TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

[darren]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Wonderful show indeed.

Only saw it a few yrs back for the first time and just love it.

Love how he has 2 different lives in different decades.

goodnight sweetheart....was brilliant

[Richard1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Wonderful show indeed.

Only saw it a few yrs back for the first time and just love it.

Love how he has 2 different lives in different decades.

I really liked the early episodes, but later on it got a bit too confusing & the recasting of the 2 female parts didn't work so well.

[darren]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Easy to see how its confusing.

Yes i noticed there was a recast for the two female characters.

The eps ive saw featured liz carling thought her pretty good.
Cant think who the other female character was played by.

Actually thought this show was older than it is.

Only started in 92.

i really liked the early episodes, but later on it got a bit too confusing & the recasting of the 2 female parts didn't work so well.

[Markxist]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Originally it was Dervla Kirwin and Michelle Holmes, then it was Liz Carling and Emma Amos. The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris makes me wonder if he's seen Goodnight Sweetheart!

[Richard1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Originally it was Dervla Kirwin and Michelle Holmes, then it was Liz Carling and Emma Amos. The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris makes me wonder if he's seen Goodnight Sweetheart!

I liked that film, but oddly I didn't think of Goodnight Sweetheart while watching it.

[darren]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Cheers mate i think i need to see it from the start.

Another thats stood the test of time is the equalizer with edward woodward.

I cant think highly enough of this show.

originally it was dervla kirwin and michelle holmes, then it was liz carling and emma amos. The woody allen film midnight in paris makes me wonder if he's seen goodnight sweetheart!

[darren]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Another is the original knight rider.

As well as the original battlestar galactica the two ronnies fawlty towers even though fawlty towers had only 12 episodes.

[80sChav]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Another is the original knight rider.

As well as the original battlestar galactica the two ronnies fawlty towers even though fawlty towers had only 12 episodes.

True Darren mate about fawlty Towers ... now if only they could find the "so called2 mystery 13th episode that is claimed never existed! It must have been a Proto-type I feel or similar. May-be it was the 13th but it existed somewhere to make up the commonly known unlucky 13!!

May-be even it was a Proto-type Xmas one which would of bee groundbreaking at the time as yes a few "Specials" existed then but not like these days

Others that deserve hounarble mentions are

- In Sickness and in Health/'Til death Do Us Part - but though Alf Garnett was a vulgar man played by the opposite of him as warren was , until the PC Brigade got on board board in alot of instances with good cause - it did stand the test of time for many years (as I am sure I have added, but don't know where on here) that in a lot of cases mny people had Dad's and Grandads and Uncles all in line who shared Alf's biggoted views. It certainly existed in the area I grew up in - which is why I feel I know/knew what it was about - even though it was vulgar and rascist in many parts The BNP would have a "Field Day" if they had both existed at the same time "back in the day" I feel

- Last Of The Summer Wine. That should never have been allowed to end - there will always be the need for a quiint-essinital English Rural/Semi Rural Comedy - even down to Keeping Up Appearnces that we was led to believe was set somewhere in "old Middle England", which I'd term as either Berkshire/Oxfordshire or/and Warwickshire/Worcestershire.In saying this though I heard a fair few scenes was filme around Luton - so I am totaly unsure to this day where the intended location was


- Bread would not last these days like perhaps Only Fools and Horses for similar reasons to Alf Garnet (not Rascism) but the portraying of "Dodgy Dealings" and not being able to carry on in the DSS/DHSS now like they did with Security etc being as it is these days

- Grange Hill for an obvious reasoning of we will always have Schools and life in them will never change I think - breing a mainpoint in question/reason as to why

[Richard1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

I feel Last Of The Summer Wine should have ended after Bill Owen died, certainly once most of the main cast had left the show, as the replacements never seemed to work for me.

Keeping Up Appearances used the suburbs of Coventry as locations, & might have been intended to be set there, certainly it was a break from Roy Clarke's usual Yorkshire settings.

I heard Bread wasn't all that popular in Liverpool for how it depicted the Boswells.

Waterloo Road seemed to be a spiritual successor to Grange Hill in some ways.

[80sChav]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

I feel Last Of The Summer Wine should have ended after Bill Owen died, certainly once most of the main cast had left the show, as the replacements never seemed to work for me.

Keeping Up Appearances used the suburbs of Coventry as locations, & might have been intended to be set there, certainly it was a break from Roy Clarke's usual Yorkshire settings.

I heard Bread wasn't all that popular in Liverpool for how it depicted the Boswells.

Waterloo Road seemed to be a spiritual successor to Grange Hill in some ways.

True Richard, I agree witha lot of your reasonings here for each Programme

I was never a fan of Goodnight Sweetheart the first time round and found it ludicrous in the extreme that someone could walk through apub back and forth several decades, but as I have always said it had Vic McGuire (Jack from Bread) and Nicholas Lindhuurst (as Rodders from Only Fools0 and Tish Dean as the leading lights of the cast and Vic and Nic (to pardon the pun/play on words here) had just been in two of the greatest sitcoms of all time and they just never fitted in in it I found

Though years later with those Special BBC one-off episodes it was a delight to see that Vic had not lost any of his great acting skills, and though I am un-aware if he had had time out out of the Buisness acting-wise like a fair few from sitcoms of such status did that he and Nic enjoyed - it made him an even greater actor in my opinon in that he had gottan rid of the status of being "Jack" on Bread and now was fully fledged in his own right as an actor


You are right to an extent I feel about Last Of The Summer Wine, but it still had good characters and actors in it after Bill'ss passing I thought. I have always been "so, so" about Russ Abbott and undecided but whatever it is said he was a great Comedian - like him or not, even if his cting was dubious he made for a far few great one-liners on LOTSW in the same vain that Ssean ritchie and Bradley Walsh made the transition frm Comedians to characters in programes in their spells in EastEnders and Corrie!

You are right about waterloo rd too - I was going to mention/nominate this but thought it was'nt appropriate as it missed the "cut off deadline" of what we talk about on here by 8 years. It may have ecentualy (as it did) "Jump The shark" after moving to scotland but it was well watchable - even in the Scotish Series' first few/4 or so, par idiotic characters like the Liberal Do-gooder Michael Byrne falling down and having punch-ups in Boozers. That it followed Grange Hill as the next School after their brief crossover on Telly from 2006 to 2008 also makes logic and sense and the scotish move was handled well un-like Grange Hill's from London to Liverpool - as to me it was logical that had had a new benefactor of mass amounts of money who wanted to move to a very scenic location and open a Private school there. Sadly thougha lot of the writing was weak but to her credit the character who played the Benefactor who was Sarah Hills in EastEnders played her socks off in that role i thought

Re Bread I have heard similar reports re Liverpudlians tbhoughts on it - but as was so with Only Fools and Del's Dodgy antics, every Family of such nature in whatever City/major Town from Bristol or Plymouth upto Aberdeen was exploting the dole/earning cash on the side in such vains. Even modern Comedy's (if you can call it one - through the Blue Lingo involved in White Gold proved this) as did too to a lesser degree The Royale Family which is another that has definitley stood the "test of time" i'd say

80sChav

[80sChav]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

As well as The royale family - which though Coroline is not here to script anymore - I feel a good writter could easily keep write well and keep it "modern" , as to me it falls into such brackets of Comedy's like Gavin and Stacey - which is again just out of the DYN Timescale, but is un-believable that is 10 years plus old and in that it made James Corden (one of my all time favourite actors) who I had admire so much from coming from nothing and trying so hard until he reached his celling - to think that this was so so good it could of even been 1996/97 not 2006/07.

Additionally too it brought the character who played the evil Archie Mitchell on EastEnders to prominance that the actor had never really enjoyed or had his talents exposed to I feel/believe

80sChav

[George 1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

HAVE:

Grange Hill (from the first series onwards and right on through the McClusky era)
Prisoner: Cell Block H (timeless - best watched on Sunday nights)
Casualty (especially the Mike Barratt/Jude Kocarnik era of the mid 1990s)
The Bill (the half-hour 8.00 pm format in the early to mid 1990s)

HAVE NOT:

Eldorado (no explanation needed)
Girls on Top (a 1980s equivalent of that Denise van Outen sitcom Babes in the Wood methinks)
Hardwicke House (filmed locally as well)
Most programmes made (or should I say commissioned) by Carlton in 1993

[Richard1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

I've only seen the first episode of Girls On Top but it was odd to watch as it seemed to be less than the sum of it's parts, not helped by the usual ITV sitcom jinx & the relative experience of the main cast.

When it was first shown it was billed as the "Female Young Ones", just like Babes In The Wood was nicknamed "Women Behaving Badly".

[George 1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Girls on Top seemed very risqué for a Wednesday night mainstream ITV audience, often in the 8.30 pm slot where many Thames programmes would be. I would hardly think of Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Tracey Ullman being in the same category as more traditional sitcom actors, and I suppose that compared to ATV, Central was like a 1980s Midlands equivalent of Carlton replacing Thames - I can't imagine ATV doing Girls on Top for example. No doubt that it eventually made it to Channel 4 as it felt like the same genre as The Comic Strip and other alternative comedians creeping into television (Ben Elton we mean you). I would have put it on at least in the Sunday 10.00 pm Spitting Image and Hale and Pace slot if it was to stay on ITV.

Ironic that Hardwicke House was replaced by Chance in a Million which itself was a sitcom first seen on Channel 4 - I saw the episodes again on YouTube recently that were seen back in 1987 and I remember how "bad" they were. Please Sir! it wasn't, I am afraid.

[George 1978]

Re: TV progs that 'HAVE' and 'HAVE NOT' stood the test of time....

Originally it was Dervla Kirwin and Michelle Holmes, then it was Liz Carling and Emma Amos. The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris makes me wonder if he's seen Goodnight Sweetheart!

I know that she is just an actress at the end of the day, but I just cannot stand Michelle Holmes after she appeared as barmaid Tina Fowler in Coronation Street in around 1989-1990 (aka the "Maurice Jones" era). I suppose that Holmes is obviously like a different person when she is playing other characters, and that she had mellowed in the years since, but in a nutshell, I just couldn't stand her Corrie character from 30 years (was it really that long?) ago - I always fast-forward any scenes she is in when I watch Corrie on YouTube. The stereotypical model turned barmaid (cf Raquel)- it feels so painful to watch....

Why couldn't all the barmaids be more like Betty Turpin/Williams? (i.e. make a good hotpot).