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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 165840" data-attributes="member: 23">After Henry is passing the time nicely. Last night I watched the second (and final) Christmas special. Series Two&#039;s twelve episodes have gently washed over me, rather like standing in a warm shower and being surprised at how quickly the time has gone.Simon Brett&#039;s writing is wonderful. It&#039;s intelligent and relatable and seems so simple and effortless, which is a nice trick if you can do it. Everything about it says &quot;understated quality&quot;. Appropriately for a series that began on the radio, a couple of moments of tongue twisting dialogue have wowed me. The eggy peggy episode had a few - particularly for Prunella Scales (I&#039;d never heard of <a href="https://www.antimoon.com/forum/t5510.htm" target="_blank">eggy peggy</a> and now I feel I&#039;ve missed out. Perhaps because I wasn&#039;t a public schoolboy) And there was Joan Sanderson&#039;s rather epic recitation of historic British monarchs in chronological order. Again, it was probably one of those mnemonics that was taught at school during her childhood, rather like Thirty Days Hath September. But hearing it for the first time, recited at great speed by Eleanor looking equal parts bored and superior it was very impressive. And that&#039;s in addition to some of her regular mouthfuls about her sources, which usually involve &quot;Valerie Brown on the pension counter&#039;s sister Mary&quot;, though sometimes are even more convoluted.Timothy West appeared in one episode as a rather camp theatrical. Real life spouses always make me watch with a different angle, and this was no exception.Speaking of Eleanor&#039;s network, it was a treat during the first series to see Fanny Rowe as Eleanor&#039;s frienemy, Vera Polling (the one whose daughter Tricia is married to a merchant banker). I know Fanny best as Hester&#039;s interfering mother in Fresh Fields: a character analogous to Eleanor in any number of ways. So seeing them both together seemed almost surreal. The image of two of them sitting in a darkened room watching softcore porn was nothing short of heartwarming. Vera has been recast from Series Two with Peggy Ann Wood, and the onscreen dynamics are very different. With Sanderson and Rowe, their little barbed back and forths were like a battle of the titans. Wood&#039;s Vera is rather more timid and subservient. The Minnie Caldwell to Sanderson&#039;s Ena Sharples. Both interpretations are very enjoyable. Looking on IMDb, I see that Fanny died in 1988, so that first series of After Henry was her last work. In fact, After Henry was the last work for Rowe, Wood and Sanderson. And how wonderful that all three of them were serviced so well for their last roles.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 165840, member: 23"] [I]After Henry [/I]is passing the time nicely. Last night I watched the second (and final) Christmas special. Series Two's twelve episodes have gently washed over me, rather like standing in a warm shower and being surprised at how quickly the time has gone. Simon Brett's writing is wonderful. It's intelligent and relatable and seems so simple and effortless, which is a nice trick if you can do it. Everything about it says "understated quality". Appropriately for a series that began on the radio, a couple of moments of tongue twisting dialogue have wowed me. The eggy peggy episode had a few - particularly for Prunella Scales (I'd never heard of [URL='https://www.antimoon.com/forum/t5510.htm']eggy peggy[/URL] and now I feel I've missed out. Perhaps because I wasn't a public schoolboy) And there was Joan Sanderson's rather epic recitation of historic British monarchs in chronological order. Again, it was probably one of those mnemonics that was taught at school during her childhood, rather like [I]Thirty Days Hath September[/I]. But hearing it for the first time, recited at great speed by Eleanor looking equal parts bored and superior it was very impressive. And that's in addition to some of her regular mouthfuls about her sources, which usually involve "Valerie Brown on the pension counter's sister Mary", though sometimes are even more convoluted. Timothy West appeared in one episode as a rather camp theatrical. Real life spouses always make me watch with a different angle, and this was no exception. Speaking of Eleanor's network, it was a treat during the first series to see Fanny Rowe as Eleanor's frienemy, Vera Polling (the one whose daughter Tricia is married to a merchant banker). I know Fanny best as Hester's interfering mother in [I]Fresh Fields[/I]: a character analogous to Eleanor in any number of ways. So seeing them both together seemed almost surreal. The image of two of them sitting in a darkened room watching softcore porn was nothing short of heartwarming. Vera has been recast from Series Two with Peggy Ann Wood, and the onscreen dynamics are very different. With Sanderson and Rowe, their little barbed back and forths were like a battle of the titans. Wood's Vera is rather more timid and subservient. The Minnie Caldwell to Sanderson's Ena Sharples. Both interpretations are very enjoyable. Looking on IMDb, I see that Fanny died in 1988, so that first series of [I]After Henry [/I]was her last work. In fact, [I]After Henry [/I]was the last work for Rowe, Wood and Sanderson. And how wonderful that all three of them were serviced so well for their last roles. [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?