The State of Christmas Television in 2025

 It would appear, from the dreadful ratings for Christmas television, mostly on BBC 1, that the British public has turned their back on the national broadcaster. Why do you suppose? Could it be the number of scandals that have engulfed the BBC in the last few years? The scandal of Jimmy Savile? The more recent business of the editing of a speech by President Donald Trump, to make it seem as if he had something different to what he actually said? The influence of 'woke' ideology? Or is it that most households don't watch traditional, linear television, that is, television that is broadcast 'live', in a schedule, one programme after another, at a set time and day? You can watch a wide range of television on streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, as well as the catch-up services which are connected to the traditional television services, such as BBC iPlayer, 5, Channel 4 , Apple TV, etc. You can binge-watch programmes, if you so desire, because all the episodes are available online, meaning you don't have to wait for the next episode to be available a week later, which was the model for television in the past, probably no more than 25-30 years ago.

In years gone by, probably in the 1960s and 1970s, when I was in my teens and early 20s, you could always rely on television to provide a wide range of programmes, across a very wide selection of genres, from children's television, classic drama adaptations, theatre adaptations, contemporary drama, light entertainment, situation comedy, arts, music and a whole range of inbetween material. On a Saturday, you could start with sport, with Grandstand, which ran in the afternoon, then something for children, Basil Brush, and dare I say 'Jim'll Fix It,' (which now has a rather unpleasant scandal attached to it, so I will leave well alone.) Doctor Who, followed later by 'The Generation Game,' which had Bruce Forsyth as presenter in it's earlier days, followed by comedy from 'The Two Ronnies' and later still, probably some form of drama to round off the evening.

The buildup to television was intense in those decades, and it's probably the same today. I can remember, during September, a new television 'season' being unveiled. There would be returning series, 'The Good Life', 'Fawlty Towers', 'Rising Damp' and a whole raft of sitcoms which were born during this period. 'Dad's Army' was still running and continued on well into the 1970s. Then, at Christmas, we would get Christmas specials of these shows and not, of course, forgetting the legendary 'Morecambe and Wise' show which was a huge ratings winner on Christmas Day. 

ITV had its fair share of hit shows, such as 'Upstairs, Downstairs', 'Brideshead Revisited' and classic comedies such as 'Man About The House' and 'Please Sir.' And, to compete with 'Morecambe and Wise and 'The Two Ronnies', they had shows fronted by Stanley Baxter.

What do we now have that comes even close to any of these television shows? I can think of none. I suppose we have had some big hitters, such as 'Drop The Dead Donkey', 'Father Ted' 'Last of The Summer Wine' and 'Keeping Up Appearances,' but these have been off our screens for several decades.

I admit, it's very difficult to compare television from 40-50 years ago with today's offerings. For a start, there were only 4 channels in 1992, when Channel 4 came on the scene. Today, we have endless channels on digital platforms, such as Freeview and Sky. (Other providers are available.) That is, not to mention streaming platforms, such as Disney+, Netflix, Paramount and Amazon. 

Looking at the schedules for the Christmas period, there was nothing I could honestly say grabbed my attention and have me watching. The, by now, traditional 'Strictly Come Dancing' edition. The rating for this were poor, compared with previous years. Let's be honest, I think this show has run it's course. It has also had it fair share of controversy. To run for 20 years is pretty good. All things, particularly television shows, must come to an end sooner or later.  Compared to any of the Morecambe and Wise or Two Ronnies shows, there is no comparison. To make those big Christmas shows from the 1970's you have to consider the time and energy it must have taken to produce them, let alone the cost. Then, rehearsing, set-building, and probably filming months ahead of studio filming. Today, it seems that nobody in traditional television has any imagination to produce anything, except endless game shows and reality programmes, or anything with 'celebrity' in the title.

Late Night

Thursday 13th January.1.05 a.m. Here I am at my MacBook, which seems to be working relatively well, allowing me to sit and write this blog post. Another case of not being able to sleep. I have been doing domestic chores, washing up last night's things from making my meal and generally tidying the kitchen. I don't like having piles of dirty plates, pots and pans left in the sink. I think it goes back to being a temp and doing kitchen jobs in various units around Bedford in the 1990s. Kept the bills paid and a rich source of material for my writing. 

There is noise outside. I think it's on or around Oldbrook Green. The sound of what I think is a motorbike or scooter. Revving engines and bursts of engine noise. At this time of night, it shouldn't be allowed. People want to sleep, so why aren't the police intervening and preventing it? It's really not acceptable.

7.15 p.m. I have been to get my hair cut at Central Barbers this morning. I had booked online yesterday, which made it a good deal easier, even paying. I will have to get Alfie booked in at The Groom Room as he is in real need of a haircut himself.

10.25 p.m. Another sleepless night. Does it really matter? Not really. I've been watching an episode of 'My Family', the BBC sitcom with Robert Lindsey and Zoe Wanamaker. All the episodes are on iPlayer and I'm working though all the episodes. It's not exactly the most original of sitcoms, but it's their acting and general involvement which lifts it out of the rut of a lot of what you'd call studio sitcoms into something special. I think it's their chemistry as actors which makes it.  If I have a niggle with it, how come their son, Nick, played by Kris Marshall, who must be in his 20's, is still living at home and doesn't have a proper job? His career has certainly taken off since he was in this show, which finished production in around 2010, plus or minus a year or so, and has since starred in such television shows as 'Death In Paradise'.   There is virtually no sitcom on terrestrial television that comes anywhere near the quality of this show, and certainly no as there used to be once upon a time, or, say, the standard of something like 'Fawlty Towers' or 'The Good Life.' They used to make sitcoms in small batches, of, say, six or seven.  Modern television seems to demand a run of perhaps twenty or more episodes, rather in the fashion of American television. They usually write their shows with a group of writers and not with a single writer or even a couple of writers, which is how 'Steptoe and Son' was written by Galton and Simpson. In fact, generally, television has become really dull and unimaginative, something I've discussed elsewhere on this blog.

Friday. 10.15 a.m. Some dear soul in one of the flats beneath me is coughing. It isn't for a short period, but going on continuously. I have an idea it's because they smoke. So I have to be sympathetic so someone with a cough who smokes? No, definitely not. It's self-inflicted. Why not merely get some cough sweets to suck or some cough mixture of some sort or just drink something to relieve it. It's just becoming annoying and interrupting my writing and general peace and quiet.

I've done my washing for the week. Friday is always washing day. I had the machine on a good deal earlier than normal, around 7.30. I have purchased a garment steamer and I've been trying it out on one of my Marks and Spencer polo shirts. It certainly does it's job and gets rid of any wrinkles in a garment and saves having to get the ironing board out, plug in the iron and the stand and iron. I'm fine doing this job, but it still takes a lot of effort. 

Quite sunny and bright out, but frosty when I took Alfie out. 

Bank Holiday Monday

Sunday. 7.00 a.m. It's a cool and misty morning. 

I've now taken Alfie out twice, the first at around 6.15 a.m. and then 9.30 a.m. He did his usual staring at me and what I call 'clucking' sort of chicken noises, which generally alerts me to to the fact that he needs to go out. So, we trotted down Strudwick Drive (I say trotted, but more of an amble and excuse to sniff virtually every leaf and blade of grass and we went along (I mean Alfie and not me, you understand.) He did need to 'go' as I politely refer to 'it' and 'it' was disposed of in its biodegradable bag and put in the bin at the entrance to Oldbrook Green. We walked home and I decided to sit down and read my book. It was then that Alfie began to clank around in his feeding bowl, which is hidden behind the sofa under my desk, along with his drinking water bowl. I attempted to ignore him, but it was virtually impossible, so I put my book down and thought I'd put some food in his bowl. He usually only gets fed in the evening, but on this occasion I thought he must be hungry, attempting to glean a morsel of food from the bowl, which is why he was pushing it about on the floor and making the clanking sound. I put a dry mixer in as I usually do and then food from one of the pouches I keep stored in the kitchen. When I put it back down for him on the floor, he soon scoffed the lot and returned to his place to lay down on the sofa, and as I write this he appears to be asleep. Problem solved and perhaps I should give him food in the morning as well as the evening.

3.40 p.m. I didn't go to church this morning. I would have like to have gone, but wearing a mask isn't exactly helping with the confounded cough I have at the moment. I mentioned this in a few posts back, caused by taking oxybutynin, but now stopped since I mentioned this to my doctor a few weeks ago. I was told that it would take a while for it to disappear completely, as soon as the medication is out of my body. No sign of that at the moment. Wearing a mask means you are breathing in your hot breath and that sets of the cough. Apart from that, it steams up my glasses. Just not pleasant having to wear the things for any length of time. Regardless of all this, I managed to see the service via Facebook. I have discovered that if I set things up correctly if I open Facebook on my iPad and set my television with the Fire Stick set up, then I can 'cast' the live video to the television. Surprising what you discover when you least expect it.

Monday. 5.20 a.m. Well, I'm wide awake and already done all my usual morning routine things, shaved, dressed, done my Bible reading, dressed, and even done washing-up, so the kitchen is tidy. I always feel that if all this is done, I can start my day better. Particularly shaving. I don't feel right if I miss a shave in the morning. When I was in the hospital the last time, after my second heart attack, I had none of my own things with me, not even clothes. I didn't have shaving items, so I had to endure several mornings without having a proper shave. I ended up being given a disposable shaver by one of the nurses on the ward, but it was like shaving with a blunt tin lid! (not that I have actually done that!). It wasn't pleasant. 

6.20 a.m. I took out Alfie at 5.50. It must be the earliest we've ever been out. It's still misty and quite chilly, but I have a feeling it will be warm today, and as it's a Bank Holiday, quite a rarity, as most Bank Holidays are wet and miserable. Add to all that the fact that lockdowns are being lifted gradually, it would appear that tourist areas will be crowded. But then the question is, will that mean that there will be an increase in coronavirus infections as a result? Only time will tell. PLEASE, can we avoid further lockdowns? I don't think the British people can take anymore. Patience is at a low point, but surely with so many people vaccinated we can climb out of this hole and ESCAPE!

4.50 p.m. I'm sitting here writing this with my Macbook Air on my knee. Alfie has had his dinner and has been whittling to get a couple of treats. I asked him what he wanted so he glanced at the tin which is on the top of the bookcase. I took three out of the tin and put two on the edge of the coffee table and another on the back of the sofa. He finds the two on the coffee table. He sticks his nose up over the edge of the coffee table and manages to grab one of the treats but doesn't find the second one. He then jumps up onto the sofa (which can cause him problems, probably showing his age.) and soon discovers where the third treat is. He eventually sniffs it out and has to reach up by standing up on his back legs and snaffles it without any problems.

It's been extremely warm and sunny today. What a real Bank Holiday Monday should be like. Walking around Oldbrook Green earlier this afternoon and there are people all over the place, even laying sunning themselves on the grass. The same old same old, men not having any idea they look ridiculous in shorts (not all by the way.) but that's just my opinion. Shorts only getting worn when the sun shines and they (and myself!) not always brave enough to wear for the first time this summer (I believe we are now in summer, officially.) But those infamous shorts not always in perfect order, often worst for wear and not up to standard in the fashion or sartorial stakes.

6.45 p.m. Just been watching Wallace and Gromit in 'A Close Shave.' I've seen all these brilliant animation films I don't know how many times, but it's so clever and imaginative. All of the Ardman Animation films are so well made and creative. It's all the little details that make them special, some things that you don't notice the first time around and add to the fun, for example, the headlines you see fleetingly in the newspapers that Wallace reads or the books they read.

Watching BBC news, which came on after Wallace and Gromit. There are some scientists who say that the 21st June deadline to end lockdowns may need to be postponed until data suggests that the Indian variant of the coronavirus is under control. Oh please, no! I think that if that happens and for a length of time there will be civil unrest. I think we've had our patience pushed to the limit. Surely, with the vaccines being delivered so successfully and the possibility of people not being infected, then there is no need to have further lockdowns.

I watched an episode of 'Miranda', the sitcom performed and written by Miranda Hart. I have seen it before, but it's so funny. She talks directly to the camera, 'breaking the fourth wall' in much the same way as Lovejoy did in that great series (I worked on quite a few episodes, filmed in and around Norfolk and Suffolk.) She is very self-deprecating, making comedy about her height and tripping over things. A great deal of visual comedy, which we don't get nowadays. They also showed an episode of 'Fawlty Towers.' One of the classic comedies of the 1970s. It must be because the BBC doesn't have enough new material to put out due to the pandemic.

Telly Watching- Part 2

I may have to watch 'Line of Duty,' which seems to be very popular and has had extremely high viewing figures. All the episodes are on BBC iPlayer, so I should be able to watch this series. There's been around six series so there's a lot of episodes to get through.

As mentioned in the previous post about 'The Repair Shop', 'Money For Nothing' and 'Saved and Remade', it seems that once the BBC gets the 'bug' with certain genres of shows, they seem to think we'll fall over ourselves to see similar formats. So we get endless cookery shows together with antiques, although it seems this area has slowed down somewhat. 'Flog It' was really a rehash of 'Antiques Roadshow' but with the difference in that the items which are valued by the experts are then sold at auction. I often think that people who go on these shows are only interested in the cash value of their items. Surely you have some sort of emotional attachment to antiques, value their historic value. If you inherited an item that was owned by an ancestor who did something heroic or made some ground-breaking invention or had a fascinating life or was just an ordinary person, surely you'd want to keep it and then pass it on to the next generation. I often think that when medals are shown and there's a provenance attached to them, certification of some sort of a letter, that gives the item, in this case, medals, tells the story behind them. Then people turn round and say 'it belonged to uncle Cuthbert, but I don't like it. It's been in the cupboard or drawer for 25 years and we never look at it, so we might as well sell it.' A bit annoying and, frankly, crazy.

There's not a lot of sitcoms on television at the moment. By sitcom I mean in the classic sense, usually set in a house with a sofa, family orientated. Think 'The Good Life.' (Although there is no actual family in this show. Both couples, the Leadbetter's and the Goods, don't have children.) Usually shot in a studio with a live audience. The one I am about to mention is 'My Family,' which I am watching on BBC iPlayer. It must be some 20 years old (or at least the episodes I have reached.) There's nothing particularly brilliant about it, in fact, the actual events in it are somewhat mundane, it's just the performances of the two lead actors, Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker. They could make the Telephone Directory funny. I suppose it's the chemistry between them that makes it work. There's nothing very special about the scripts, in fact, they might be described as very ordinary and mundane. It's the actors, particularly Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay who make it what it is. If it was cast with other actors I don't reckon it would have the same appeal. 

How do you define a sitcom? Interesting question. Usually, a sitcom can be defined as a short-form drama, on television or radio, with a small cast of characters and with an easily identifiable location, a street, home, or workplace, the characters being a family, workplace, or otherwise connected in some other way.  Traditionally, they run for 30 minutes, but longer episodes have been made, but they are rare. Each episode tying up within the running time (usually 30 minutes.) and not always connected to the next episode, although there may be some connection vaguely hinted at. They rarely continue storylines across episodes. Characters never seem to learn from their mistakes (the same in your average soap.) Good story-telling usually requires that a character goes on a 'journey' and by the end of that story they have changed from how they were at the beginning and as a result, they have learned something. The sitcom, in the traditional sense, performed in a studio with a live audience, seems to be dead. The likes of 'Steptoe and Son', 'Fawlty Towers, 'The Good Life' and 'Keeping Up Appearances' have virtually died. Most modern sitcoms, if the term can still be applied to this form of television, are mostly made on film, or at least, video, without an audience. That may not be such a bad thing, as a cackling audience doesn't always help the show. Except for the actors who can time their lines to the audience's reactions, laughing, clapping, or whatever. There are a handful of sitcoms that are made on location, on film (single camera) which don't have a cackling audience in the background. One such being 'Bloomers' and another, which doesn't really fit the term 'sitcom' and that's 'Car Share.' It could never be made in a studio and the fact it's filmed on location adds to the realism.

Snow. . . More (or less)

Well, perhaps the weather forecasters got things right. It is snowing this morning, as I let Alfie out into the garden at 6.45 this morning. It's not exactly the thick, fluffy feather-like snow we had a couple of weeks ago, but nevertheless, it is snow. We'll just have to wait and see whether it settles.

At the moment (11.45 a.m) it is snowing. It's looking a bit like lots of flying insects. I know that might sound odd, but if you can imagine mosquitoes or those insects you get in the summer, when it's hot. But I doubt this will settle. There's a sort of powdering over things outside, a sort of icing sugar layer. A sprinkling all over the car.

It must say something about the state of television at the moment if the programmes which are old repeats of 40-year-old stuff like 'Fawlty Towers' and 'The Good Life' and 'The Two Ronnies' (which we watched early this morning on GOLD), and are far better than what's on the main channels (BBC1, ITV etc.) They still stand up remarkably well, considering their ages. Not particularly affected by the prevailing P.C. brigade, either. I don't imagine a lot of that old stuff would be produced today because of the somewhat racist material that they have in their scripts, none of it really offensive, but I imagine by today's standards not suitable to be used. 20-year-old 'Dinnerladies' which is being shown as well as a three-part  behind-the-scenes documentary is as funny as I ever remember it being when I first saw it. Written by the brilliant Victoria Wood, who was one of my favourite comedians and now sadly missed. She died far too young. I worked with one of the actresses in it, Thelma Barlow, when I worked as a very young A.S.M. at Liverpool Playhouse in the early 1970's. She's probably best known as playing Mavis Wilton in 'Coronation Street.' A very talented actress who was Shelia in a production of 'Relatively Speaking,'  which I did the book for, alongside Ian McDiarmid, who went on to play the emperor in Star Wars and to running the Alameida Theatre in London. Another play in that season was 'What Every Woman Knows,' in which Thelma Barlow played the central role of Maggie, in a really lovely play written by J.M. Barrie. His plays are rarely performed nowadays, probably because they're not fashionable, and probably because he's best known for 'Peter Pan,' which is a shame because his stuff is so well written. Much in the same way that all the plays of A.A.Milne are never produced today, because he's best known as the author of the 'Winnie-the-Pooh' books. Though, saying that, probably because the plays he wrote just don't appeal to a 21st-century audience.

3.30 p.m. It's become quite windy. The trees beyond our garden fence, which runs along the Redway, are really swaying in the wind.

A little later there was quite a heavy fall of snow. Much larger flakes, but it didn't seem to settle.

I've noticed some strange little things running along the Redway close to Saxon Street when I've driven into Milton Keynes centre on a few occasions. They look a bit like those small fridges you can get to store your cans of beer, but on wheels, with a sort of radio ariel on the back with a little triangular flag on it. I now learn that they are robotic and are intended to help deliver food or other items which you might order on line. I'm not certain how they cope with crossing the road, whether they use the Redways around the town. Do they use G.P.S. or other navigation software to find the delivery address? How reliable are they? I know we're supposed to be getting driverless cars around MK, but hadn't heard a thing about these little things. Not sure Carol would think I was slightly nuts if I told her about them, but she has now seen one so that's O.K. Not been drinking or dreaming. Though, one never knows . . . would be interested to try one out and see how efficient it is at delivering parcels or take-away food. We buy quite a lot from Amazon, so I wonder if they will use them.

Watching 'Fawlty Towers'

We've been watching 'Fawlty Towers' on the digital television channel 'GOLD.' I have seen this countless times and infact I saw it when it was originally broadcast on BBC2 in the mid 1970's. Since that time I can't say how many times I've seen all the episodes, but even then it matters not as it's so well written and performed it stands up to endless repeat viewings, considering it's age and the limitations of technology and such things as editing and set construction. As  a series it has been described as 12 of the best farces ever written. In that respect it can't be bettered. It also features heavily in polls when the public has to vote on their favourite television programme or sitcom.

What makes it such a successful situation comedy? It follows all the rules of a well-written sitcom. It is set in a closed setting, in this case a hotel. The characters are recognisable, with Basil as the owner and manager of the hotel (at the top of the hierarchical pile.) It has a definite class structure (again, Basil at the top) and below him the staff are further down the class pile. Basil looks down on those who are below him, or so he believes, and is an incredible snob as a result. It is set in a work-place, with the characters forced together. They wouldn't presumably meet if they met in the outside world. It is set firmly within the walls of the hotel and rarely departs from this setting. The set of the hotel is clearly defined and as such we, the viewer, have to know the layout, where the bar is, the reception desk, the dining room and the kitchen, which allows the machinations of the characters to work the way they do. It uses such tropes as deception, secrecy, misunderstandings and slapstick which have been used as devices in comedy for centuries. Basil Fawlty has an unhappy marriage. He's married to a dragon of a wife in Sybil. She's bossy and incredibly lazy. The rest of the cast play off these two central characters superbly; the maid/waitress, Polly (played by Connie Booth, and Manuel, the  Spanish waiter, played by Andrew Sachs.

The 1970's was a fertile period for sitcoms. Not just 'Fawlty Towers,' but 'The Good Life,' 'Last of The Summer Wine,' 'Porridge,' all on BBC television. Meanwhile, ITV had success with shows such as 'George and Mildred,' 'Robin's Nest,' 'On The Busses' and 'Mind Your Language.' Many of these shows would never have been produced today, due to the racist and sexist content of some of them. 'Last of The Summer Wine' ran for well over 40 years, making it the longest-running sitcom in the world. It couldn't  have survived much longer because most of the cast died. It seemed to be a bit repetitive. Only so many times you can have a group of old men sliding down a hillside in a tin bath, or at least doing crazy things and getting away with it. If anything, the show can't have harmed the Yorkshire tourist industry.

When I did some walk-on work on something or other, several years ago, but I'm not sure, but I think it was at either Pinewood Studios or Elstree, I spoke to one of the other walk-on's, as I always did when we were waiting to be called onto the set of whatever it was (there's always a lot of waiting about on these jobs, so you have lots of opportunities to talk to people.). This was a lady who had worked on Fawlty Towers as a 'stand-in/double' for one of the old ladies who are regular characters in the show, Miss Tibbs or Miss Gatsby, (Renee Roberts and Billy Flower). She was more likely a 'stunt double' during a scene where Basil Fawlty hits one of the around the head or something and they obviously couldn't have him hit either of the actresses as they were probably quite elderly at the time. You wouldn't know this if you watch that particular episode as its edited in cleverly so it's not obvious. But this actress gets a repeat every time Fawlty Towers is repeated. I'm not sure this would be when it's on GOLD as it's always on at some time or other.

New BBC1 Sunday Evening Sitcom

We've been watching the new BBC1 sitcom, 'Hold The Sunset.' It fills the slot vacated by 'Still Open All Hours.' It stars John Cleese and Alison Steadman. They play a couple who are 'just good friends' and he's keen to marry her so they can sell up and move abroad to the sun. But just when she decides to take him up on his offer and they crack open the champaign, there is a knock at the door and her 50-year-old son arrives, having left his wife. This character is played by Jason Watkins, and once he appears he more or less steals the show. He's regressed to his childhood and has a temper tantrum when he learns that his mother gave away his precious collection of comics to a charity shop. Compared to the recently ended 'Still Open All Hours,' it's far more subtle and doesn't rely on a studio audience to point up the comedy. It isn't 'laugh out loud' funny and the characterisation is very detailed, not relying on stereotype which the David Jason vehicle relies heavily on. It's more than 40 years since Cleese wrote and performed in 'Fawlty Towers,' so it something of a surprise to find that this new comedy is totally different in style to that famous series. We will have to wait and see how the rest of the series develops and how it does as regards ratings, but all the signs are that it's good real potential and will be worth sticking with over the next couple of Sunday evenings. At least the BBC is trying hard to come up with new sitcoms. This has been the slot, over the years, which has been taken up by a succession of sitcoms, from 'Bread' to 'Keeping Up Appearances' so we will wait and see how it fares.

More About Sitcoms

I'm continuing to watch 'The Good Life.' For something that is well over 40 years old, it stands up remarkably well. I'm more than certain I saw it when it was originally broadcast in 1975. It's the sort of thing I would have watched with my family. I think my mother would have loved it. I know it was on at about the same time that 'Fawlty Towers' was first shown, but she hated that. I can see why, as Basil Fawlty is actually quite an objectionable character. Loud and a real bigot. 

Regarding 'The Good Life.' What makes this show work so well isn't necessarily the central characters of Tom and Barbara Good (Richard Briars and Felicity Kendal in tip-top form) but the secondary characters, particularly the neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter. They make a good contrast with the self-seficiency lifestyle of the Goods. Both are materialistic to a large degree. We see the homes; the Goods house deteriates a good deal the further the Goods get into their way of life while the Leadbetter's house appears very neat and tidy, expensive furniture and fixtures and fittings. What really rounds out the character of Margo in particular is the clever use of what I'd call 'Invisible' characters, those characters which have an 'off-stage' presence. Miss Mountshaft, the doyenne of the choral society of which Margo is a leading light. Although we never meet this woman, we get a great deal of description of what she's really like, and in particular, during the episode where Margo is rehearing 'The Messiah' and turns up on the Good's doorstep in a long white shift dress which she wants Barbara to take up for her and she says that Miss Mountshaft had one set of measurements, her own, so we get the idea that she must be a very large lady. The very name Miss Mountshaft is likely to get a couple of laughs as it's definitely got the potential to raise a titter or two as it's got a sort of double entendre sound to it.

Another sitcom which has an 'invisible character' is 'Keeping Up Appearances.' The Buckets have a son whom we never see, but who has a habit of telephoning and always wants something from his mother or father, usually money. This son, Sheridan, is supposed to be at University (how old is he? If Richard is retired, how old were they when he was born. If he's at university he must be in his 20's. From what we discover, he comes over as incredibly camp. Is he gay? Does Hyacinth realise? Does his father? Again, like Miss Mountshaft, this invisible character helps to round out the characters of Hyacinth and Richard.

In 'One Foot In The Grave' we hear about the Meldrew's son, who died at an early age. Although not actually an invisible character, mention of this deceased child helps to give us more information about the back story of the Meldrew's. Although Victor is generally a somewhat irritating and annoying character, giving the background of their child does give them a bit more believability and makes Victor a good deal more three-dimensional and less of a comudgeon.

Television Comedy: Watching 'The Good Life'

I've just been watching the first episode of 'The Good Life.' One of the great advantages of having Sky for me is the fact that there is so much classic television available to watch on catch-up or download (will someone explain what the difference is? Surely they are one and the same.) This has to be one of the finest television sitcoms produced in this country. I know when polls are held to come up with a list of the top ten or even a hundred television comedies this one often comes close to the top of the list, alongside Blackadder, Fawlty Towers and Dad's Army. From my viewing today this particular one stands up particularly well. It has hardly dated, except perhaps for fashions in clothes and the car Gerry drives (a large yellow Volvo which must have been heavy on petrol consumption.)  I know very well how the show develops, I'm fully aware that Barbara and Tom Good set up their own smallholding in their garden in Surbiton, and all the problems they encounter, in least the fact that it's in suburbia and not in rural Sussex or somewhere else in the countryside. It's the fact that they're going against the grain that makes this comedy work so well. We can all identify with Tom, wanting to escape the rat race. He starts out at the beginning of the episode working as a draughtsman in a company which makes plastic toys which are put into breakfast cereal packets. When his boss tells him the next project is to design and create a giraffe Tom can hardly keep a straight face. And who can blame him. The style of production would be typical of the way sitcoms were made for television in the 1970's, with the bulk of the action recorded on multi-camera in a studio with a 'live' audience and the exteriors shot (in advance) on location with film cameras. One imagines if it was produced today (most unlikely) they would make it on video and all on location and the audience would watch a sort of 'playback' to give the laughter track. But, let's be honest, isn't television comedy of this sort best done when there isn't a studio audience? By comparison, I'm thinking of the Peter Kay's series 'Car Share' which has no studio audience. Also, it couldn't have been made 40 years ago, as 'The Good Life' was made, basically because there wouldn't have been the technical ability to shoot it within a moving car because there weren't the small-scale cameras available as there are today. My only complaint about that show is, why were so episodes made? Why only around 4 per series, and just two series? Again, it it because the commissioners didn't have the faith in this show to allow more episodes to be made? It surely can't be the cost because it can't have been particularly expensive to make as there are only two actors in it.

What I want to know is, why were there so many excellent sitcoms produced when this was first transmitted, in 1975? Dad's Army had been running since around 1967 and by the time this came out we also had Fawlty Towers. Perhaps it was the fact that there were only three television channels in the mid 1970's. Channel 4 didn't open until 1982 and multi-channel television didn't make an appearance until at least the mid 1980's or early '90's. Television companies were presumably more likely to take a risk on a new show such as this. A series would only have been around 6-8, so if it didn't succeed in the ratings it wasn't such a disaster. It starred to consummate professionals, Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal. I think I saw Richard Briars in one of Alan Ayckbourn's plays, possibly 'The Norman Conquests' or 'Absurd Person Singular.' 'The Good Life' does rather have the feel of an Ayckbourn play. It has similar middle class characters, it pokes a finger at life in a suburban setting and has a deeper message under the comedy exterior. Even the fact that there's a sitting room with French windows and a sofa makes it similar. I think today's television commissioners are far too concerned with ratings. Also, they don't allow a show enough time to build an audience. It takes at least two seasons (series in Britain) to allow the actors a chance to develop their characters and allow the writers time to develop not just the situations but their characters. ITV had a wealth of sitcoms of it's on. They've never quite had the success with this form of television as the BBC. Perhaps because with a commercial broadcaster you have to factor in the commercial break. For a thirty-minute slot you'll have to have a running time of no more than 23-25 minutes, to allow for the commercial break and then have a sort of 'act break' in the middle to take the commercials, so your writers will have to build up the situation to then have a sort of 'curtain' as you'd have in a stage play and the, after the break, keep the situation going and just hope the audience had remained and not changed channels. Although, it has to be said, having a commercial break can have it's advantages, for example, allowing viewers to go to the toilet or go for a snack or make a cup of tea. Of course, with modern technology you can always skip the adverts when you record the programme. ITV had such shows as 'Rising Damp' which starred Leonard Rossiter and ran for a couple of series. Based on a stage play called 'The Banana Box' and originally produced at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester and starring Wilfred Brambell in the Rigsby role as played by Rossiter in the television sitcom. (this character was originally called Rooksby in the play. I have no idea why they changed his name to Rigsby for the television sitcom.) Rossiter was to go on to play the central character in another sitcom of this period 'The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin' written by David Hobbs and adapted from his novels. It was revived more recently with Martin Clunes in the title role, but for me it didn't quite have the same impact as the original. Not always a good idea to revive old sitcoms, although when ITV revived 'Birds of A Feather' it was a ratings success and has gone on to have several more series.

How many comedies have neighbours who add to the 'mix' of comedy situations? I remember 'Sykes' which starred the amazing Eric Sykes along with Hatty Jacques (as unlikely twins. How did they get away with it?) They had a neighbour, played by Richard Watts, who kept popping in and out and he represented the sort of interfering busy-body type, voice of the minority. Then, in 'The Good Life' we have Margo Leadbetter, middle-class, classic snob, married to Gerry, long-suffering husband who brings in enough money from his executive post to be able to allow Margo to have the sort of life she dreams of, plenty of gadgetry in the kitchen, decent car every couple of years and so on. This counter-points the life the Goods have created for themselves, digging up their garden to grow fruit and veg, even importing a goat and some pigs, much to Margo and Gerry's disgust. 

In 'Birds of A Feather' we also come across a neighbour who pops in and out in the shape of Dorien, played with absolute conviction by Lesley Josephs.

Cars I've Owned- Part 1

Over the years I've owned many cars. Some I've loved, but many I have hated. You have a definite love/hate relationship with the car you own, basically because when they run smoothly, get you from point 'A' to point 'B' without any problems, when they decide not to behave, for example, refusing to start, or breaking down unexpectedly, they are more hated than loved. Most, if not all, the cars I've had have been second hand. I never seem to be in a position financially to afford a completely new vehicle, so the old cars I've had were prone to the usual faults such as refusing to start in cold or damp weather and one-hundred-and-one other problems. I suppose an older car is going to cause more problems than a brand new one because the bits and pieces, such as brakes, tyres, water pump, starter motor and so on are the bits that wear out fastest and so cause you the most problems.

Having been brought up on a farm does have it's advantages, particularly when you're starting to learn to drive. There is always space, or at least there was at Malting Farm in Cardington, I don't know whether all other farms are the same, allowing you to be able to drive a vehicle along farm tracks or across meadows and fields without encountering other vehicles. I was able to drive tractors which aren't exactly like driving a car as they have so many gears and sub-gears and far more levers to shift into these sub-gears. But at least I was able to drive such vehicles as Land Rovers which gave me a chance to do some driving, although off-road, before I was able to start driving lessons. 

The first car I owned was a Ford Anglia, the classic car from the 1950's- 1960's. I was working at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham in 1969 (see earlier post on here which gives a full  description.) Before I'd gone there I had been doing driving lessons and hadn't yet done my driving test. I don't know how many lessons I'd had, quite a few I seem to recall. My test was set to be during the summer break in the theatre's season so I went home to Bedfordshire. I probably took a few more lessons and then did the test. Unfortunately I failed miserably, on something quite trivial, like not turning right or left when told by the examiner, or keeping up with the traffic. I went back to Cheltenham and did a few more lessons there and did my test and this time I passed! As a result my parents bought me the Ford Anglia, which cost all of £75! I know, looking back, it doesn't seem possible that you could buy a car for so little! It was two-tone green, light on the top half and dark on the bottom half. It had quite a few quirks. One being the windscreen wipers. When you put them on, and you drove slowly, say, up a hill, in a rainstorm, they moved fast, but if you drove faster, for some strange reason they moved slowly. Why? Seems odd thinking about it now. On those old cars you had the headlight 'dip' control on the floor near the clutch pedal, unlike in a modern car where you control the 'dip' with a lever on the steering wheel column. I think it might even have had indicators which actually stuck out from the side of the car when you were going to turn either left or right and not just a flashing bulb on the four corners of the car. It's a wonder they never got knocked off when a bicycle or someone went past. Goodness, how cars have changed, but this is a good 45- or more years ago.

Of course, having a car was made use of as part of my stage management job. Moving on to work at Greenwich Theatre a few years after working at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, as part of my work I had to return a lot of items which were used as props in a show we'd done. I had to load up the little Ford Anglia with no end of items and then drive into the centre of London and return the things to some of the prop hire companies around Covent Garden in particular. I had not been driving for very long and it was quite nerve wracking driving through Marble Arch, not knowing exactly where I was supposed to go and no sure which lane I was supposed to get into as well and looking at an A to Z Atlas of London which was open on the passenger seat beside me. It was quite hair-raising, to say the least. The best way to learn to do something that might be difficult is to just get on and do it, a good motto for life I always think. Spending to much time mulling it over is a good way of talking yourself out of it, so that incident driving through Central London certainly taught me a thing or two and came in handy a good deal later when I used to go in to London in my car when I used to do TV walk-on work and had to get to, say BBC Television Centre or any of the major television or film studios such as Pinewood or Shepperton.

On another occasion I had to drive a large van with a load of furniture into central London and was going to return it all to the various hire firms around the city and beyond. It was a rainy day, which didn't exactly help matters. I don't think I had ever driven such a large vehicle before and I think it must have been the largest vehicle you could drive on an ordinary driving licence. I soon found out that stopping the engine was no easy matter. You couldn't just use the key to turn it off when you wanted to park the vehicle. The only way to stop it was to stall it by shifting the gear stick and the clutch at the same time or something weird which made the lorry shudder horribly. I went with another stage management member to help me unload the furniture, which included a piano. Somewhere in Covent Garden (at a time when the fruit and vegetable market was still there.) it was a real knot of small alleyways and roads and I accidentally got into a one-way street- the wrong way, so I had to reverse the lorry quite a distance so as to get out and so get back into the correct flow of traffic. Not an easy manoeuvre at he best of times, but not helped by the fact that it was raining. My vehicle-driving experience was increased several times over that particular day.

I was always very keen to keep on the right side of the law. For some reason or other, one always gets somewhat edgy, almost guilty, for whatever reason, when you are out driving somewhere and you see a police car, when you're absolutely sure you've done nothing wrong. On one occasion, when I was working at Greenwich, when I'd gone home for the weekend and was driving back to work fairly early one Monday morning. The route required me to go through the Blackwall Tunnel. I never like driving through tunnels at the best of times, but I had to go and ignore an instruction on a reading or one of those overhead gantry things, which told me to move over into a different lane. I just drove on and didn't move over to a different lane and I got stopped by a Police car, pulled over to the side of the road. I didn't have my driving licence with me and was told I'd have to go into a Police station and show my licence. I was numb with fear. I don't know why. I don't think, up until then,  had ever set foot in a police station. So, I did as I was told and a few days later I did just that, produced my licence at the police station somewhere in or around the Greenwich area, was told to not do 'it' again, and went away, fully warned off. I don't think, after that, I ever ignored an instrucion as regards driving in the right lane ever again.

As for hating any cars I've owned one was a bright red Ford Escort estate. Bought from a neighbour. It was a real pain to get started, particularly when the weather was damp or cold. I tried to remedy it with such things as new spark plugs, battery leads and other bits and pieces that I replaced, but all to no avail. It was worse when it was damp, even when there was no rain. Those cold, misty mornings, a slight drizzle, you name it, the confounded thing refused to start. Even having a tow from someone else's vehicle and jump starting, it would not start. So much so I just lost my temper and gave the confounded thing a good kick. A bit like that famous scene in "Fawlty Towers" when Basil Fawlty can't get his car to start and hits it with a branch of a tree. It's almost always when you need to get somewhere in a hurry, early morning, have to get to work. The thing had an almighty dent in it's side for ever after. I'm not surprised I lost patience with it. Stupid thing.