Quote: Robert D @ August 1 2010, 7:25 PM BSTIt's such a shame because I really used to like this show. Which I know is really odd as I'm a teenager. But this series is really leaving me cold... worse than that actually. It's awful.
Do you have any of the DVDs then?
Quote: peter gazzard @ August 1 2010, 8:46 PM BSTDo you have any of the DVDs then?
Yeah. Series 1 to 14 
Quote: Robert D @ August 1 2010, 9:05 PM BSTYeah. Series 1 to 14
Me too, although got seriss 1-2 after I'd bought 3-14 purely because I was more familar with the show from Foggy's first stint onwards.
Managed to watch tonight's episode, despite texting whilst doing it. Funniest bit was the green screen at the start with Frank and Peter in front of the fake forrest. Hilarious. It's got so many pointless and un-funny subplots you wonder why they even bothered to commission a final series at all? Frank and Peter were in it for about a minute overall this time. At least they seem to be wrapping the Marina situation up...aren't they? That Russ Abbott biatch is the most irritating f**ker on the face of the planet and has the most god-awful wig.
I actually did a bit of an experiment tonight. At half six (half an hour) before tonights episode, I watched Series 1 episode 1 (Short Back and Palais Glide) from 1973. Then I watched tonight's episode afterwards. I enjoyed the 1973 episode, no forced laughter, not too many characters etc. It just seemed so natural. Then I watched tonight's one. How a show has changed is unbelievable. If say 'Last of the Summer Wine' was a person, then during the 38 years, they had quite clearly had a sex change. Tonight's episode was unbelievably shit. I didn't laugh once. How I managed to watch the whole 30 minutes is a miracle. I felt physically sick when Howard kissed Marina. Them two have to be the two most unfunniest characters in British sitcom history. Russ Abbott's character is terrible as well. And isn't Jane Freeman looking old?
Quote: David Carmon @ August 1 2010, 7:19 PM BSTThis is shit.
This is really really shitty crappy turding no brainer fanny juice.
Petition to get David Carmon a column in the Radio Times.
Quote: Jack Massey @ August 1 2010, 10:38 PM BSTI actually did a bit of an experiment tonight. At half six (half an hour) before tonight's episode, I watched Series 1 episode 1 (Short Back and Palais Glide) from 1973. Then I watched tonight's episode afterwards. I enjoyed the 1973 episode, no forced laughter, not too many characters etc. It just seemed so natural. Then I watched tonight's one. How a show has changed is unbelievable. If say 'Last of the Summer Wine' was a person, then during the 38 years, they had quite clearly had a sex change. Tonight's episode was unbelievably shit. I didn't laugh once. How I managed to watch the whole 30 minutes is a miracle. I felt physically sick when Howard kissed Marina. Them two have to be the two most unfunniest characters in British sitcom history. Russ Abbott's character is terrible as well. And isn't Jane Freeman looking old?
Petition to get David Carmon a column in the Radio Times.
Howard and Marina are good characters, but they've been doing the same thing each episode for 25 years so of course have gone a little stale. Kind of remind me of Frank and Margaret in MASH a bit, in the way that they blissfully assume no one knows they are seeing each other, despite the fact they are always getting caught together.
Quote: peter gazzard @ August 1 2010, 10:53 PM BSTHoward and Marina are good characters, but they've been doing the same thing each episode for 25 years so of course have gone a little stale. Kind of remind me of Frank and Margaret in MASH a bit, in the way that they blissfully assume noone knows they are seeing each other, despite the fact they are always getting caught together.
It's all a matter of opinion, but I've never liked them, they just get on my nerves so much, I feel like throwing a chair at the television when I see them.
I hated Howard and Marina from the moment they appeared; mind you the show was rubbish by then anyway.
Quote: Jack Massey @ August 1 2010, 10:38 PM BSTPetition to get David Carmon a column in the Radio Times.
I wish!
When I used to watch it regularly as a kid (around 91 - 98) I loved it, Howard and Marina were funny and had a lot of good scenes, now it's like watching The Queen and Prince Philip getting it on. YUK!
I watched it up til around 2002 regularly and on and off since as it just wasn't funny. Which is the whole point of a sitcom.
It could have been saved by axing (killing) a few of the nearly deads and getting a younger cast in and getting a new writer. Obviously too late now.
Thora Hird must be falling off her stairlift now.
Well I'm going to stick my head above the parapet and say I still enjoy watching the series.
I freely admit it's not as good as it was (although being born in the mid-1980s it is only recently that I've been able to enjoy the sitcom at its peak, thanks to video sharing websites), but many of the reasons for this I think are outside Roy Clarke's control; primarily, many of his good characters have died, and those that haven't are now so old that they are unable to do as much filming as they once did. I would love a lot more Sallis and Thornton action per episode, but at a combined age of 178 there's a limit as to how much they can do, especially since they can no longer be filmed outside. I suspect this leads onto the other problem; with lots of small scenes, the episodes inevitably feel more disjointed, and you need a larger cast.
That said, I watched an episode from I think the 1980s the other day, and it featured only the main trio apart from a brief two minute sequence where Wesley Pegden appeared purely to drive them some place they needed to go. Is it even possible to do that nowadays; i.e. have a cast of characters all of whom are more than one-episode wonders, but use them only if the story line requires?
But it's not all doom and gloom in the modern episodes - I still laugh, usually at Entwhistle and Alvin, and derive comfort from the fact that Ivy is still in business despite not selling anyone more than the odd coffee for nearly 40 years.
And I will still be saddened by its departure; for, as Wordsworth noted: "Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade/ Of that which once was great, is passed away"
I was born in the mid 1980s (1984) and watched the show from when I was 7 (1991) right up until I was 18(2002) and then semi regularly from then. It was still good and on top of its game in the 1990s but has been on a downward slide since around 2001.
They should have ended it on its 30th anniversary and it would have been saved from a lot of the negative comments that have plagued it during the last few years of its life.
I remember my mum and dad watching it on a Sunday evening during the late 90s and I would sit and watch it with them. That's probably why I have stuck with it until now - it brings back happy memories.
However, I've watched it on and off from 1997 to 2006 and then started following it from 2007 to present. I've only noticed a decrease in quality in last year's and this year's series. It's a shame.
I can't even begin to like Russ Abbot's character. He seems like a cheap copy of Foggy. 
Quote: peter gazzard @ August 1 2010, 9:09 PM BSTMe too, although got seriss 1-2 after I'd bought 3-14 purely because I was more familar with the show from Foggy's first stint onwards.
Exactly the same! I bought all the Foggy series first, then the Blamire ones and then the Seymour ones. 
Truly put me off watching it as I disliked him, Russ Abbot makes me want to melt my TV. I don't like any of the current 'trio' at all.
Only redeeming feature is Mrs Wainwright. Still amusing.
I'm surprised people are surprised that this is no longer up to much. I did used to love the show when I was about eight.
Quote: Timbo @ August 1 2010, 11:15 PM BSTI hated Howard and Marina from the moment they appeared; mind you the show was rubbish by then anyway.
I'm with Timbo on this one. I never watched it as a kid, but about six years ago I got the DVDs of the early series. The first four series are a work of pure genius. Then come series 5 there was an introduction of more 'physical' comedy. It wasn't as good, but still very good and still a limited number of characters seeing the best of the three old men, plus added support from Nora and Wally Batty plus Sid and Ivy. It went at this good level for another few series, with perhaps the best episode being 'Getting Sam Home', a 90 minute special from 1984 which was top dog. Then from on there, these added characters came into it more and more and it went on a steep decline from there on, and which is now hitting rock bottom.
