New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 151691" data-attributes="member: 23">Last night saw the beginning of The Bounder.<img src="http://www.tilleysvintagemagazines.com/gallery/da432ad102b675601e01773f422526e1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Firstly, I was a little surprised to find only two series were made. Fourteen episodes in all. I recall this being on TV a fair bit during the Eighties. Perhaps it got repeated a great deal.This is kind of a transition piece for Peter Bowles, being made between the third and fourth series of Only When I Laugh - penned, like this, by Eric Chappell. The sense of familiarity between this and the hospital-based series doesn't end there. Both Rosalind Ayres and Isla Blair made brief appearances in that series and they're arguably serviced better here. Ayres, of course, has popped up in my viewing schedule as recently as last week in both the small and big screen versions of The Lovers. As Trevor, George Cole - already synonymous with Arfur Daley - is playing a very different character to his Minder role. And yet not. The setting and accent may be different, but there's no mistaking this is George Cole, which brings a comforting sense of the familiar. The same goes for Bowles himself, playing to type and once again giving Chappell ample opportunity to bring him down to size. In OWIL, he'd been reduced to frequenting an NHS hospital ward while trying to maintain his sense of importance. Here in The Bounder he's fresh out of prison, and using his wiles to give the appearance that he's still living a life of privilege. While I remember having watched at least a number of episodes of the series, I have very little recollection of the plots beyond the title sequence and the "fresh from prison" premise. I'm only two episodes in, but it does seem to follow a typical Chappell pattern of a character being painted into a corner and having to bluff their way out with all the odds against them. Much of the humour comes from discomfiture and social imbroglios. The first episode, for example, had <s>Glover</s> Howard, through charm and wiles, worming his way into staying with Cole and Ayres' characters (his best friend/best man and sister, respectively). The second saw him forgetting their wedding anniversary and covering his faux pas by taking them out to an expensive restaurant despite having no cash. He feeds the couple by gatecrashing a private function and pretending to belong there - giving speeches while smuggling food out; and by acting as head waiter and removing "tainted" food from guests. So Howard is constantly in danger of being hoist with his own petard. As in Chappell's other works (perhaps most notably his next series, Duty Free), it becomes enjoyably uncomfortable and farcical. An episode hasn't yet seen a half naked lover in the wardrobe or ended with a food fight but it's early days. Certainly, lines are crossed by the end of the episode. The end of the second episode saw Trevor debagged by angry rugby players after they found him eating food that Howard had stolen. And I can't help thinking that by the beginning of the third episode it will have been forgotten and the reset button pressed. In other words, Howard has permission to go as over the top as he likes with complete impunity. Which on the one hand allows for limitless wacky scenarios but on the other may prove slightly unsatisfying. That said, my rewatches of Duty Free and - especially - Only When I Laugh proved more enjoyable and satisfying than expected, so we'll see.</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?