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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 388545" data-attributes="member: 23">Series Four of In Sickness &amp; In Health wrapped up last night on O&#039;Dramavision. As mentioned in my previous post I feared the worst and, while that wasn&#039;t entirely without justification, it hasn&#039;t been as great a dip as expected.Winston was missed, and it felt very clear that Pele was a substitute, serving the same function (in a sitcom replacement cliche, he&#039;s even a relative of Winston). Vas Blackwood is a likeable enough actor. I remember him well for his one-off episodes of Girls On Top/French and Saunders and also for his ongoing role in CITV sitcom Spatz. In those roles he&#039;s fine, but I don&#039;t think of him as a good actor in terms of naturalistic delivery, which is what&#039;s needed for this series. I&#039;m always aware he&#039;s reading lines from a script. Still, the likeability carried him through.The change of premise for this series has felt sudden and forced. The idea of Alf marrying Mrs Hollingbery would have been unthinkable a couple of episodes before. The reasoning is sound (if they join forces, they can buy the entire house from the council for £20k and make a profit since it&#039;s worth £100k more than this), but Alf and Mrs Hollingbery are both on board with the idea far too quickly. It would have been an interesting longer-term story, but I&#039;ve struggled to believe it at this pace. Rita&#039;s barely been mentioned in all this.Despite the presence of the ever-reliable Fanny Carby, a pub-based episode the night before they left for Australia was probably the most tedious of the entire series to date. It was dull and static and felt as though it went on forever, and made me think that Carmel McSharry might be fine as a supporting actress but is far less so as a core cast member. The same could be said for Arthur English, but he gets by on having good screen energy with Warren Mitchell.Following on from these, the Australian episodes felt like a much-needed breath of fresh air.&nbsp; With much of the first Australian episode taking place on an aeroplane, at an airport and on indoor sets, I was fully prepared for them to fake it, but no... it&#039;s plain that the cast were genuinely Down Under, with Sydney Harbour providing an unexpectedly picturesque backdrop. It&#039;s impressive, and seems a lot of trouble for the BBC to take. A number of genuine Aussie actors appeared including Alex Petersons (Home &amp; Away&#039;s bolshy Jeff Samuels) and Pat McDonald of Sons and Daughters and Number 96 fame. All of Pat&#039;s scenes were indoors, leading me to wonder if the indoor sets for the Australian scenes&nbsp; were shot in the UK or Oz. They certainly looked Australian enough.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 388545, member: 23"] Series Four of [I][B]In Sickness & In Health[/B][/I] wrapped up last night on O'Dramavision. As mentioned in my previous post I feared the worst and, while that wasn't entirely without justification, it hasn't been as great a dip as expected. Winston was missed, and it felt very clear that Pele was a substitute, serving the same function (in a sitcom replacement cliche, he's even a relative of Winston). Vas Blackwood is a likeable enough actor. I remember him well for his one-off episodes of [I]Girls On Top/French and Saunders[/I] and also for his ongoing role in CITV sitcom [I]Spatz[/I]. In those roles he's fine, but I don't think of him as a good actor in terms of naturalistic delivery, which is what's needed for this series. I'm always aware he's reading lines from a script. Still, the likeability carried him through. The change of premise for this series has felt sudden and forced. The idea of Alf marrying Mrs Hollingbery would have been unthinkable a couple of episodes before. The reasoning is sound (if they join forces, they can buy the entire house from the council for £20k and make a profit since it's worth £100k more than this), but Alf and Mrs Hollingbery are both on board with the idea far too quickly. It would have been an interesting longer-term story, but I've struggled to believe it at this pace. Rita's barely been mentioned in all this. Despite the presence of the ever-reliable Fanny Carby, a pub-based episode the night before they left for Australia was probably the most tedious of the entire series to date. It was dull and static and felt as though it went on forever, and made me think that Carmel McSharry might be fine as a supporting actress but is far less so as a core cast member. The same could be said for Arthur English, but he gets by on having good screen energy with Warren Mitchell. Following on from these, the Australian episodes felt like a much-needed breath of fresh air. With much of the first Australian episode taking place on an aeroplane, at an airport and on indoor sets, I was fully prepared for them to fake it, but no... it's plain that the cast were genuinely Down Under, with Sydney Harbour providing an unexpectedly picturesque backdrop. It's impressive, and seems a lot of trouble for the BBC to take. A number of genuine Aussie actors appeared including Alex Petersons ([I]Home & Away's[/I] bolshy Jeff Samuels) and Pat McDonald of [I]Sons and Daughters [/I]and[I] Number 96 [/I]fame. All of Pat's scenes were indoors, leading me to wonder if the indoor sets for the Australian scenes were shot in the UK or Oz. They certainly looked Australian enough. [/QUOTE]

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