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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 157740" data-attributes="member: 23">Yesterday evening began another series that's new to me...<img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71wlQqF5BVL._SL1073_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />It's actually two series, but we'll get to that later.During the first episode I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it. It's one thing to watch Wendy Craig being the ditzy mum to two older teens when supported by Geoffrey Palmer and Bruce Montague. It's quite another when she's the ditzy mum to two younger teens. I was concerned it may be too much. A little too saccharine. Especially with the two token posh kids from next door dropping by along with their terrible fake RP (incidentally, and apropos of nothing in particular it seems a couple of the actors playing the kids died in their forties and fifties).Fortunately, the news was better than I at first thought. Valerie Lush helps weight things down a little as Auntie. I wouldn't have realised, but IMDb tells me she went on to play Madame Remoleux in French Fields, where she stole the show. Having this alternative kind of family was perhaps a fairly bold move at the time.And speaking of the time, there's that very unique early Seventies vibe to the series. The Swinging Sixties still linger, as seen in some of the fashion and even the fonts used for the titles, and the hope of the new decade is in the air though far from being fully formed. Teddington looks very nice onscreen in location scenes (after looking on Google Maps and Street View, I decided I could quite happily live on Trowlock Avenue where the characters' home is shown to be. But it passed when I looked at a flood risk map).George Selway as Mr Campbell seems a fairly stock sitcom character. The authority figure with the heart of gold who appears just in time to get covered in engine oil or get his specs smashed.The best comic moments have come from the relationships and from those have even come a couple of touching little moments. Perhaps the second episode with Simon's birthday bike is the best example. Simon had saved to buy a bike, but only had half the money. Sally worked overtime to get the rest of the money and got a bike from the snooty salesman, handing over coins from piggy banks. There was the farcical fun of hiding it in the house, moving it from room to room. Then came the presentation (oh - Seventies birthday parties. What a blast of nostalgia). It wasn't the bike Simon wanted but he put on a brave face prompting Sally to burst into tears at her failure (the implication being that it's a reminder of the absence of her late husband). And so it's a return to the shop to change the racing bike for a Raleigh Chopper ("he wanted one with the handlebars up here and one of those funny sort of seats like sitting on the arm of a settee"). Only for Simon to change his mind and decide he wants the racing bike after all. It's fairly standard sitcom stuff, but with enough heart to give it wings. And it hurt not that Frank Thornton was the bicycle salesman. I can't think of anyone else, referencing the small accident Sally said she'd had with the first bike, who could deliver the line "How teeny weeny?" with such deadpan gravity.Sally, it seems, is in many ways a prototype for Ria. Both in their own ways in mourning the loss of a man they married. Both dealing with domestic mundanities they're ill-equipped for and trying to connect with the children they gave birth to - now growing into people whose world she struggles to understand. Both optimistic that things will get better. And both, for better or worse, somewhat ditzy.</blockquote>

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