Time Gentlemen Please
- TV sitcom
- Sky One
- 2000 - 2002
- 37 episodes (2 series)
Patriotic landlord Guv runs a pub so successful it has no name, and is frequented only by a group of life's greatest losers. Stars Al Murray, Phil Daniels, Jason Freeman, Rebecca Front, Roy Heather and more.
Time Gentlemen Please trivia
Series 1 episode 14, Only When I Laugh ..., takes place entirely within a hospital and is titled in homage to the ITV Eric Chappell sitcom Only When I Laugh.
The Bare-Arsed Naked Cook (featured in Series 2, episode 10, Storming Up A Cook) is given the real name of Jamie Hardy, in tribute to comedy duo Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy: the character is a spoof of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who was at the time known as the 'Naked Chef'.
Avalon and Sky hoped to sell Time Gentlemen Please to America, and so Series 1 stretched from the British sitcom standard of 6-8 episodes in length to the US series standard of 22 half-hour episodes. A Christmas special was produced in 2001, and another 14 shows in followed as Series 2 shortly after.
The character played by Dean Cook, Greg Thompson's nephew, appears to change names between episodes. He is initially referred to as Cary, but soon becomes Ashley Thompson.
Creator, writer and star Al Murray is a descendent of 19th Century novelist William Makepeace Thackeray - hence the Time Gentlemen Please brewery being named Thackeray's.