realising that this is the punchline, and it's not going to get better. We all know that 'On The Buses' is awful, but it's actually a highlight here, with the Christmas-dinner-setting-the-kitchen-on-fire gag nicely excecuted. 'Watching', meanwhile, is disappointing mainly because I remember watching it in my youth and (like most sitcoms here) it signposts its jokes from miles away. So, can anyone think of any high and low-lights of ITV comedy? Highlight for me must be 'My Wonderful Life' (plus 'Rising Damp') while lowlights are 'Only When I Laugh' and, of course, 'Holding the Baby'. I shall update this thread as I continue, mainly for my own amusement. |
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Post by Bungle on Dec 20, 2007 23:32:50 GMT
'That's My Boy' actually did the old 'the boss is coming to dinner!' plot. Poor Mollie Sugden.
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richdidnt
Su Pollard
Rabbit not included.
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Post by richdidnt on Dec 20, 2007 23:52:15 GMT
So, can anyone think of any high and low-lights of ITV comedy? Highlight for me must be 'My Wonderful Life' (plus 'Rising Damp') while lowlights are 'Only When I Laugh' and, of course, 'Holding the Baby'. The only ITV comedy I can ever remember liking was 'Watching' although I must have been about 10 when that was on, so I probably just liked the accents. The Upper Hand is the only other ITV comedy I can even think of off the top of my head, and the only thing I remember about that was crying when Honor Blackman didn't cast spells. For some reason I always thought I was tuning into Bewitched. (This was also when I was young, these days I only cry at things with Kellie Martin in, curse you ER!) |
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Post by audrey notwhatsheusedtobe on Dec 21, 2007 11:18:33 GMT
'Watching' always gave me the creeps. I totally loved 'Only When I Laugh' when I was a kid though, even though Bungle's right, it probably wasn't remotely funny. I really liked Peter Bowles and his fancy ways. What was wrong with them anyway? They were all in hospital for 3 years! I've caught some bits of early 'On the Buses' lately and it's not as bad as I'd imagined - it's actually quite an interesting snippet of a social history at times.
Overall though, I've always felt that sitcom Christmas specials are vastly inferior to the regular episodes and actually rather depressing.
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Post by Merce on Dec 21, 2007 11:31:25 GMT
I had an unsettling crush on Reece Dinsdale because of Home To Roost.
In all his ginger, bouffant snood-wearing glory.....
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fused
Su Pollard
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Post by fused on Dec 21, 2007 19:36:33 GMT
The only ITV comedy I can ever remember liking was 'Watching' although I must have been about 10 when that was on, so I probably just liked the accents. I was about six or seven when "Watching" was on, and I do remember always liking it for Emma Wray's accent. I don't remember much else about it though. There was a joke about radiators once I think. There was "Barbara" starring Gwen Taylor as the title character, a bossy middle aged woman. Sherrie Hewson was in it as well, as Barbara's sister. It was on ITV a lot, although I don't know if it's because they made a lot of series or just repeated it all the time. Probably both. I think it was one of the first things Mark Benton was in, and he's done quite well for himself since. "Babes In The Wood" starring Denise Van Outen, that bloke who advertised Flash Excel and I think Samantha Janus as well. I suppose it was trying to cash in on the whole late '90s "ladette" thing. |
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Post by Bungle on Dec 21, 2007 19:52:49 GMT
Saw 'Hallelujah' with Thora Hird last night - terrible, but seasonal and is one of those fun reworkings of A Christmas Carol, a la Blackadder, so was quite watchable. Will watch an extra couple tonight and keep you all informed. Can't wait, huh?
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Post by jetsetwilly on Dec 21, 2007 22:44:14 GMT
Man About The House has a sort of car-crash addictive quality to it - you can watch it between your fingers.
And I have always had a soft spot for Surgical Spirit.
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Post by Bungle on Dec 21, 2007 23:11:10 GMT
'Two's Company' has passed by, and that was OK really, with a couple of nice jokes. 'All This and Christmas Too' is a very watchable Sid James one-off while 'Billy Liar' was oddly progressive and good fun. I gave up during 'Stanley Baxter's Christmas Box' though. Too smug for me.
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Post by Devil In Your Car on Dec 27, 2007 1:31:03 GMT
I loved "Duty Free" when I was little. It made middle-age, marriage and foreign holidays seem so exciting. I was probably too young to grasp the significance of the class divide between the two couples but the sexual tension between Keith Barron and the posh lady seemed real enough. Apparently it was all filmed in Leeds.
The only episode I remember clearly is when someone ate (or maybe thought they had) a dead person's ashes after they were tipped over a balcony and onto their dinner. Which is actually quite horrific if you think about it.
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Post by sinistersponge on Dec 27, 2007 17:56:12 GMT
I loved "Duty Free" when I was little. It made middle-age, marriage and foreign holidays seem so exciting. I was probably too young to grasp the significance of the class divide between the two couples but the sexual tension between Keith Barron and the posh lady seemed real enough. Apparently it was all filmed in Leeds. The only episode I remember clearly is when someone ate (or maybe thought they had) a dead person's ashes after they were tipped over a balcony and onto their dinner. Which is actually quite horrific if you think about it. I watched an inexplicable amount of ITV comedy when I was younger: Fresh Fields ("Only Sonia!") and spin-off French Fields, In Loving Memory, The Gaffer ("It's The Gaffer!"), Up The Elephant and Round The Castle (hang my head in shame), Full House, Never The Twain, Foxy Lady, Tripper's Day and on into Slinger's Day... It's a form of education, I suppose. |
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Post by pauliepoos on Dec 27, 2007 18:06:11 GMT
I loved Me And My Girl. You can never have enough Joan Sanderson, RIP.
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Post by jetsetwilly on Dec 27, 2007 20:51:11 GMT
Oh, I'd forgotten about Me and My Girl! I loved that programme. Where is Richard O'Sullivan? He just vanished.
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Post by audrey notwhatsheusedtobe on Dec 27, 2007 22:57:07 GMT
Where is Richard O'Sullivan? He just vanished. The David Essex of sitcom! One of my earliest televisual memories is of him in Dick Turpin. Highwayman-themed drama: you just don't get quality like that anymore. According to Wikipedia, he now lives in a retirement home for actors and performers. There has to be an ITV sitcom in that surely? |
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Post by Devil In Your Car on Dec 27, 2007 23:39:13 GMT
Isn't he Sarah Cracknell's father?
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Post by audrey notwhatsheusedtobe on Dec 27, 2007 23:46:46 GMT
Isn't he Sarah Cracknell's father? Regretfully, Wikipedia says "no". |
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Post by pauliepoos on Dec 28, 2007 0:00:08 GMT
He did play her father in the I Was Born On Christmas Day video wedding scene.
The actress who played Liz, the black secretary, died a few years ago - she was only in her 30s. I always notice her in An Audience With Victoria Wood sat next to the Ridley girl who wasn't the Paris Hilton of her day.
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Post by audrey notwhatsheusedtobe on Dec 28, 2007 1:40:25 GMT
He did play her father in the I Was Born On Christmas Day video wedding scene. Oh dear I am a silly sausage! |
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