The Great British Sitcom

[Mel O'Drama]

Well, Series Two has breezed merrily on. Just one episode of this run remains ahead of me.

Even the episodes which feel very much like "filler" in terms of plot and premise have proved enjoyable. Sam getting into scrapes while babysitting Tom, and Tom attempting to begin a gymnastics career are two examples of this. They're by no means the best the series has to offer, but they've proved better than I'd expect from a plot summary. It was interesting to see William Puttock doing his own "stunts" during the gym sequences.

While I prefer the kids in the show to remain supporting players, stealing the occasional scene, I thought the execution of these episodes proved that the casting has got it right and they handled being more visible very well. I dare say I'd find the equivalent Who's The Boss? episodes a trial due to the precocious little child actor playing Jonathan. Indeed, a couple of available clips have deepened my gratitude that the British casting has avoided the saccharine cutesy route.

A less-successful kid-heavy episode was Series Two's penultimate in which Tom's new girlfriend has a crush on Charlie, leading to bitterness between the two males. It felt very formulaic and a bit silly, and the inexperience of the young actress playing Tom's girlfriend radiated all-too clearly from the screen. The one moment I thought was interesting for showing a line being crossed from which it would be difficult to come back (Tom knocking out Charlie with a stone from his catapult) proved to be a dream sequence, and a device for Tom to quickly switch back to his previous adoration of Charlie, which seemed a little cheap and lazy.

The episode focussing on Caroline's competitive streak when she loses out on an award while Charlie wins a huge trophy for a darts match was a fun one. I suspect this is one of the episodes that received quite a number of cultural tweaks in the writing. The equivalent WTB episode had Tony winning his trophy for a bowling competition, while there was also a sub-plot with Jonathan's spelling bee which seems to have been omitted almost entirely. There was a passing reference to Tom having recently sat a spelling test or something and he also spelt out a word spelling bee style, which I think is as much as I'd care to watch of that plot. Less is more.

The Heiress proved one of the more compelling episodes, with an old affair of Laura's coming to light when Caroline inherited money from the suitor in question. The American sitcom writing showed towards the end, with Caroline conveniently forgiving Laura in time for the freeze-frame, but in between there were some nice moments for Diana Weston and especially Honor Blackman. An episode can never have too much Laura!

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Series Three is now reaching the midway point: six down, seven to go.

My first observation is that the timeline seems to have been suddenly pushed on. The final episode of Series Two celebrated the first anniversary of Charlie becoming housekeeper. While not obligatory, this happens to line up well with real-world time for viewers, since this episode aired in May 1991 and the first episode had aired in May 1990.

Two episodes later, in Series Three's First Date, Charlie tells a stand-up comedian he's known Caroline for "three years". First Date aired less than six real-world months after The Anniversary*.

This could partly be due to translation of the source material. Who's The Boss? had over seventy episodes and two and a half full seasons between their equivalent shows. However, I feel there's also deliberation involved on the part of The Powers That Be at The Upper Hand. The energy between Charlie and Caroline feels different this year - less platonic and with more ease, romantic teasing, over-involvement in the other's life and flashes of jealousy at situations they would have ignored previously. It seems there's a conscious effort to move the story forwards and keep the dynamics fresh. I think the kids' ages have also been boosted by a couple of years as well. In other words, there's been a time-jump.

The episode selection continues to intrigue. There's no doubt a lot of absolute dreck that's avoided by TUH having much shorter series and the benefit of seven long seasons' worth of scripts from which to select. However, there's still chaff among the wheat, with some episodes' scripts feeling weaker and more formulaic than others and riding mostly on the charisma of the cast (which is how I remember the vast majority of Who's The Boss? being. Its appeal stemming almost completely on how engaging one found the actors).

Part of me wonders if The Upper Hand would have been an even stronger series had they had six-to-eight episodes per year (like the most successful British sitcoms) and selected their scripts even more carefully, focussing almost entirely on those that focus on the ups and downs of Charlie and Caroline's relationship. In Series Three terms, this makes Bedtime Story, First Date and Old Flames must-see episodes, while the episodes focussing on Jo's love bite and the feud with the creepy, smiling neighbours ones to skip. However, there's good stuff in all of them, and there's still a lot of character in the less scintillating, less necessary episodes. Some of these more pedestrian stories work well in this series with its earthier, less saccharine approach than the American version, and the balance of humour and investment in the relationships even with workaday material puts me very much in mind of soap opera - and Aussie soaps in particular. There's something about TUH's Anglo-American thing that ends up feeling rather Antipodean to me, making an episode called Neighbours featuring a silly feud with the new people next door feel wholly appropriate.

And so, in short, it all works. Diana Weston has thus far been the only player not to have surpassed her American counterpart for me, and while this remains true for me, she's also come very much into her own this year and feels stronger, funnier and more confident. Perhaps the new dynamic is working for her better. Perhaps she's come into her own and made Caroline a character who works beyond the baggage of the inherited material. Or perhaps I've just stopped comparing and enjoyed her for who she's been all along. Whatever the case, it's a small-ish factor that helps improve my viewing experience. The rest of the cast remain terrific. William Puttock is giving us some attitude from Tom that I haven't really seen since the early days. His righteous furrowed nose and set jaw as he lays out his opinion on this or that is great. Joe McGann and Kellie Bright are consistently good. And Honor Blackman remains an absolute favourite, making every barbed line a winner.



* Apropos of nothing, it was wonderful to see the wonderful Anne Reid in a small-ish role as a nurse in The Anniversary. Nobody else could deliver reassurance about a general anaesthetic, immediately followed by the matter of fact line about there always being the risk of death, the way that she could. Once again, the detail in the casting paid off brilliantly.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Billing seems to have become a focus with the latter part of Series Three and going into Series Four. I believe Anthony Newley was the first person to receive his own "Special Guest Star" credit in the opening titles (albeit with no accompanying image of him).

With Series Four, the two actors playing the children are now named in the opening credits (it bothers me that Kellie Bright, billed before William Puttock, is on the right of the accompanying shot of the pair). Tim Brooke-Taylor has now received his own "Special Guest Star" billing (he must have a good agent!)

Other familiar faces have included Simon Williams, Martin Clunes and Samantha Beckinsale. I know that the wonderful Lynda Baron will make her series debut with my next episode, so that's something to look forward to.

Perhaps this is a case of familiarity breeding contempt, but a couple of little habits of the actors have started jumping out at me. The most distracting of these is Joe McGann's tendency to begin his lines by saying "Come on [character name]..." (his most common variation is "Come on Caroline..." which I first noticed because of the doubling up of McGann's extremely hard "K" sound). I don't know if it's a new thing, or if I simply hadn't noticed before, but it could get testing if it continues.

Diana Weston gets funnier with each passing series. And Honor Blackman can do no wrong at all in my eyes. If I wasn't a fan before, I am now.

 

[Hawkman]

Sorry I've not trawled through 28 pages of this thread, but has anyone mentioned Chance In A Million starring Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn no less. Written by the Brittas Empire team. Here is episode one.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

has anyone mentioned Chance In A Million starring Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn no less.

Gosh - I'd forgotten all about this one, and I only knew it vaguely in the first place. I don't think I've ever watched it, so this could be one for my viewing bucket list.

Believe it or not, I don't think I'd watched Brenda Blethyn in anything until last year when I saw her in a film called Belonging and made a mental note to explore more of her work.

Looking at the rest of the cast, Deddie Davies is an actress I've watched in a couple of things recently (including an episode of my current sitcom, The Upper Hand and the one I watched immediately before it, A. J. Wentworth, B.A.). She's always very reliable as a supporting player and one of those instantly recognisable faces. Another reason for me to watch.

I've not trawled through 28 pages of this thread

Just in case you're curious about other sitcoms, post #1 of this thread has an alphabetical index of the series discussed or reviewed in this thread.

 

[Hawkman]

Brenda Blethyn followed Chance in a Million with The Labours of Erica, written by the same team.
12 episodes a sort of Labours of Hercules take, Erica approaching 40 yeas old has a bucket list of things to do before 40, some way out things among them. Also stars Geoffrey Davies who played Dick Stuart Clarke in the LWT series Doctor on the house, Doctor on the go, Doctor at large etc. Episode 1 starts with a nice visual gag.

And then Brenda in a very un ITV like comedy, made without laughter track, about everyday cricketing folk. With Timothy Spall Josie Lawrence and Robert Daws called Outside Edge.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Brenda Blethyn followed Chance in a Million with The Labours of Erica, written by the same team.

Interesting. It seems difficult to track down an affordable copy of the DVD, so here's hoping Network get hold of this one. It seems up their street.

And then Brenda in a very un ITV like comedy, made without laughter track, about everyday cricketing folk. With Timothy Spall Josie Lawrence and Robert Daws called Outside Edge.

Now this one I discovered less than a month ago when it featured in a Network offer. I came very close to buying it, but it came at a point where I'd spent ridiculous amounts on old sitcom DVDs in a short space of time and this had to be sacrificed. Next time it's on offer, it will be mine.

I did watch some clips online, including the entire first episode, and it looks really good.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Last night I hit the halfway point of The Upper Hand.

While I'm still thoroughly enjoying it, I'm also very much of a mind that less would have been more. Series Four has nineteen episodes!! That's practically the length of an American TV season. I must confess the choice of episodes has been fine - it would be difficult to choose which episodes I'd cut in order to get this down to a standard-length series - but long series just don't feel right with a British sitcom, and there is the danger of it outstaying its welcome and me feeling less generous in my appraisal.

Despite there being a writer devoted to changing American references and phrases, I do feel there are still too many Americanisms that remain: "yell" instead of shout, for example. Or "mad" meaning "angry" rather than "insane". Last night Jo said she was going to "go say goodbye" to her grandfather. It's all quite low key, but still makes me shudder a little. Sadder still is that we've lost our way so much more in the three decades since these were filmed that most millennials wouldn't even notice these Americanisms.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I must confess the choice of episodes has been fine - it would be difficult to choose which episodes I'd cut in order to get this down to a standard-length series

As Series Four enters its second half, this task has become easier.

With very few exceptions, sport is never a favourite theme of mine in series television or on film. The volleyball episode was decent enough, focussing as it did on Caroline's growing discontent that Charlie was treating her differently which left her feeling excluded and unsupported. Since it came down to the series' key relationship it's easy to justify this one's existence.

The boxing episode, however, was tedious. One suspects the Who's The Boss? original was simply an opportunity to get Tony Danza's shirt off, which gives it a selling point of kinds. With McGann lacking Danza's winsome qualities, the episode's already thin appeal goes out of the window and what's left is a dull episode which has to employ any number of devices in a futile bid to hold the viewer's attention. It's told in flashback via Charlie's voiceover, which is completely unnecessary. There are also training sequences which seem to homage Rocky. It's all good and well in a two hour film, supported by a stirring Bill Conti score, but in a twenty four minute sitcom, a two minute dialogue-free montage in which nothing happens feels absolutely endless. The match itself is boring to anyone not interested in boxing (i.e. most of the viewing audience), and probably unconvincing and twee to anyone who is.

Who's The Boss? aired these two sporting episodes with a three year gap between them. The Upper Hand's retreads were barely a month apart.


Then there are episodes that just plain frustrate and do characters a great disservice to accommodate that week's plot. The house-letting episode is one of these. Caroline and Charlie go into partnership when she buys a nearby cottage to let, which he will help manage. They find a suitable tenant who is keen to pay the asking price and offers the deposit six months' rent in advance. They offer it to him. However a busty slattern wanders in and bats her eyes at Charlie and he instead leases it to her in Caroline's absence, despite her negotiating a much lower rent and then not being able to pay either rent or the deposit.

It's a lowbrow kind of plot that might have just about worked in the series' early days, but at this stage it feels cheap. Apart from making it very clear that Charlie lacks any kind of business sense and is thinking with his meat and two veg, it's not a good look for the character that he's also willing to screw over Caroline for thousands of pounds a year on the off-chance he'll be able to get his end away at a point in the series when the romance between Charlie and Caroline is very much on the horizon (I'm struggling to find the equivalent Who's The Boss? episode, so I'm not sure where in Tony and Angela's romantic arc it fell).

Adding insult to injury, Charlie's defence is that Caroline is jealous. She is belittled and made to seem petty for being unhappy at Charlie overstepping the mark, breaking an agreement and costing her a great deal of money with his bad business decision. Laura - and, it seems, the writers - are in full agreement with Charlie. Even in the denouement, he utters a half-hearted very general apology while Caroline falls over herself to admit she is jealous and that from now on they are "equal partners". Considering she owns the cottage and she's been screwed over, Charlie comes across as a chancer, playing on her feelings for his own gain. A far cry from the independent man we met in the series early days. This kind of thing might be fine for a U.S. sitcom like Who's The Boss?, but it just didn't translate well for this series where Charlie in particular has generally felt more substantial and reliable than his American counterpart.

Incidentally, I struggled to place the very familiar-looking actress playing the busty blonde who took advantage of Charlie's attraction to her. Even the name Tracie Bennett was familiar but not one I could associate with anything. Turns out she was Rita and Len's old foster kid Sharon Gaskell from Corrie.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The house-letting episode is one of these. Caroline and Charlie go into partnership when she buys a nearby cottage to let, which he will help manage.

I admit I did not recall this episode (well, the WTB equivalent) at all, so I had to look it up--it's titled "Dear Landlord," S6E15. So it's rather late in the run. In the American version, they hired actress Sherilyn Wolter to play the tenant. She had previously played roles on General Hospital and Santa Barbara. She was a very nice-looking woman, but hardly someone worth having Tony fall all over himself.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I admit I did not recall this episode (well, the WTB equivalent) at all, so I had to look it up--it's titled "Dear Landlord," S6E15. So it's rather late in the run.

Aha. Thanks for this context. I usually read up on the equivalent WTB episodes after watching - mainly to see if the synopsis mentions any differences between the two - and it frustrated me that I couldn't find this one. I did use a few key search words on the page ("tenant", "cottage", "letting", etc.), but if I'd thought to use "landlord" I could have saved myself a heap of trouble.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Speaking of "busty" types causing trouble, did TUH have any appearances by "Mrs. Wilmington," a flirty neighbor? In WTB she made two appearances: the first time played by Delta Burke, and by Marilu Henner in a later episode. In each case Mrs. Wilmington was flirting outrageously with Tony, but Delta Burke's original interpretation was a lot funnier. I loved the line delivery when Tony offered her some coffee. He seemed a bit distracted by the view and asked "Regular or D-Cup? DE-CAF!"

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Speaking of "busty" types causing trouble, did TUH have any appearances by "Mrs. Wilmington," a flirty neighbor?

Oh yes... her first episode was re-made as the Series Two TUH episode A Friend In Need. She was re-named "Mrs Wilkinson", but you'll be glad to know the D-Cup line made the transatlantic crossing untouched.

I wasn't particularly familiar with Linda Hayden who played the character, but it turns out I had watched her in guest-roles in a number of other series. The first paragraph of her IMDb mini bio explains why she was a natural choice for this role:

Gorgeous and voluptuous blonde actress Linda Hayden made a strong and lasting impression with her steamy portrayals of lusty nymphets and tempting seductresses in a handful of pictures made in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The latter part of Series Four reinforces that less is most definitely more. Padding out the nineteen episode series is an awful lot of filler, most of which seem to be in the second half of the year's run. There is still some good stuff, but it's being diluted by the quantity over quality approach.

Last night I watched the episode in which Jo became manager of a bad rock band and Tom did some bad stand up. This was followed by an episode set in "the caribbean" in which Caroline did a flirty dance to the Andrews Sisters' Rum and Coca-Cola and Charlie karaoke'd The Lady Is A Tramp. The overall effect was of watching a terrible talent contest.

On top of this, the comedy is getting more way out and bizarre, what with Caroline undergoing a personality change in order to tick off her bucket list of wild things in one episode, then being shot from a cannon in the next (we only heard this, but it was no less silly).

It feels the series is foundering with no more decent stories to tell. Almost in recognition of this, Caroline and Charlie's first proper kiss took place in at the end of the Caribbean episode. However, since most of the episode felt like a sequence of non-sequiturs, there was very little build-up to this and I'd almost checked out by this point.

The biggest W-T-F moment came when Charlie rebuffed Caroline mid-kiss because he thought they shouldn't do that unless they're married? This is the man who just a few episodes ago was shagging their tenant because... well, just because, really. I do understand it could be read as a suggestion that he values Caroline more than he does most of the women he regularly dates and kisses without any faux coyness (because his feelings for her are real). But it seemed at best out of character, and at worst rather manipulative of him. The cynical thought even struck me that Caroline's bank balance could be some kind of factor, and I don't think this would have occurred to me if the moment had been organic and unforced.

It seems the budget has been cut since the sunny South of France locations the cast visited for real in Series Two. This time round, the Caribbean was an extremely artificial-looking studio set, dressed with plastic greenery and the cast wearing colourful clothes over their pasty white skin. It all felt a bit "why bother".

In better news, Katherine Helmond's episode is coming up. All being well I'll watch it this evening.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

With the last two episodes of Series Four, The Upper Hand was pleasingly back on form.

Firstly, the episode with Laura's new lover falling for Charlie's Auntie Pat who is staying with them was a favourite of mine. Even before this scenario arose, there were some delightfully catty exchanges between Laura and Auntie Pat (with Laura doling out more than her fair share of putdowns). It's great for Honor Blackman to have a decent amount of screen time, and I'm also very happy to see Lynda Baron's character given a storyline where she's at the centre of things. Other than an old episode of Give Us A Clue last week, I think this is the first role I've watched Lynda in since her death in March, so it feels meaningful on that level. The lothario in question was played by Neil Stacy who I only really know from Duty Free in which I really liked him, so that's a plus as well.

After previously looking unsuccessfully to find the Who's The Boss? character analogous to Auntie Pat, I've just discovered it was Mrs Rossini. I do vaguely remember the character, but can't remember if she was Tony's aunt or just a friendly former neighbour. Perhaps @Daniel Avery can shed light on it for me.

One the episode's more low-key strengths was its almost entirely adult cast. Sam and Tom are fine, but they'd been used too heavily in previous episodes prior to this to the detriment of those episodes in particular and the series in general so I was fine with the more supporting role they played here.

The year rounded out with Tunnel Of Love, based on the WTB Season Eight premiere Seer Of Love. Up to this point, this seems to be as close as the two series have been in terms of episode transmission dates, with Tunnel Of Love coming around seventeen months after the American version aired. I really like the choice to make this episode the season closer, signalling a shift in the relationship and a new direction for the series ahead. Here, the watch Caroline gives Charlie is to commemorate their fourth anniversary rather than their seventh. This means that three years have passed since the end of Series Two, which commemorated their first anniversary. There's a sliding scale going on with time, which can be rationalised given the increasing series lengths: the first two series totalled 25 episodes, while the third and fourth have 32 between them.

Other than the episode's revelations, the big news is Katherine Helmond's guest appearance as Madame Alexandra who plays a key role in pushing Caroline and Charlie's relationship forwards. It feels very special that she's here, and I can't help reading into it that not only Caroline and Charlie's romance, but the entire series is being given an official Who's The Boss? seal of approval.

She did wonders with this small-but-key role and made it a dynamic and memorable one. I was especially impressed with her lack of vanity. When one of her character's first lines was about being phlegmy due to a head cold, you just know she's a sport.

Naturally, this has got my mind spinning with questions.I find myself wondering if Katherine had watched the show and perhaps even requested to appear. Did she have any say in which episode she appeared or which character she played? Whatever the case, it must have been a little bizarre for her to be - for all intents and purposes - re-shooting an episode but playing a different role while interacting with characters who are analogous to those with whom she'd spent the vast majority of her screen time for almost the entire previous decade.

Most especially, I found myself wondering how she viewed Honor Blackman's portrayal of Laura: this series' version of her own beloved character, and if the two had any chats about it or compared notes. It's a shame that the two never appeared on-screen together, but that's the way the script has it. Presumably, Mona never interacted with Angela and Tony's Madame Alexandra either, and I suspect this made things easier for Katherine since I imagine this would be a character she didn't know well, if at all (depending on whether or not she's one of those actresses who only reads her own scenes).

Still, I'd dearly love to know more about how this casting came to be and what conversations were held to make it happen. And I'd especially love to know what was said in the dressing rooms or at the wrap party (this being the last of the year's episodes and all).

I'm also curious to know if Katherine travelled to the UK especially for this part or if she was here anyway. I know this wasn't her first time in a British sitcom, since I fondly remember her 1986 episode of Girls On Top playing Ruby Wax's character's mother, where Katherine had great screen chemistry with the wonderful Joan Greenwood. A quick search reveals that in the same month as The Upper Hand's Tunnel Of Love episode, Katherine filmed a typically wacky spot on Ruby's mostly-scripted "chat show" Don't Miss Wax where Michael Winner (of all people) was witness to Ruby killing Katherine and trying to cover it up by conducting the interview with her body. Ruby's old Girls On Top flatmate Jennifer Saunders also appeared in Katherine's DMW episode, albeit shot at a completely different time.

Completing Tunnel Of Love's appeal were Lynda Baron's Auntie Pat and a brief scene from that wonderful character actress Brenda Cowling as a nun. She's one of those actresses who seems to have made a career out of playing Matron-type supporting roles in sitcoms (she even played a Matron in a Carry On... film. A bold move considering Hattie Jacques helped immortalise Kenneth Williams's famous nasal "Oh, Maaaaatron!" lines, since uttered by a million and one bad impressionists). While I didn't immediately associate Brenda with one character, IMDb has reminded me that one of her ongoing roles was that of Mrs Blanche Lipton in Croft & Perry's You Rang M'Lord? (a sitcom well overdue a rewatch since I haven't watched since its original airing).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

On to Series Five. The first episode, Not In Front Of The Children, takes place the morning after Tunnel Of Love. The equivalent Who's The Boss? episode aired the following week from Seer Of Love. With The Upper Hand, there's a significantly longer break.

While four-and-a-half months between aired episodes should make it quite easy to pick up where they next day, The Powers That Be clearly didn't foresee Joe McGann's very noticeable weight loss. There's just no getting around it, and no covering it up and after half an episode it feels like, for want of a better expression, the elephant in the room. McGann is front and centre from the very first moment, with a flashback to the previous episode drawing attention to the different look, and it's said almost immediately that this is the next day. Since Charlie was worried in this opening episode, I found myself trying to explain what the writing didn't by assuming he'd lost a significant amount of weight through worry. However, it's impossible this would happen overnight. Even if the writers didn't want to explicitly mention the difference in appearance, they could at least have changed a couple of sentences so that the episode took place a few weeks later. As it stands, this is the series' most distracting continuity problem to date, because it's there, unaddressed, for the entire first episode.

Back in the day, I read a contemporaneous TV magazine interview with Diana Weston in which Joe's weight loss was mentioned and I have foggy recollections of her saying that he looked good at first but he'd taken it too far "and now his head looks too big for his body". I can't find it, and have no idea when this would have been. I'd guess it's from around this time, but perhaps he gets even slimmer in future series. I've long assumed that his weight loss was the result of a health issue (depression, perhaps. Or an eating disorder or some kind of body dysmorphia/exercise addiction). While looking this morning to see if I could find that Diana Weston interview, I found this article from 2013 where Joe McGann says he was suffering from severe depression while filming The Upper Hand. At first I assumed this reinforced my "weight loss through depression" theory, but he says in the article that it's the other way round. So that's my curiosity satisfied.

Back to the episode itself... Back when Monica and Chandler were in a similar situation of hiding their relationship from the rest of the characters on Friends, I'd thought the premise original and clever, but it seems Who's The Boss? beat them to it by some way. And I'm sure many others have had similar storylines. Thinking about it, entire series like Butterflies or Duty Free are based around a couple who keep their budding relationship/love affair a secret. No matter who did what and when (to accidentally paraphrase @James from London), I'm sure it's a sitcom classic and it works beautifully in this opening episode. It feels reassuring that after a very difficult patch throughout Series Four - where the episodes began to feel workaday, formulaic and even tedious - the two opening episodes lead (or continue) with the strength that S4's final two episodes had regained.

It's interesting to see that the first three Series Five episodes have the same running order as the analogous Who's The Boss? episodes. This is perhaps a reason why it feels so surefooted and logical. Most importantly, we're back to The Upper Hand's roots with the focus on the relationship between Caroline and Charlie.

First came the admission they love one another. Then two episodes focussing on adjusting to the new status quo, first with the pact to hide their relationship (naturally unsuccessfully. Even Anna Soubry and her film crew got involved in blowing them out of the water). The hat-trick comes with Misery, where Caroline is unnerved by Charlie's suffocating attentions, leading to a dream sequence based on the Stephen King book/play/film referenced in the title (no doubt the homage is mostly inspired by the hugely successful film version, the year before WTB aired their Misery.

Two enjoyable guest actors appeared in the cafe scene (which I can easily envisage originating as a roadside diner in the American version). Geoffrey Hughes - in the middle of his own hugely successful sitcom run as Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances, but who will always be Corrie's Eddie Yeats to me. And playing his wife is Elizabeth Estensen whose own sitcoms credentials go back to The Liver Birds. Most notably here, the role that always springs first to mind for me when I see her is the titular character in T-Bag And The Revenge Of The T-Set... where she starred opposite Kellie Bright. Once again, it's disappointing the two didn't have a scene together, but I like to think they had a bit of a laugh behind the scenes. Just as Geoffrey Hughes had his own legendary soap character, both Elizabeth and Kellie would go on to be key long-term characters in other two big British soaps: Elizabeth would play Emmerdale's Diane for over twenty years, while Kellie's now been in EastEnders for the best part of a decade. And counting.

 

[Daniel Avery]

After previously looking unsuccessfully to find the Who's The Boss? character analogous to Auntie Pat, I've just discovered it was Mrs Rossini. I do vaguely remember the character, but can't remember if she was Tony's aunt or just a friendly former neighbour. Perhaps @Daniel Avery can shed light on it for me.

Mrs. Rossini was Tony's motherly (as in "nosy, caring, but often overbearing in a loving way") neighbor in Brooklyn. We first met Mrs. Rossini in the pilot, as the one talking to Tony out her window as he packed to leave for Connecticut. They brought her in whenever they needed to remind the audience about 'the old neighborhood' for whatever reason, though I found it a nice bit of continuity that they kept her in the mix.

That bit about interviewing 'the late Katherine Helmond' sounds absolutely hysterical, and I can imagine she would have been totally on board with it. Helmond guest-starred on an episode of Benson (the Soap spin-off) where her character Jessica Tate was secretly seeing a rich, rather famous elderly man who died "in the saddle" so to speak. To avoid a scandal, she had to enlist Benson to help her get the dead guy out of the hotel to be found someplace else. They were wheeling him around, standing up on a dolly of some sort as Jessica pretended to be talking to him and laughing at his jokes.

 

[Hawkman]

Recently discovered Is It Legal with Imelda Staunton, completely passed me by this, not surprising as I worked shifts for 40 years. Imelda does comedy so well, very zany in this about a law firm handling wacky cases, also with Patrick Barlow as her hapless assistant. In the youtube vid below, Alexander Armstrong is guest star.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Mrs. Rossini was Tony's motherly (as in "nosy, caring, but often overbearing in a loving way") neighbor in Brooklyn. We first met Mrs. Rossini in the pilot, as the one talking to Tony out her window as he packed to leave for Connecticut. They brought her in whenever they needed to remind the audience about 'the old neighborhood' for whatever reason, though I found it a nice bit of continuity that they kept her in the mix.

Ah, thanks for confirming that. I remember Mrs Rossini from the series and of course she was in my rewatch of the Pilot recently. The analogous character from the first episode of The Upper Hand returned for the episode where Jo (British Sam) ran away to their old neighbourhood, and I think that was that. Auntie Pat clearly came along to replace her in at least some later re-appearances. I'm OK with it because Lynda Barron is an actress I'm delighted to see in anything, but the continuity in WTB is really impressive.

That bit about interviewing 'the late Katherine Helmond' sounds absolutely hysterical, and I can imagine she would have been totally on board with it.

If you're interested in watching (and if it's viewable for you), Katherine's bit is from 20.20 in this vid:

Ruby tends to be quite out there with her "interviews".

 

[Daniel Avery]

Oh, my....I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.