| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.226.105 |
Genius. "Is it about eggy bread . . . ?" | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.168.160.202 |
Brilliant! Better than Mike Leigh. (My family think I'm a bit like Jim.) Liked the play on words, e.g. Jim sitting on the shit pan when they discovered they hadn't got a chip pan! | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
It never strains for comedy. Everything that happens can happen. That's quite an achievement. The game-playing scene was worthy of Ayckbourn. Superb. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.168.160.202 |
Ayckbourn, indeed, as well as Mike Leigh (Abigails' Party), Galton & Simpson ... Beckett laced with Dickens... And Dan Brown's golden egg cup. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
Have you seen the invented board game scene in Ayckborun's The Norman Conquests, Des? Brilliant. But that quiz and discussion about the golden egg cup was just as brilliant. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
The Royle Family is everything John Godber should be, and isn't. | ||
| Stephen Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.17.252.126 |
I agree, it was by far the highlight of Christmas Night's telly for me. Sat watching it with my Mum & Dad (both in their 70s) and all three of us were in kinks! One British sitcom I forgot to include on the list of greats - for shame! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.168.160.202 |
I can't recall it, Gary, but I'm sure I know exactly what you mean osmotically. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
There was a great TV adaptation of tNC in the 70s, Des: Penelope Wilton, Tom Conti, Penelope Keith, Richard Briers. Three plays, each set in a different room in the same house: when a character leaves a room in one play s/he turns up in another in the next. All the events are interrelated in a mind-boggling way. Fab. No, now I think, The Royle Family doesn't hit those heights, but it's still damned good. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.168.160.202 |
Yes, I remember the production, Gary, but not the specific playing of a game. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.202.180.84 |
I just finished watching it. Yes, it was superb. So much better than that special when they went to Denise and Dave's for Christmas dinner: that was tainted by a pointless element of farce. But this one is a joy from start to finish. We had to pause it to finish laughing when they were talking about Terry Waite spending 5 years chained to a radiator, and Barbara said "Well at least he would've been warm." | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
I like The New Soda episode. But yes, this was better. Especially Dave having a thing for the sat-nav woman. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
Soda??? Sofa. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
The Royle Family was the best thing on TV this Christmas, wasn't it? Absolutely hilarious - I was crying with laughter at several points. Effortless, beautifully observed comedy. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.158.59.45 |
Me and my family have been mawkishly using the 'Morning Dave' device all over Christmas, ad absurdum. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.185.153 |
Well, the best thing on TV this Christmas for me was Wallander. But that was not precisely a bundle of laughs. Grim even by my standards, and I suspect even those of Zed and Paul. Yes, we're talking grim here. Also benefited from not being a whodunit: the answers were all there within the first half-hour, the only question was how the situation could be resolved. More suspense than mystery, and more melancholic despair than suspense. This kind of bleak, understated crime TV is hard to make, and its success is greatly heartening. OK, commercial over. Back to Dave and his eggy bread. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
The Royle Family has never done anything for me. It was on at my parent's house while I was there and I don't think it made me crack a smile. It just leaves me cold. Same with Phoenix Nights which is the same style of non-humour. IMHO | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.10.7.83 |
You mean it doesn't have enough sniggery juvenile puns in it? Your favourites.  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.158.59.45 |
Re The Wallander, didn't its main actress commit suicide recently in real life? (Someone told me). | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
Can I complain to the moderator? this nasty man called gary keeps picking on me  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Joel, I recorded Wallander - or maybe the new one next week? One of them, anyway. I heard good things about the last season, but missed every episode. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.207.204 |
Des, yes, I'm afraid that's true. |