Some people are criticising but yet not saying what they may have liked to have seen.?

There was plenty of much lamer fodder on in my view.

It's weird to see David Jason looking so old now.

I've been watching him on TV since I was in primary school & now he's play 'grandad' parts!!!

It was good to see him though & it was a great return for Open All Hours.

Saying that, I hope they limit it to a one-off, or the odd Christmas special because I don't think there'd be enough mileage in recommissioning a brand new series of it.

Possibly people tuning in to see what it would be like. Doesn't mean they all enjoyed it.

I know of somebody who said he should have worn a wig to cover up his thinning hair. Seriously! What is he expected to look like?? For a man of 73 vintage I don't think he's doing too badly!

Those BARB rating devices should also have buttons for respondents to press AFTER a programme has finished: like, dislike or OK. That would be useful feedback to find out how popular a programme has been - not just how many people have viewed it. (eg, in this case, 9m may have viewed it out of curiosity, but only 4m may have liked it.)

The real test of how well it went down would have been the viewing figure for the second episode had there been one. I doubt they would have got anywhere near 9 million if there was.

I didn't think it would be that good but I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it - loved the way Granville had morphed into Arkwright. A nice slow gentle comedy with some good characters.

Just a shame that David Jason couldn't have worked harder on his accent. There were too many slips into Del Boy and frost voice which made me cringe. Not too bad though. 6/10.

Hugely enjoyed it but don't think it would work as a new series. Now if they want to do continual reruns of the old series as they do for Dad's Army then I would watch them again and again.

Plenty of Glass Half Empty posters on here tonight i see.

Second guessing viewing figures for a 2nd episode is a bit desperate.

Well, I liked it - it managed to make me laugh out loud a few times which not many "modern" comedies make me do. And just wonderful to see the picture of Arkwright/Barker in the back room - made me remember just what a brilliant comic actor he was.

I did find myself wishing he would just be Granville and stop trying to be Arkwright but it made me smile lots; I loved the old fashioned feel and I loled at the anchovy paste treatment!!

And Stephanie Cole's launch at Granville haha.

You can't have Open All Hours without that Arkwright type older character in it though, it's central theme was old shopkeeper v young errand boy.

I'm just amazed it worked anywhere near as well as it did without Ronnie Barker, so I think David Jason did a very good job with it. Still not sure there could be a series worth of material in it though.

Oh dear.

Well there is one by me, yes it has a built in post office but it is run by a family that have ran it for years. It certainly has that vibe of a corner hop in the late 70s/80s

I watched it this afternoon. I thought it was OK but as expected it didn't quite live up to the original. A full series would be nice but it would need to be better than this was for it to work. It was a nice effort though.

Me too, I thought it was good viewing, lots of good characters in it.

I thought that it was just OK. No more than that.
I found the very loud canned laughter very annoying.

I would like to see a new series in the hope that it would work, but they must reduce that damn canned laughter.

Very few first shows are outstanding but they can improve as the cast gel and they adjust the characters slightly.

Overall, it was a nice gentle easy view except for the canned laughter.

I found it OK as a one off.....couple of reasons..one very big thing missing..Ronnie Barker..and secondly..he may be a National Treasure but David Jason has not aged well at all in my opinion, would have expected every customer to have asked him why he hasn't retired yet

A few people made some canned laughter comments.

Watching the documentary on it that was on this afternoon, it noted the show was in fact filmed in front of a live studio audience in Manchester, and that the location scenes were shown to them there for their reaction.

So the laughter wasn't canned, as some claimed when they were criticising the show.

It is often cast members that make a show-that's the point: good casting. Hence why Open All Hours and Keeping Up Appearances were excellent. The same goes for Last Of The Summer Wine-great casting of Bill Owen, Peter Sallis and Brian Wilde. How you can call Summer Wine awful is beyond me.

Indeed, this programme was so well advertised/hyped up during the run up to Christmas, it was bound to get good viewing figures, but as you say of those millions who tuned in, how many actually thought it was really good?

I only saw it last night, it was OK, not up to the hype that surrounded it I dont think, certainly not enough to sustain a new series, but that is just my view.

Not sure if Mark Williams or Johnny Vegas added anything to it either !

As you say there was a studio audience, but of course they could have 'added' extra laughter as well, simply by usiing the track recorded at the studio recording . (not saying they did tho!!)

Some people just like to slag off any sitcom with a laugh track and deride it as "canned laughter". Probably the same people who find the laughter free (in every sense) "comedies" by the likes of Ricky Gervais funny.

I think that was the problem - It was a bunch of nods to what had gone before and a "trying too hard to bring it up to date" feel.

Maybe the original series was just as dull, I seem to recall it was but I found it boring.

Did all 9m have the same view? It doesn't seem like that from the small sample here. Plus, you have to consider that there was absolutely nothing else on at the time.