Originally posted by Lat-Literal
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For me characterisation and dialogue took an irrecoverable nose dive the minute the son appeared on the doorstep, IMV. Mercifully I never saw any of the trailers. That said, Alison Steadman can do no wrong in my book.My life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson) -
Alison Steadman can do no wrong in my book. If it wasn't for the fact that I don't like the phrase, I'd call her a national treasure. I'm sticking with my view. The over 60s are overly privileged. 40-60 year old men are childish with more nostalgia about their younger days, not without justification, than any generation before or since. Women of the same age are instinctively grasping to an unprecedented extent. It's not a problem with the script. It is that those in all these age groups can't cope with it. As for the under 40s, they are a cultural desert which is lamely content with bucket loads of the f word served up with aggression and spite in overdrive. They will not be so much be against it as finding it all somewhat alien.Originally posted by Pianorak View Post
Sure, it's not Fawlty Towers or, thank god, Mrs Brown's Boys or The Thick of It, I'll grant you that, but in my humble opinion it's tracking Detectorists, Car Share and even Gavin and Stacey as well as more traditional series. They are not packed full of jokes but to varying degrees have merits. They align with slow tv. All we need now is slower radio and slower life.Last edited by Lat-Literal; 27-02-18, 18:44.Comment
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June Whitfield at 92 yes, a national treasure, but Alison Steadman at 71? Isn't she a bit too young for that? Actually not sure if there is a minimum age for that accolade.Originally posted by Lat-Literal View PostMy life, each morning when I dress, is four and twenty hours less. (J Richardson)Comment
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June Whitfield is a national treasure. The list of stalwart British comedy actresses is as incredibly impressive as the list of women MPs before 1983. Irene Handl, Hattie Jacques, Peggy Mount, Thora Hird, Pat Coombs, Hilda Braid, Yootha Joyce, Wendy Craig, Penelope Keith, Stephanie Cole, Julie Walters, Judi Dench, Kathy Staff, Patricia Routledge, Prunella Scales etc........it's just extraordinary. I doubt that the Americans could field anything like it. Stephen Fry was declared by some to be a national treasure when barely out of short trousers. Who else has been given the accolade? Geoff Hurst? Princess Diana? Stephen Hawking perhaps. Before those, it was from memory just Her Majesty the Queen and Winston Churchill.Originally posted by Pianorak View PostComment
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Tuned in to 'Last of the Summer Wine' this evening filling in before the match. Now that was great script writing, great and good humour!Comment
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I assume it must have been an earlyish episode - the last few years were recycled scripts relying on a splendid cast to cover over the cracks together with the endless canned laughter - rather like Still Open All Hours a pale shadow of the original .Comment
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'Mum' (BBC2) is much, much subtler and much, much funnier. What's not to admire about dialogue that can slip in the words 'inconsequentially inhomogeneous' to perfectly reflect the character of the dreadful woman who utters them?Comment
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Agreed LMcD - funny, often in a 'dig fingernails into arm of chair' sort of way, although slightly repetitive, and challenging even comic credibility that Lesley Manville's character would put up with the collection of gargoyles and morons who surround her!Originally posted by LMcD View Post"...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Agreed in turn! I find the character of Kelly irritatingly one-dimensional. However, there are plenty of compensatory moments of what is sometimes exquisitely painful comedy.Originally posted by Caliban View PostComment
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Comments about poor writing on Hold the Sunset will probably deter me from watching it. Watched Mum, being a fan of Lesley Manville. Enjoyable but might not stick with it. Great to see her career really blossoming in its later stages (opposite of John Cleese?). She was excellent with Jeremy Irons in Long Day's Journey into Night at Bristol Old Vic (now West End) and the film Phantom Thread. The best TV comedy I've seen recently was Channel Four's Derry Girls - also Catastrophe and Inside No 9.Comment
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I love Mum albeit they have to be careful to move the story on and not just repeat matters - Pauline is quite magnificently horrible and vulnerable all at the same time. Jason I find the difficult character - his father must have been as thick as two short planks as he differs so much from his Mum.Originally posted by LMcD View PostComment
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I sense the possibility of a funny performance from John Cleese in his irascible sarcastic mode but the script is p***poor. Come on writers, raise your game.Comment
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I haven't seen series one of 'Mum' but having watched the first couple of episodes of series two I intend to remedy that. Peter Mullan being so un-Peter Mullan is just brilliant, I think. 'Mum' reminds me a bit of 'Him and Her' which I also really enjoyed, but that's a different thread.Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
Re the Cleese programme I would have watched a bit more but Mrs C hit the 'off' button suggesting 'we don't want to watch this rubbish, do we! It's so annoying!' 
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Two years ago, Cleese wroteOriginally posted by gradus View Post
There’s no way I want to work in TV, especially at the BBC. I have a nasty feeling a large proportion of the commissioning editors have no idea what they’re doing
Is he being deliberately unfunny in this thing, then? Could he do better if he chose?
I doubt it. Cleese hasn't been funny for years. Remember this. He wrote it himself.Comment
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By the same token, the Crane brothers' mother must have been very different from their father. Proof, were it needed, that unlike poles attract!Originally posted by Barbirollians View PostComment
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