I imagine if they wanted it to be compared to the original show they'd have done it in a traditional sitcom style.
In fact it's the only one of the 4 BBC One sitcoms from this season that isn't!
And Porridge also stands out as being the only one set (entirely) in the present day. All the others are period pieces (well, partly in Goodnight Sweetheart's case).
They blundered by omitting Goodnight Sweetheart. They said:
Quote:
Porridge, a Keeping Up Appearances prequel, Hancock's Half Hour, Steptoe And Son, Till Death Us Do Part, and Are You Being Served? will all be back on our screens in the next couple of weeks. And soon, the cast of Goodnight Sweetheart will be reuniting for a return too.
However, Goodnight Sweetheart is airing on Friday, and Steptoe And Son is the one that's not in the next two weeks, airing on 14 September.
Was this recorded in front of an audience? Because it doesn't sound like it.
If it was, they've managed (as they did with that sitcom about advertising execs with Simon Farnaby a few years ago, and the third series of Miranda) to ruin it in the edit.
Oh well, just me who thought it was awful then? The aforementioned dubbed laughter, the actors therefore having nothing to play off which kills the comic timing, which they all seemed to be too busy doing their impersonations to actually employ, and
far
too much usage made of Mrs Slocombe's pu...ns. I don't think Arthur Smith was a good casting call either. Sorry Arthur.
There wasn't any plot to the episode either. I know the original was hardly
War and Peace
, of course, but at least it had some kind of structure. It was just a series of scenes stuck together with little care.
