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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 374328" data-attributes="member: 23">The best thing about these later series of Sykes, in my opinion, is that they&#039;re short. The thought of them being fifteen episodes or so, like the first couple of series, is a very painful one indeed.Even so, there are still a good number of misses. Without exception I find all the episodes a bit of a slog to get through. Occasionally there&#039;s some enjoyment that helps the time pass less slowly, but many of these episodes feel every minute of their thirty minute running time. Oh, the times I&#039;ve found myself wishing this aired on ITV so it would be twenty five minutes instead of twenty nine.The last S5 episode, Bath, featured a scene of Eric in the bath playing with toy submarines and aeroplanes and making bang/crash sounds that went on for something like five minutes.&nbsp; Somewhere in my personal Room 101, this scene is playing on a loop.Well, bang goes that theory. Miss Melody Rumbelow has now appeared and (eventually) it turns out she&#039;s living in the house that adjoins the Sykeses&#039; home, which is the opposite side to Fulbright-Brown&#039;s. So we&#039;re still none the wiser as to the onscreen reason for never seeing him anymore.Miss Rumbelow is working well so far. She&#039;s a familiar British sitcom character: the jolly hockey sticks snooty dragon lady. Think Joan Sanderson and you&#039;re pretty much there. Her face is familiar, and I see she&#039;s had a number of small roles in films and series of the era with which I&#039;d be familiar.Had Richard Wattis been replaced by a male actor, I imagine the character similarities would be more glaring and draw more critical comparisons. As it is, she has enough Fulbright-Brownisms to patch over a gap that&#039;s left in the series while still being a distinct character, and so works well for me.Curiously, in her first episode she barged into the house and was clearly very familiar with the Sykeses already. But in Bath, she has no idea who Eric is when he phones and he has to explain that he helped her move into her house. I&#039;m not sure if this is to suggest her being dismissive of him or a genuine continuity error.If the latter it&#039;s one of several continuity hiccups. One notable change is that a different street is now used for the Sebastopol Terrace exteriors, with the Sykeses&#039; home now clearly at the top end of a cul-de-sac. Presumably this was done either because the previous location was no longer available or simply for the obvious benefits of filming on a cul-de-sac with more privacy and control over traffic, people and the environment.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 374328, member: 23"] The best thing about these later series of [I]Sykes[/I], in my opinion, is that they're short. The thought of them being fifteen episodes or so, like the first couple of series, is a very painful one indeed. Even so, there are still a good number of misses. Without exception I find all the episodes a bit of a slog to get through. Occasionally there's some enjoyment that helps the time pass less slowly, but many of these episodes feel every minute of their thirty minute running time. Oh, the times I've found myself wishing this aired on ITV so it would be twenty five minutes instead of twenty nine. The last S5 episode, [I]Bath[/I], featured a scene of Eric in the bath playing with toy submarines and aeroplanes and making bang/crash sounds that went on for something like five minutes. Somewhere in my personal Room 101, this scene is playing on a loop. Well, bang goes that theory. Miss Melody Rumbelow has now appeared and (eventually) it turns out she's living in the house that adjoins the Sykeses' home, which is the opposite side to Fulbright-Brown's. So we're still none the wiser as to the onscreen reason for never seeing him anymore. Miss Rumbelow is working well so far. She's a familiar British sitcom character: the jolly hockey sticks snooty dragon lady. Think Joan Sanderson and you're pretty much there. Her face is familiar, and I see she's had a number of small roles in films and series of the era with which I'd be familiar. Had Richard Wattis been replaced by a male actor, I imagine the character similarities would be more glaring and draw more critical comparisons. As it is, she has enough Fulbright-Brownisms to patch over a gap that's left in the series while still being a distinct character, and so works well for me. Curiously, in her first episode she barged into the house and was clearly very familiar with the Sykeses already. But in [I]Bath[/I], she has no idea who Eric is when he phones and he has to explain that he helped her move into her house. I'm not sure if this is to suggest her being dismissive of him or a genuine continuity error. If the latter it's one of several continuity hiccups. One notable change is that a different street is now used for the Sebastopol Terrace exteriors, with the Sykeses' home now clearly at the top end of a cul-de-sac. Presumably this was done either because the previous location was no longer available or simply for the obvious benefits of filming on a cul-de-sac with more privacy and control over traffic, people and the environment. [/QUOTE]

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