I would say they both disliked him to more or less an equal extent.
The second Yvonne however I could understand Gary wanting to return to her, the original I could never understand why he'd want to.
They probably both had their moments, but I never understood the hatred towards Ron.
I think this may have been deliberate. The second Yvonne was more attractive (there is even a coy dig in her first episode - the Doctor examining her waxes lyrically about how she has never looked better!) and then became a millionaire who could offer Gary a lifestyle unimaginable in the forties. It therefore made his need to continue flitting between periods more understandable - a wife and child in the past, a beautiful wife and riches in the future.
Yes Yvonne could be really vile to Ron however Stella was the biggest bitch to him by far, I was glad she was written out when Yvonne 2 appeared.
Oh, Stella was a monster. Completely unsympathetic and with seemingly no redeeming features. Ron was actually better off single and maudlin than married to Stella! It was strange that she was never seen again though, especially when she was meant to be Yvonne's best friend.
He also used lies without a shred of guilt in order to disappear at will from his wife and son to be with his first wife.
He was essentially a spoofer and chancer who wanted the best of both worlds (and perhaps didn't really love either woman, not as much as he loved himself).
Ron was actually the more moral character as he urged Gary to put a stop to the time travelling and settle down with one woman.
I think it shows how good an actor Nicholas Lyndhurst is that he can portray such a selfish character - and the show is quite upfront about how selfish he is; other characters, especially Ron, remark on it - ad yet make us feel sympathetic to him.
He was essentially a spoofer and chancer who wanted the best of both worlds (and perhaps didn't really love either woman, not as much as he loved himself).
Ron was actually the more moral character as he urged Gary to put a stop to the time travelling and settle down with one woman.
I suspect he didn't really love either woman. He fancied Phoebe and enjoyed the escapism that the 40s gave him, as well as the ability to feel like a bigshot in front of impressionable people. He didn't seem to care all that much about Yvonne, except for feeling slightly possessive later in the series - he even claimed that they led pretty much separate lives, and wasn't too bothered about that. In a way it was fitting that he was sealed in the 40s - which was, after all, not 'his' time.
Did they ever give a reason for writing Stella out? I assume the divorce was it then the next thing Ron was living in a horrible 90s colour-brite 90s loft
Aside Reg, the character of his son (or grandson) in the 90s annoyed me too
The removal of the episode from series 6 might have been as simple as a script reference to someone who has since been in big trouble. I recall the BBC last year pulling a repeat of an episode of Only Fools and Horses because of a passing reference to Jimmy Saville.
Can anyone recall anything in the 'dropped' episode that might have been a problem?
Incidentally, I loved the way that they wove Goodnight, Sweetheart into the script of Only Fools. When this returned after some years off with David Jason playing Frost and Nick Lyndhurst in Goodnight, Sweetheart, they had Rodney reading a story (in the Sun I think) about a man stepping into the past via a time portal. Which was instantly dismissed as absurd - 'You cannot just walk into the past' or some such line!
(David Jason also got a line when asked a tough question in the same episode - 'who do you think I am, a detective inspector?')
These lines showed the popularity of the actors and their respective post 'Fools' series - that the writer knew the audience would 'get' these references.
Lyndhurst is a good actor (he played a rogue well as his father in the prequel to Only Fools, Rock and Chips).
It will be interesting to see him acting straight in New Tricks when he joins in the autumn as one of the retired cops. Maybe he will channel some of Reg's mannerisms.
Aside Reg, the character of his son (or grandson) in the 90s annoyed me too
I recall the 90s Reg-grandson/great-nephew wasn't made into a dimwit, like Reg.
Do you remember how we also met Reg's grandfather, in the episode when the portal takes Gary back to Victorian times? He was shown as a tough-nut and nasty character, not at all like Reg, who wouldn't harm a fly.
I recall the 90s Reg-grandson/great-nephew wasn't made into a dimwit, like Reg.
Do you remember how we also met Reg's grandfather, in the episode when the portal takes Gary back to Victorian times? He was shown as a tough-nut and nasty character, not at all like Reg, who wouldn't harm a fly.
I found that Ripper episode a really odd one. Enjoyable, but why bring another portal into it - and if you are, only for one episode?
Same when the guy came to shut the portals down, there was another from 1066? You'd think Gary & Ron would've just wanted to peer their heads in?
I found that Ripper episode a really odd one. Enjoyable, but why bring another portal into it - and if you are, only for one episode?
Same when the guy came to shut the portals down, there was another from 1066? You'd think Gary & Ron would've just wanted to peer their heads in?
To be honest, they were not really bothering with even a semblance of realism by then-as they had hitherto, even despite the highly-improbable central premise. It was the last series and they clearly felt things had been almost exhausted, so they decided to go out with a bang with the most way-out over-the-top ideas they might have held back on using before.
The removal of the episode from series 6 might have been as simple as a script reference to someone who has since been in big trouble. I recall the BBC last year pulling a repeat of an episode of Only Fools and Horses because of a passing reference to Jimmy Saville.
Can anyone recall anything in the 'dropped' episode that might have been a problem?
Incidentally, I loved the way that they wove Goodnight, Sweetheart into the script of Only Fools. When this returned after some years off with David Jason playing Frost and Nick Lyndhurst in Goodnight, Sweetheart, they had Rodney reading a story (in the Sun I think) about a man stepping into the past via a time portal. Which was instantly dismissed as absurd - 'You cannot just walk into the past' or some such line!
(David Jason also got a line when asked a tough question in the same episode - 'who do you think I am, a detective inspector?')
These lines showed the popularity of the actors and their respective post 'Fools' series - that the writer knew the audience would 'get' these references.
Lyndhurst is a good actor (he played a rogue well as his father in the prequel to Only Fools, Rock and Chips).
It will be interesting to see him acting straight in New Tricks when he joins in the autumn as one of the retired cops. Maybe he will channel some of Reg's mannerisms.
I don't think they pulled the whole episode of OFAH, I think they just edited out the Saville reference. They could have left it in, really; it was hardly complementary.
The references to Goodnight Sweetheart and Frost were in a short sketch for Comic Relief, to the best of my recollection.
I just never liked the final series. It was crammed with every cliché and generally lost it's way. Yvonne and her millionaire career was far too ridiculous and just wasn't funny enough.
Ron and Reg were acted well and were the funniest characters with the best lines. Gary's character was disgustingly self-centered but he always seemed to get away with it.
I think it shows how good an actor Nicholas Lyndhurst is that he can portray such a selfish character - and the show is quite upfront about how selfish he is; other characters, especially Ron, remark on it - ad yet make us feel sympathetic to him.
I think it shows how good an actor Nicholas Lyndhurst is that he can portray such a selfish character - and the show is quite upfront about how selfish he is; other characters, especially Ron, remark on it - ad yet make us feel sympathetic to him.
Always thought how well acted his Character was in this, I was at a filming for New Tricks a week back & did not realise he was in the whole of the tenth series of this, will be interested to see how he plays an ageing retired cop, he was made up to look around sixty in New Tricks.
I loved this at the time and still really enjoy it whenever I see it on. As others have said it wasn't the strongest comedy ever but I think it had a unique selling point as a scifi-cum-comedy-cum-historical romance drama which kept me interested. It was easy watching, a show that didn't take itself too seriously.
My favourite scenes from GS has to be this scene http://youtu.be/2VxeD9wm_38 from Come Fly With Me when Gary is having his stag do at the pub with Reg. Gary almost falling through the open bar and then giving a knowing nod is quality (the gag itself of course being a symbolic nod to Only Fools And Horses). The way Reg abruptly stops singing knees Up Mother Brown, smiles, and stiffly keels over has me in stitches, as does Gary's line "We are the f-hiccup-few. And I'll tell you something... There's thousands of us."
One thing that always bugged me though was the departure of Dervla Kerwin and the arrival of her replacement Liz Carling. It seemed to me that Dervla's Phoebe was a much stronger female role, sassy, hard, yet romantic, whilst Carling's Phoebe was a bit of a wet blanket and came across as quite pathetic.
I found that Ripper episode a really odd one. Enjoyable, but why bring another portal into it - and if you are, only for one episode?
Same when the guy came to shut the portals down, there was another from 1066? You'd think Gary & Ron would've just wanted to peer their heads in?
I wonder if they could use that for a possible spin off idea if these portals are all around us but only certain people can go through them they could easy find a new travel and if it was post WW2 maybe even bump into Gary in one episode.
I think it's strange that a show with such an unlikeable main character (and a bigamist, to boot!) was so enjoyable. I suspect it was because Lyndhurst is an affable chap, and he'd built up quite a lot of goodwill as the dopey Rodney (although I never watched OFAH).
I always found that odd as well. A feat in itself really, to make such an unlovable character the lead in a comedy! Like you I never really watched OFAH, wasn't really a fan, and even less so of his character in that so I don't think we forgave Gary on the basis of past Lindhurst characters. One of those TV anomalies.
In the last episode what I would have changed is I would have had a ageing Gary (early 80's) show to to talk to Yvonne personally.
That would have been interesting, but I wonder how they'd have handled it. What could they have had Yvonne do/say? Would Phoebe still have been alive? I thought Emma Amos was excellent in the final episode; my heart broke for her a little when things finally dawned on her and she realised that 'all the existing laws of physics are crap'.
I loved this at the time and still really enjoy it whenever I see it on. As others have said it wasn't the strongest comedy ever but I think it had a unique selling point as a scifi-cum-comedy-cum-historical romance drama which kept me interested. It was easy watching, a show that didn't take itself too seriously.
My favourite scenes from GS has to be this scene http://youtu.be/2VxeD9wm_38 from Come Fly With Me when Gary is having his stag do at the pub with Reg. Gary almost falling through the open bar and then giving a knowing nod is quality (the gag itself of course being a symbolic nod to Only Fools And Horses). The way Reg abruptly stops singing knees Up Mother Brown, smiles, and stiffly keels over has me in stitches, as does Gary's line "We are the f-hiccup-few. And I'll tell you something... There's thousands of us."
One thing that always bugged me though was the departure of Dervla Kerwin and the arrival of her replacement Liz Carling. It seemed to me that Dervla's Phoebe was a much stronger female role, sassy, hard, yet romantic, whilst Carling's Phoebe was a bit of a wet blanket and came across as quite pathetic.
I feel exactly the same. Never liked Liz Carling playing Phoebe..not a patch on Dervla.
They did have that guy come from 2220 or some similar time period when the 'technician' came to close the time portal. He bought the whole of the shops stock off Ron
They did have that guy come from 2220 or some similar time period when the 'technician' came to close the time portal. He bought the whole of the shops stock off Ron
That was a very odd episode
That was the one they played twice in 5 days on Gold, the week before last. The first of them out of sequence.
I wonder if they could use that for a possible spin off idea if these portals are all around us but only certain people can go through them they could easy find a new travel and if it was post WW2 maybe even bump into Gary in one episode.
The show is, of course, based on supposedly real cases called 'Time Slips' - where people claim to have travelled to different times. Often they just step through a strange atmosphere/electrical charge in the air and move from present to past - like Gary.
I have investigated quite a few cases over the years and am pretty convinced that they can happen (though how is another matter).
We did a couple of episodes of Strange But True? on the theme in the mid 90s (indeed we were making this show at LWT at the same time as Goodnight, Sweetheart was airing).
In one case we covered - four people - driving on holiday in the 1970s - claimed to spend a night in a French hotel that appeared to be in the past and around 1910!
They parked their car outside but nobody from the past seemed to go into meltdown. They even met a policeman there and had strange things going on with their photos.
Indeed I wonder if this case gave them some ideas for scripts on GS.
That case always made me a bit uncertain (it happened near Avignon - just say that word slowly and you might see why I was a little unsure of the probity)
But I have met the people who went through this 'portal' a few times and did a late night TV show (Channel 4 maybe, I forget) with one them on the subject of time travel and they came over as quite persuasive.
Liverpool is the place to go though (another link with GS). Riddled with time slip cases as I discovered when I made a Radio City show about the subject in the 80s and got several calls from people who had had odd experiences.
Comments
They probably both had their moments, but I never understood the hatred towards Ron.
I think this may have been deliberate. The second Yvonne was more attractive (there is even a coy dig in her first episode - the Doctor examining her waxes lyrically about how she has never looked better!) and then became a millionaire who could offer Gary a lifestyle unimaginable in the forties. It therefore made his need to continue flitting between periods more understandable - a wife and child in the past, a beautiful wife and riches in the future.
Oh, Stella was a monster. Completely unsympathetic and with seemingly no redeeming features. Ron was actually better off single and maudlin than married to Stella! It was strange that she was never seen again though, especially when she was meant to be Yvonne's best friend.
He was essentially a spoofer and chancer who wanted the best of both worlds (and perhaps didn't really love either woman, not as much as he loved himself).
Ron was actually the more moral character as he urged Gary to put a stop to the time travelling and settle down with one woman.
I suspect he didn't really love either woman. He fancied Phoebe and enjoyed the escapism that the 40s gave him, as well as the ability to feel like a bigshot in front of impressionable people. He didn't seem to care all that much about Yvonne, except for feeling slightly possessive later in the series - he even claimed that they led pretty much separate lives, and wasn't too bothered about that. In a way it was fitting that he was sealed in the 40s - which was, after all, not 'his' time.
Aside Reg, the character of his son (or grandson) in the 90s annoyed me too
Can anyone recall anything in the 'dropped' episode that might have been a problem?
Incidentally, I loved the way that they wove Goodnight, Sweetheart into the script of Only Fools. When this returned after some years off with David Jason playing Frost and Nick Lyndhurst in Goodnight, Sweetheart, they had Rodney reading a story (in the Sun I think) about a man stepping into the past via a time portal. Which was instantly dismissed as absurd - 'You cannot just walk into the past' or some such line!
(David Jason also got a line when asked a tough question in the same episode - 'who do you think I am, a detective inspector?')
These lines showed the popularity of the actors and their respective post 'Fools' series - that the writer knew the audience would 'get' these references.
Lyndhurst is a good actor (he played a rogue well as his father in the prequel to Only Fools, Rock and Chips).
It will be interesting to see him acting straight in New Tricks when he joins in the autumn as one of the retired cops. Maybe he will channel some of Reg's mannerisms.
I recall the 90s Reg-grandson/great-nephew wasn't made into a dimwit, like Reg.
Do you remember how we also met Reg's grandfather, in the episode when the portal takes Gary back to Victorian times? He was shown as a tough-nut and nasty character, not at all like Reg, who wouldn't harm a fly.
I found that Ripper episode a really odd one. Enjoyable, but why bring another portal into it - and if you are, only for one episode?
Same when the guy came to shut the portals down, there was another from 1066? You'd think Gary & Ron would've just wanted to peer their heads in?
To be honest, they were not really bothering with even a semblance of realism by then-as they had hitherto, even despite the highly-improbable central premise. It was the last series and they clearly felt things had been almost exhausted, so they decided to go out with a bang with the most way-out over-the-top ideas they might have held back on using before.
I don't think they pulled the whole episode of OFAH, I think they just edited out the Saville reference. They could have left it in, really; it was hardly complementary.
The references to Goodnight Sweetheart and Frost were in a short sketch for Comic Relief, to the best of my recollection.
Ron and Reg were acted well and were the funniest characters with the best lines. Gary's character was disgustingly self-centered but he always seemed to get away with it.
Always thought how well acted his Character was in this, I was at a filming for New Tricks a week back & did not realise he was in the whole of the tenth series of this, will be interested to see how he plays an ageing retired cop, he was made up to look around sixty in New Tricks.
My favourite scenes from GS has to be this scene http://youtu.be/2VxeD9wm_38 from Come Fly With Me when Gary is having his stag do at the pub with Reg. Gary almost falling through the open bar and then giving a knowing nod is quality (the gag itself of course being a symbolic nod to Only Fools And Horses). The way Reg abruptly stops singing knees Up Mother Brown, smiles, and stiffly keels over has me in stitches, as does Gary's line "We are the f-hiccup-few. And I'll tell you something... There's thousands of us."
One thing that always bugged me though was the departure of Dervla Kerwin and the arrival of her replacement Liz Carling. It seemed to me that Dervla's Phoebe was a much stronger female role, sassy, hard, yet romantic, whilst Carling's Phoebe was a bit of a wet blanket and came across as quite pathetic.
I wonder if they could use that for a possible spin off idea if these portals are all around us but only certain people can go through them they could easy find a new travel and if it was post WW2 maybe even bump into Gary in one episode.
In the last episode what I would have changed is I would have had a ageing Gary (early 80's) show to to talk to Yvonne personally.
That would have been interesting, but I wonder how they'd have handled it. What could they have had Yvonne do/say? Would Phoebe still have been alive? I thought Emma Amos was excellent in the final episode; my heart broke for her a little when things finally dawned on her and she realised that 'all the existing laws of physics are crap'.
I feel exactly the same. Never liked Liz Carling playing Phoebe..not a patch on Dervla.
That was a very odd episode
That was the one they played twice in 5 days on Gold, the week before last. The first of them out of sequence.
Happy to be proven wrong, but I thought it was the first episode back after the show first 'ended' with them becoming millionaires.
The show is, of course, based on supposedly real cases called 'Time Slips' - where people claim to have travelled to different times. Often they just step through a strange atmosphere/electrical charge in the air and move from present to past - like Gary.
I have investigated quite a few cases over the years and am pretty convinced that they can happen (though how is another matter).
We did a couple of episodes of Strange But True? on the theme in the mid 90s (indeed we were making this show at LWT at the same time as Goodnight, Sweetheart was airing).
In one case we covered - four people - driving on holiday in the 1970s - claimed to spend a night in a French hotel that appeared to be in the past and around 1910!
They parked their car outside but nobody from the past seemed to go into meltdown. They even met a policeman there and had strange things going on with their photos.
Indeed I wonder if this case gave them some ideas for scripts on GS.
That case always made me a bit uncertain (it happened near Avignon - just say that word slowly and you might see why I was a little unsure of the probity)
But I have met the people who went through this 'portal' a few times and did a late night TV show (Channel 4 maybe, I forget) with one them on the subject of time travel and they came over as quite persuasive.
Liverpool is the place to go though (another link with GS). Riddled with time slip cases as I discovered when I made a Radio City show about the subject in the 80s and got several calls from people who had had odd experiences.