TBH, I jsut thought is was OK.
Could have lost the 'lad' and probably been better... but it was still better than most of what BBC had to offer over Xmas

I quite liked it, although the episode seemed to be too much of a tribute episode to me - spending a lot of time reintroducing old characters and introducing new ones, and skipping from one bit to another, rather than just getting on with its plot. I suppose I just wanted it to feel like a normal episode, which probably wasn't possible due to it being a one-off. Maybe two or three episodes for the Christmas/New Year period would have worked, one to re-establish the show, and the rest to see how standard episodes would work. It was nice to see it back and nice to have an old-fashioned sit-com on TV.

As for the comments about the laughter, I did initially think it was canned laughter but then found out it was filmed in front of an audience. That said, I've been in an audience for the filming of a TV show - albeit not a sit-com - and know how the audience's reaction gets manipulated.

So how were the "Outside" bits done before an audience?

Obviously they were not, but when they have the audience in for the studio recording, which was about 80% of it, there was not much 'location' stuff, the scenes are slotted / played out to the studio audience on the studio monitors in sequence as the show is recorded, and thus the audience reaction is captured

That's a tad harsh, although I know what you're driving at.

Some people think their opinions are fact or at least, more valid than anybody else's.

I suspect (without bothering to look up the dates) that stephanie cole was playing a character much older than she was, while david jason was the complete opposite : I'd guess the character was around 20 years younger.

Nurse gladys looks much the same agewise, but the character is more rounded these days.

Yes I enjoyed the episode but the only things that annoyed me was they made Granville into Arkwright and Leroy into Granville.

Far too many old jokes were reused walking into the stand wearing sunglasses, unlock your impotency, the dog pulling the customer out of the shop, the dog with the basket in his mouth.

I think they should have used new jokes instead of just reusing old ones from the old series.

Still enjoyed the episode .

It felt lazy. If Ronnie Barker was still alive they would've just done another episode with all the characters in the exact same place 40 years later.

I don't know if there's a place for this kind of quaint studio comedy any more on British TV.

I find it amazing that most modern day so called comedians think they can be funny just by going to university to study how to be funny. It doesn't work. Most modern day so called comedians are NOT funny! You either are naturally funny or not naturally funny. Yes, you can hone that by practice but you can't learn it by just going to university.

Are you being serious or am I missing something?

Yes, I am being serious and perhaps you are missing something, I don't know!

By the way, I am not implying that DJ and the others are university comedians.

This thread being a good example in places!


Jason isn't a comedian though. He's an actor that can play comedy roles. Big difference.

When Open All Hours finished in 1985, David Jason said how he was concerned that his age would make it look as though Granville was a bit behind mentally if the show continued, as you couldn't really have a man of that age behaving like a teenager. So I've read somewhere, anyway.

Thought it wasn't bad considering, compared to Mrs Brown it was a Masterpiece.

Anything compared to Mrs Brown can be regarded as a masterpiece!

I can't say I enjoyed it. Watched it twice.

I know it was written by Roy Clarke, but the dialogue could have easily been from Last of the Summer Wine.

There were too many characters popping in. The characters of Mrs Featherstone and Mavis seemed to behave in a completely different way to how I remember them in the original series.

Biggest disappointment was that Granville was a virtual clone of Arkwright. I always remember Granville as the complete opposite.

I also found the incidental music annoying.

Really should not have been resurrected.

Which comedian has been to university to study comedy exactly? Which universities offer 'Comedy' as a course?

Or do you actually mean that some comedians have been to university to study drama?

That never crossed my mind. I just saw him as a man frustrated by circumstance, like Harold Steptoe or Timothy Lumsden.

I tend to agree. Realistically I half expected to find that Granville had settled down with the milkwoman (maybe Barbara Flynn wasn't available?), but all in all not a bad effort and better than most of the stuff on this Xmas.

People don't goto drama to study how to be funny.

From the mid 50s people have come out of OxBridge and moved into comedy.
These days OxBridge (Oxford Review / Footlights) is still there and there are many drama courses at other uni's where actors will come through.

I wonder how many comedians or comic actors you could name that studied drama at uni. Not many of the OxBridge lot didn't.
Just from a short list I can find of standup comics/sketch comics who studied quantum physics, maths, history, marketing, policial sciences, languages, music, anthropology etc.

Then what was the point of posting that comment in this thread?

I doubt he would have accepted anything to do with it.

I know he came back to front the sketchbook series but he was still in semi-retirement.

I doubt it, seeing as Ronnie Barker would be about 85 now! If he'd have appeared at all, he would have been retired from the shop, but dropping in to keep an eye on how the shop was going under Granville.

I liked it

If anything I thought it was a bit rushed maybe it could have done with a hour.

I wasn't surprised to see Granville turn into Arkwright after all he must have lived him with for 40-50 years it was bound to rub off on him sooner or later though I may have had it as when Granville sold a customer something they didn't want it would have shown he did have a bit of guilt over it but not enough to give them their money back.

Only thing I didn't like was Worksop getting a mention and that's only because I lived there for 18 years and hated it

I work at a uni and see them on a daily basis trying to be funny and not succeeding!