Bless This House Page 8

No, he's not. And as much as I like both Terry and June, the TV neighbours were superior. (Although admittedly, perhaps I was just used to them by the time I came to see the film.)

Yes, much preferred Anthony Jackson and Patsy Rowlands myself aswell.
Incidently, BBC2 are showing an episode of 'Terry and June' this Christmas. Never seen it before, so it should be interesting to watch for the first time.

Yep; a nice June Whitfield evening. This Is Your Life at 8:00pm, Terry & June at 8:30, a documentary called The Many Faces Of June Whitfield at 9:00pm, and an episode of Absolutely Fabulous at 10:00pm.

That's on Tuesday 29th December 2009, on BBC Two.

But back to Bless This House (woops).

On the topic of Bless This House, I watched an episode for the first time in a while last night, the series two episode 'Get Me To The Match On Time'. Very funny stuff. I have an episode of a Bless This House style one-off Christmas sitcom episode called All This - And Christmas Too!. Will probably watch it this Christmas. It is an extra on a Bless This House DVD. Has anyone else seen it and have an opinion on it?
On the sub topic of Terry & June, I watched an episode for the first time tonight on BBC Two. I don't know what to make of it. It had lines I could see coming a mile off, but did have some charm to it. Will have to watch more episodes to form an opinion.

Love Terry & June, although that probably wasn't the strongest episode.

All This - And Christmas Too! is alright, but didn't quite match the magic of Bless This House for me.

Quote: Aaron @ December 22 2009, 9:31 PM GMT

All This - And Christmas Too! is alright, but didn't quite match the magic of Bless This House for me.

Though difficult to do over one episode.

Perhaps hard to compare the quality of 1 against 65 fairly, but there's a charm instantly identifiable in a TV programme, which All This - And Christmas Too! didn't have anything like Bless This House did.

Jack,

you absolutely have to watch more Terry and June !

:D

I have always loved watching Bless This House. It was magical when I was a child, especially the bells in the theme tune. I personally find the film version inferior to the series, as it seemed to have a grim and grimy quality to it, and the character Robin Askwith played was just too tough, street-wise and mature for the role of Mike. Robin Askwith played Mike as dumb, uneducated and a Stupid neanderthal numbskull, which Mike in the series was not. I personally think he was chosen for the role simply because he was famous for playing 'lads of the time' in other street-wise film roles like the Confessions films etc, and that is what the producer wanted, not a clean cut happy go lucky Mike and film.
I did a bit of searching on Robin Stewart a couple of years ago and found out that he lives and works in Australia. I think, if I recall, he appeared in a sitcom (something like Sons And Daughters), but has not appeared much on TV or in films. Although he was in the film The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires (1974) with Peter Cushing.
I personally do not see Sid James or the producer William G Stewart, disliking Robin Stewart to the point where they would replace him in the film version, as the film version was made in 1972 and the next 4 series (1973 onwards) were filmed with him, not Askwith. I have never, ever heard reports of Sid James saying he disliked working with Robin Stewart or was frustrated working with him in any way, shape or form. I think that may be a simple case of rumour as there was that long standing rumour of Clint Eastwood not wanting to work with the actor Andrew Robinson (the scorpio killer Charles Davis) again after they filmed Dirty Harry (1971) together - which proved to be false.
To my mind, Sid James was more than used to working with actors who were consistently late for rehersals or messed things up by being drunk etc, so I really cannot envisage Sid James suddenly becoming irritated and resentful of Robin Stewart if he was late for rehearsals etc. Sid James was a professional and very experienced actor, and would have been able to deal with such trivialities from a young individual as it would simply have been a case of Robin Stewart forging his own reputation within the industry and would not have reflected on Sid James or his career.

But, assuming that there was ill-will, James's experience and professionalism would have stopped him from making public comment, surely? I can't imagine that having worked with difficult people before would make him any less prone to be annoyed by it - in fact probably more so. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he and Kenneth Williams didn't quite get on, but they managed to work together for many years.

As for the film, I think - again, assuming for a moment that the rumours of ill-feeling are correct - it may have been that he was not available at the time they intended to produce it, and with Askwith's higher profile and the issues with RS, they didn't wait for him.

Yay, I love this. I've only got series 3 and 5 at the moment but I think it is cosy comforting sort of sitcom that you can watch easily, even just have it on in the background. It's a gem of a comedy. I also have a soft spot for Sally Gleeson in it.

Just bought the complete collection on DVD but was wondering if the spin-off film was before or after series two. Does anyone know?

I think it was released after Series 2 broadcast. But if you're concerned about continuity, it's best to leave the film until after Series 6. Its themes don't continue into S3.

Quote: Aaron @ March 1 2010, 1:12 PM GMT

I think it was released after Series 2 broadcast. But if you're concerned about continuity, it's best to leave the film until after Series 6. Its themes don't continue into S3.

Okay thanks. I knew series two and the film both went out in 1972 but I wasn't sure what went first. I'll properly watch the film after the series like you said.

Has anyone else noticed on the DVDs that you can see the original count in and V/O usually provided by the director/producer. Sometimes you can hear Sid James make a few jokes before the recording.