Entertainment For Lively Minds
Could someone please tell the BBC
Posted by Steve Riddle on 23 January 2009 - 10:05am.
... that their Caroline Quentin vehicle "Life of Riley" is a turkey, and no amount of advertising it on the radio is going to change that?.
Thanks, I feel much better now.
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It's like Outnumbered
never happened.
It's better than
that band thing with Jimmy Nail.
It is what it is though: a family based sit-com to give the writers of My Family time to get a new series shot. I would venture to suggest that parishioners in the village of the Massive don't find that sort of thing their bag.
Saying that something...
...anything ...is better than that band thing with Jimmy Nail is not really saying much ... to be fair.
Having a live Cayman
attached to your big toe is better than having to endure Jimmy Nail in anything visual or aural. That's no good reason to forgive this tripe.
I assume you're excluding
I assume you're excluding the original two series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet from that sweeping statement?
And in some
weird world where I forget about all the taste that the style people tell me to have, I really like Still Crazy.
Still Crazy is a cracking little movie...
...and gave Bill Nighy the character he played in Lurrve Actually
Live cayman attachment
every time.
I have no idea what 'Life Of Riley' is but
I remember enjoying 'Crocodile Shoes' many years ago.
Standard BBC operating procedure
For good or bad, once the BBC have invested in something, they will keep plugging away at it while it's "live", and if it's a turkey, kill it quietly out the back afterwards... as opposed to ITV, who have no qualms whatsoever about shoving a programme into a graveyard slot at 24 hours' notice if it's not working.
In theory, this means that "slow-burn" BBC shows get a chance to bed in, but in practice it means that we got 2 years of crappy vehicles for the charmless Johnny Vaughan after they'd given him shedloads of money on a pay-or-play contract...
Hence
Bonekickers
Go to the iplayer and have a listen to...
... Jon Holmes on 6music last Saturday. On the back of this he was inviting listeners to email in titles and premises for terrible sitcoms.
For example
Title - Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained
Premise - Eddie Nothing is a hapless bank teller, whose romantic disasters only seem to benefit his better looking brother (and boss) Steve. With hilarious results.
Or perhaps
Tile - Sunny Side Up
Premise - Good natured cafe owner Eddie Side is a man desperate to come up in the world, but his hare brained money making schemes just never seem to go right. With hilarious results
Or even
Title - A Pile Of Rubbish
Premise - Lord Eddie Rubbish, a scion of the landed gentry whose family can be traced right back to the Normans, has a vast crumbling country mansion and no means of restoring it to its former glory, unless he succeeds in finding a rich wife. If only his potential brides didn't keep having serious accidents in his big house. With hilarious consequences etc etc etc
Right I'm bored now. But you get the idea. Feel free to add...
Why
Eddie?
Could be worse, E.
Typed my name into the Blues Name Generator and it came up with "Hopeless" Arthur King.
Lee and Herring...
...did something similar a few year back too. Best one was
"Bent Coppers"
Which I''m sure you can find the synopsis of on the web if you look hard enough.
My fave L&H sitcom idea
was 'Mel & Sue's Melon Zoo' in which the popular hosts of 'Light Lunch' open a safari park consisting entirely of fruit - with hilarious consequences
In the Jon Holmes show...
... Eddie was the name of choice for everyone. Sorry Mr G.
Doesn't the name Eddie signify "quite wide" in sitcom world? Just as Brian and Keith indicate "quite crap?"
Brilliant new sitcom idea!
How about a sitcom where the air-brained offspring of some past-it pop singer decides she's going to start her own magazine with hilarious results. She could have a really stupid pop-child name like 'Prunes' or 'Sultana' and she could have a Bubbles-from-Ab-Fab assistant who...
Oh, hold on minute...
As you were.
Our House
...in the middle of our street. The title and the theme tune is about as far as I have got.
I see it is a gentle family comedy screened at 7.00pm to keep up the BBC's proud tradition of Terry & June-type comedy. It'll be crap, but the BBC seemingly need to have one these on the go at all times.
Example of what I mean (from My Family)
Scene - A motorbike courier arrives in black leathers and a black crash helmet with visor. He hands Robert Lindsay an envelope
Courier - "Could you sign for this, please?"
Robert Lindsay (signing the docket)- "Who do you think you are? Darth Vader?"
(audience hysterical laughter)
clip used as trailer for weeks i.e. it's the best bit of that 30 minute show. Hell's teeth.
For someone in New Zealand
you have a chillingly accurate picture of the BBC's idea of family fare, Austin. Are things any better in the antipodes? (Call me cynical, but that was a good example of what my Latin teacher used to call ' a question expecting the answer "no" '.)
This is a gentle family comedy wasteland
In a way, it is to be admired that the BBC constantly tries to do it. We tend to get them here as it is safe telly.
The better NZ comedies tend to be a bit more rough around the edges. When it's good, it's excellent - Flight of the Conchords, Wayne Anderson and Outrageous Fortune.
When family comedy is tried, it tends to fall short. There was a primetime sitcom (the life and times of Te Tutu) based around the time of the British arrival in NZ and how the officers and Maori interracted. It was awful.
There was also a sitcom called Willy Nilly which wasn't that bad - but the writers had plainly watched Father Ted and Last of the Summer Wine and created a hybrid. Indeed.
Australia's Summer Heights High though is probably the best thing I have seen for many years.