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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 369800" data-attributes="member: 23">With me and sitcoms, it&#039;s a common theme for me to watch half a dozen episodes or so and then wonder whether the writing is improving or I&#039;m simply warming to it.Twelve episodes in - three quarters of Series One - I&#039;m certainly warming to the series, and to Eric Sykes himself. There&#039;s no denying that many episodes have felt rather long and slow, though, and 68 episodes still feels like a rather daunting prospect.It&#039;s definitely not a belly laugh series for me. It&#039;s a warm, comforting kind of vegging-out and - if I&#039;m lucky - a few titters. With a series of this nature, sometimes the more predictable the better. Probably the first episode to click with me was the ninth, in which snooty neighbour Mr Brown had an accident caused by Eric and pretended to be seriously injured so that he could have guilt-wracked Eric and Hat doing his bidding. It&#039;s a sitcom staple, and no worse for it.There have been occasional glimpses of surrealist fantasy - such as Eric dreaming that he and Hat are mice - that have been tolerable in small doses.The guest-cast has been impressive, as well as a number of smaller roles played by actors who would become household names. So far, among others, we&#039;ve seen Joanie Sims; Peter Sellers; Frank Thornton; Roy Kinnear; Joan Hickson; Jimmy Edwards; Felix Bowness (several times - I think they&#039;re different characters); Harold &quot;You&#039;ve all done very well&quot; Bennett; Diane Holland (best known as Hi-de-Hi&#039;s Yvonne, but last seen in O&#039;Dramavision in Crossroads); Gretchen Franklin and - of course - Hat&#039;s very own John LeMesurier. Rare is the episode when there aren&#039;t one or two &quot;oh it&#039;s so-and-so&quot;s, and these are certainly help pass the time quite nicely.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 369800, member: 23"] With me and sitcoms, it's a common theme for me to watch half a dozen episodes or so and then wonder whether the writing is improving or I'm simply warming to it. Twelve episodes in - three quarters of Series One - I'm certainly warming to the series, and to Eric Sykes himself. There's no denying that many episodes have felt rather long and slow, though, and 68 episodes still feels like a rather daunting prospect. It's definitely not a belly laugh series for me. It's a warm, comforting kind of vegging-out and - if I'm lucky - a few titters. With a series of this nature, sometimes the more predictable the better. Probably the first episode to click with me was the ninth, in which snooty neighbour Mr Brown had an accident caused by Eric and pretended to be seriously injured so that he could have guilt-wracked Eric and Hat doing his bidding. It's a sitcom staple, and no worse for it. There have been occasional glimpses of surrealist fantasy - such as Eric dreaming that he and Hat are mice - that have been tolerable in small doses. The guest-cast has been impressive, as well as a number of smaller roles played by actors who would become household names. So far, among others, we've seen Joanie Sims; Peter Sellers; Frank Thornton; Roy Kinnear; Joan Hickson; Jimmy Edwards; Felix Bowness (several times - I [I]think[/I] they're different characters); Harold "You've all done very well" Bennett; Diane Holland (best known as[I] Hi-de-Hi's [/I]Yvonne, but last seen in O'Dramavision in [I]Crossroads[/I]); Gretchen Franklin and - of course - Hat's very own John LeMesurier. Rare is the episode when there aren't one or two "oh it's so-and-so"s, and these are certainly help pass the time quite nicely. [/QUOTE]

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