TV series they're trying to forget

[Andrew Curnow]

Wasn't Anna Wing (from EastEnders) his wife in it? I seem to recall that the theme was very catchy, although not enough to remember it twenty years later!!

[Simon R]

Who remembers The Peter Principle, A Prince Among Men, Dad and Keeping Mum? Flop BBC sit-coms of late 90s early 00s.

[Pip Madeley]

His fault for leaving Red Dwarf VII.

[Andrew Curnow]

The Peter Principle should have been excellent, as it had Jim Broadbent in it, who I think is marvellous - yet somehow, the perfect sitcom vehicle for him remains undiscovered. And Dad was, I think, George Cole and was his son played by matey from "The Twin Dilemma"?

What about Laura and Disorder, co-written by its star Wendy Craig? Or even worse, there was a sitcom about two girls starting a catering business, and the boyfriend of one - it was on Thursday nights, and I can recall only one funny moment from the entire six week run, which was a cutlery joke with the punchline "fork off".

[Dave Tudor]

I can't think what that might have been, but Laura and Disorder vaguely rings a bell - you can just tell from the title that it was awful (see also 'Land Of Hope & Gloria' starring Sheila Ferguson from The Three Degrees, one of the most unfunny sitcoms I have ever seen).

The Peter Principle and Prince Among Men were indeed terrible, despite the talents of Jim Broadbent and Chris Barrie respectively, although I thought Dad and Keeping Mum weren't too bad actually.

Incidentally, Francesca Hunt, pictured there as Chris Barrie's wife in 'Prince Among Men', is the sister of one India Fisher. Just thought I'd mention that.

[Alex]

I vaugely remember an ITV sci-fi show which (possibly) starred Michael Praed, there was a book released beforehand, and viewers got to vote on how it ended.

I remember it being absolutely terrible, but really liked the idea behind it. Can anyone remember it, and what it might've been called?

Edit: I've done a bit of googling and it was called Murder In Space - http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/397174

Edit 2: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089641/ - I was completely wrong about the Michael Praed thing it seems, it was Michael Ironside infact!

[Andrew Curnow]

Crikey, I remember that, it was on one Summer holidays - wasn't the 'detective' a chubby guy with walrus-y moustaches and thick glasses?

What a lot of old drivel we used to watch in the old days!!

[WhiteCrow]

http://www.tvparty.com/recholmes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_and_yo-yo

Created by Leonard Stern, a former staff writer for Get Smart, the series starred Richard B. Shull as Det. Alexander Holmes, a clumsy down-on-his-luck cop who constantly injures his partners. The department gives him a new partner, Gregory Yoyonivich (John Schuck). Yo-Yo, as he likes to be called, is good natured, if a bit clumsy, and also surprisingly strong. During one of their first calls, Yo-Yo is shot and Holmes discovers that his new partner is an android, a sophisticated new crime-fighting machine designed by the police department as their secret weapon on crime.

[Allllie]

I remember this programme I can clearly remember watching many years ago probably late 70's . All I can remember about it is I think when he wiggled his tie, his chest flipped open and the food he ate earlier came out in little sandwich bags. Everyone thinks I'm mad cos know one else ever remembers it!

[Andrew Curnow]

Was that Luna (Lunar?) or something like that? There was a Mickey Dolenz' produced sci-fi kids show, I think, with Patsy Kensit as Luna in one of the series; and I think she had an android friend (played by Tony Hart's Mr Bennett) - might have been that.

[Andrew Curnow]

It probably isn't, but if it is, there's a website (of course there is!) about LUNA here.

Interestingly, there's also a mention of Doctor Who near the very bottom ofthis page!

[Logo Polish]

I remember Kinvig very well, used to enjoy wtahcing that as a kid. Mainly for the business of wondering whether or not the sci-fi stuff going on was meant to be real or just Kinvig's imagination. And anything with Colin Jeavons and Patsy Rowlands in it is worth a try in my book.

Dead Earnest is another one I can remember vividly, even the champagne cork hitting him on the forehead and the (possibly animated) sequence showing the moving stairs to heaven before cutting to a scene with him meeting other people on their way there. The staff were wearing blue jackets in the afterlife office, which give it a slightly holiday camp look. They did a send-up of This Is Your Life in one episode, and I think Harry Fowler (him off Remembrance) was a regular.

Comrade Dad - dystopian fantasy sitcom set in a Soviet-occupied Britain of 1999, where jokes about Albanians were prohibited, and George Cole was a lickspittle to the austere regime with its lack of freedoma bnd poor economic conditions. Bet it looks a right period piece now.

Dad - one of those depressing Britcoms of the unfunny-but-doesn't-have-any-characters-you-can-enjoy-watching-in-either. Did indeed feature George Cole and Kevin McNally, with Rona off Two Point Four Children as the latter's wife. Not sure of her name - Julia Hills?

A Prince Among Men - watched it once and hated it.

The Peter Principle - I actually didn't think this was quite as bad as was painted at the time, although admittedly it was infested by some very weak and lazy cheap gags. I did quite like the rivalry between Jim Broadbent's and Claire Skinner's characters (not sure if the latter would like being reminded of this these days), the idea being that that he was a bungling incompetent too obstinate to recognise that, whereas she was a go-ahead sharp professional who was clearly the far more talented one. Not particularly good, but I've seen a lot worse.

Anyone remeber The Labours of Erica? Brenda Blethyn resolving to do various things she'd wanted to do before reachinga certain age.

[WhiteCrow]

Comrade Dad - dystopian fantasy sitcom set in a Soviet-occupied Britain of 1999, where jokes about Albanians were prohibited, and George Cole was a lickspittle to the austere regime with its lack of freedoma bnd poor economic conditions. Bet it looks a right period piece now.

You reminded me of another one - A Small Problem,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Small_Problem

A Small Problem is a British sitcom originally broadcast on BBC2 in 1987. Whilst intended as a satire on prejudice, set in a Britain where a form of apartheid is in place based on people's height - anyone below 5ft tall was forced to live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames, many viewers appeared not to understand this, and the BBC was flooded with complaints.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/ar...99002875.shtml

Rarely has such a tiny sitcom caused such big problems as the ironically titled A Small Problem.

The series was conceived as a satire on the nature of prejudice, with 'heightism' used as the metaphor for all the universal 'isms' (racism, sexism, ageism and so on). The premise was a Britain where short people are discriminated against, height regulations stipulating that anyone under 5ft must live in tower-block ghettos south of the River Thames. In the first episode, a new EEC regulation height of 1.55 metres is enforced, and this means that Roy Pink, at 5ft in, is suddenly designated 'short' and rounded up to live in the ghetto. For Roy, a 'heightist' who despises short people, being classified as one of them is a real body-blow. While in the ghetto he meets Fred, the timid leader of the residents' association, Howard, leader of the militant Small Liberation Front, and Japanese businessman Mr Motokura, who was in Britain to open a new factory when he was herded off to the ghetto. Through these acquaintances, Roy is gradually made aware of the plight of short people, and presumably - had the series continued - he would have come to see the stupidity of his own prejudice. But A Small Problem ended prematurely after just one series, partly because of the furore surrounding its transmission.

Writers Millan and Walling were actors who had been in their fair share of sitcoms (the former was a regular in Citizen Smith the latter was a perennial in Brush Strokes when they decided to use comedy to tackle the issue of prejudice. Their mistake was in picking 'heightism' as their theme (although, to be fair, any theme would have caused a furore). As soon as the first episode went out, the complaints flooded in - people of restricted height being outraged that smallness should be the object of comedy. These complainants accused the writers of reinforcing height prejudices that already existed: many found the terms of abuse used in the show ('dwarf', 'midget') personally offensive, while others pointed out that such a series wouldn't have been tolerated had it been about a racial minority (which rather missed the point of using a metaphor). Millan and Walling went on the BBC's community-access programme Open Air to answer their accusers, arguing that all prejudice was stupid and that they could have taken anything - people with blue eyes, people with big ears - as the theme.


All the same, the writers would have done well to learn a lesson from the American singer/songwriter Randy Newman, who, in 1977, used the same trick of utilising 'heightism' as a metaphor for prejudice in his satirical hit 'Short People'. Although the song was intended to ridicule discrimination, the outcry was enormous and the furore dogged him for years.

[Andrew Curnow]

I remember that, and from memory I think it was very funny (although I think I only watched one or two). The complaints were just so absurdly missing the point, and I'm sure totally scuppered any second series...

...on the subject of which, does anybody remember Lazarus & Dingwall, which was a detective show on BBC2 with the two Carling Black Label blokes as the detectives (is the one with the eyebrows called Steve Frost?)? It isn't a show to try to forget, because it was very funny indeed - lots of quick-fire, wordplay gags, a good support cast (the female cop who rolled her eyes in the titles every week was tres sexy), and I seem to recall the whole family watching it.

Going back to 'want to forget' shows - there was a sitcom on BBC2 with James Bolam as a priest who 'adopts' a young girl, which was apparently based on real life but which wasn't all that funny alas. Any ideas as to its name?

[Pip Madeley]

Dunno bout that one Andrew, but Pay and Display was bloody awful:

Pay And Display
UK, ITV (Lawless Films for Carlton), Sitcom, colour, 2000
Starring: James Bolam, Matt Bardock, Diana Weston

Laddish banter from two underground car-park attendants. Young Danny is a skirt chaser, Syd is the older-but-no-wiser veteran. They have opposing views on the world yet are forced to get on owing to the cramped confines of their workplace. Danny prattles on about 'birds' he is after, Syd reminisces about past times with his good wife Maureen, a reputedly vast woman who is not seen by the viewer. Interrupting their chats are Adolf, a traffic warden who fancies himself as a political activist, and Miss Cummings, their no-nonsense boss who tries to keep everything shipshape.

This was a laboured sitcom peopled by stereotypical characters in unlikely plots. The rare instances of witty dialogue were well delivered, by Bolam especially, but it was sad to see the old Likely Lad in such a pedestrian piece. Subtract the fruitier vulgarities and Pay And Display could have been from the 1970s; as it was, it didn't even have the veneer of period charm to disguise its rather old-fashioned manner.

[Dave Tudor]

I've never heard of 'A Small Problem', although the name 'Lazarus & Dingwall' is familiar. Don't remember much about it, however.

Pay And Display was poor, yes. I don't think ITV have produced any good sitcoms during the last ten or fifteen years (or more) save perhaps for the hugely-underrated 'Is It Legal?' and, I suppose, 'Men Behaving Badly' (which only really hit its stride after moving to BBC 1). Please correct me if there are any obvious ones I've forgotten about!

[Andrew Curnow]

Other TV shows so dire we ought to forget - the first attempt at Dalziel and Pascoe, starring Hale and Pace; the revivals of "The Liver Birds" and the Doctor series during the 1990s; and a Tony Brittan/Susan Hampshire sitcom written by Roy Clarke and also, I think, featuring a youngish Caroline Quentin.

[Dave Tudor]

a Tony Brittan/Susan Hampshire sitcom written by Roy Clarke and also, I think, featuring a youngish Caroline Quentin.

I was thinking about that one earlier! I think it was called 'Don't Tell Dad'.

[Pip Madeley]

Pay And Display was poor, yes. I don't think ITV have produced any good sitcoms during the last ten or fifteen years... Please correct me if there are any obvious ones I've forgotten about!

Dead Man Weds (Johnny Vegas/Dave Spikey) and Hardware (Martin Freeman/Peter Serafinowicz) were meant to be the next big things, but they were awful. Then there was Barbara, that ran for four series! Not forgetting Believe Nothing with Rik Mayall... I've not seen that properly though, so I should give it another go sometime.

I did like Mike Bassett: Manager with Ricky Tomlinson though. More of a comedy-drama I guess, but it had some good moments.

[Andrew Curnow]

Crikey, you're good Dave - a quick net search reveals the culprit to be Don't Tell Father, but you'd virtually got it.

[WhiteCrow]

One which everyone probably remembers, but kind of has never been repeated on UK Gold to my knowledge - wonder if it's dated THAT badly?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_Peculiar_Practice

A Very Peculiar Practice was a BBC comedy-drama series, first shown in 1986. It was the first major success for screenwriter Andrew Davies, and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick.

The series stood out because of its surreal humour. It concerned an idealistic young doctor, Stephen Daker (Peter Davison), taking up a post as a member of a university medical centre. The centre is staffed by a group of misfits including the bisexual Rose Marie (Barbara Flynn) and self-absorbed Bob Buzzard (David Troughton), and headed by decrepit Scot Jock McCannon (Graham Crowden). A central theme of the series is the increasing commercialisation of further education in Britain with the Vice-Chancellor Ernest Hemmingway (John Bird) trying to woo Japanese investors in the face of resistance from the academic old guard. Hugh Grant made one of his first television appearances as an evangelical preacher; Kathy Burke also had a bit part. In the second series Michael Shannon appeared as the new Vice-Chancellor Jack Daniels, continuing the running joke of naming the VC after an American.

[WhiteCrow]

It seems Channel 4 at one stage or another would green light anything in the vein of comedy - heck I even had a Channel 4 comedy series pitch on my computer at some point ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/ar...99002249.shtml

My Dead Dad

In spite of being on the dole, Alex 'Eck' Dundee has a reasonably pleasant life, a decent room in a shared flat, an embryonic romance with the sexually permissive Jools, and a winning optimism about his job prospects that carries him through his many interviews. But all of this is disrupted by the arrival of Eck's late father, spirited down from heaven for reasons that neither of them understands. Said dad, Willie, who died 14 years earlier, surmises that he must have been sent down to help his son through a particularly difficult patch, but actually all of Alex's problems arise from his father's presence. Unlike most screen ghosts, Willie can be seen by everyone, not just the hauntee, and, by way of an apparent supernatural tradition, he is linked to his son by an invisible umbilical chord that prevents them from straying more than a few feet from one another. This causes Alex untold problems, as his dad - garishly dressed, heavily cologned and with forthrightly expressed oldfashioned views - is not the ideal companion for a would-be dashing young man about town.


My Dead Dad was a bit of an odd fish and not just because of its supernatural storyline. Forbes Masson (former half of the comedy double-act Victor and Barry) was a dependable lead but the whole thing just didn't seem to gel. It also had a hard job playing down its stage origins, the premise having first appeared as a theatre play, Dead Dad Dog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/ar...99001890.shtml

Life After Birth

Twenty-year-old Alison goes to a party, gets drunk, laid and falls pregnant. Nine months later she becomes a single mother, struggling against the system to bring up her baby boy, and Life After Birth charted her tribulations. Lending Alison a helping hand was her best friend and flatmate Judith, a struggling musician who, like Alison, is sexually promiscuous, but too smart to fall into the same trap. Also on hand was Judith's boyfriend Gabriel, an amiable chap, genuinely fond of Alison. More of a hindrance than a help were the nosey neighbours - Sylv, a brash cockney woman, and Trish, gormless, gauche, but well meaning. Both are mothers themselves and quick to offer Alison advice, but mostly the generation gap renders such pointers useless.

Life After Birth was an odd mix of comic and serious themes. Its trendy, archly contemporary, urban credit sequence - complete with fuzzy titles - belied the old-fashioned nature of the piece which, although unmistakably of the 1990s in its colourful language and themes, still featured many of the stereotypes (prying neighbours, cloying mother) that had dogged the sitcom genre for too long. Although a worthwhile attempt, the series never fully recovered from the downbeat nature of the premise, which made it hard to raise persistent laughs from what was often quite a depressing situation.

[Matthew T]

I've always wondered why So Haunt Me seems to have been so forgotten, never repeated or anything...it ran for 2 or 3 series and was quite popular at the time.

[Andrew Curnow]

With Miriam Carlin (sp?) from The Rag Trade, and Raquel from OFAH - I loved that. I can do the theme tune if it helps...

I think Peculiar Practice was repeated on one of the BBCs (3? 4?) a couple of Christmasses ago - it probably has dated in terms of production values, and certainly in how shocking or otherwise it is, but the couple I saw were still rather entertaining, plus the theme music is very catchy.

[Matthew T]

I just read on Wikipedia (so it's probably completely inaccurate) that So Haunt Me isn't shown anymore because the portrayal of the ghost was considered a negative stereotype of Jews!