I agree with Chip, it was OK but no more. Rowan Atkinson basically carried the whole show, without him it would have been dire, despite David Haig's very commendable and enjoyable performance.

Quote: Nick @ January 10 2008, 12:09 AM BST

The guy who plays Goody (momentarily forgotten his name) makes me laugh as well. Although I think the character iss straight which is not entirely convincing.

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I never bought that character either, I don't think James Dreyfus plays straight characters well. He was much more believable as Tom in Gimme Gimme Gimme.

I do love this show, Rowan Atkinson is fantastic!

James Dreyfus, I think (is his name),is one of my favourite sitcom characters.

I think this show actually is premier league. It might not quite be Blackadder, but my personal view is that it isn't far from that quality.

Grim is the best character!

"Just remember Raymond, it's my arse and if you stuff it, I'm going to be very red in the face"

Did they not make any more because Rowan went and made the Bean film? It's interesting that he never went back to television after that.

Quote: lofthouse @ August 12 2011, 6:01 PM BST

Grim is the best character!

"Just remember Raymond, it's my arse and if you stuff it, I'm going to be very red in the face"

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And wasn't there something like 'Remember Raymond. Your cock up, my arse!'

Grim (imho as the young people say) is probably one of the most overlooked greats in sitcom history.

P.S. Lofts, like your signature! Heard it again just recently. 'His backside must be red raw.'

Always reminds me of The Blood Donor . . 'Just think, Cliff Richard might get some of yours. That'd slow him down a bit.'

I had never really seen any of 'Thin Blue Line' until recently. I've only really seen most of the first series. I thought what I saw was pretty good. I'd like to watch more though before I settle on a judgement.

I thought Mr Bean was generally excellent - a genius creation by Atkinson. I thought the second Mr Bean movie while being good in many respects was too thin on laughs and was actually quite strange. A comedy shouldn't be breaking into song at the end, I don't think. It's like padding because they'd run out of laughs or something. I think Mr Bean is about getting as many laughs out of him within the time allocated. Why move away from this formula that works just cause it's a movie? First Mr Bean film was very good I thought - but again a bit thin on laughs at times; the bit where he got into the building was a bit over done. I still think there's potential for a brilliant new Mr Bean movie which is simply non-stop Beaning-around laughs.

Anyone know why there were only two series made of The Thin Blue Line?

Quote: Westcountryman @ August 14 2011, 12:03 AM BST

Anyone know why there were only two series made of The Thin Blue Line?

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Yeah, I was wondering that.

But how's this for a seriously scary coincidence: I was just reading on wiki about The Thin Blue Line and when I get onto this site to ask for opinions on why it finished, what do I see in the News section but news that Ben Elton is working on a new sitcom pilot with David Haig (Grim). Come on, that is pretty weird.

Quote: Westcountryman @ August 14 2011, 12:03 AM BST

Anyone know why there were only two series made of The Thin Blue Line?

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Not sure who wrote this writeup, but there's some possible hints about why it ended here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/thethinblueline/

The reason that this life was comparatively short was partly because the public simply wouldn't accept it.

The series was too broad, however, and the audience were not prepared for Rowan Atkinson as someone so comparatively bland as Fowler. They wanted him as Mr Bean, or Blackadder. Ben Elton's TV writing was simply not suited to something as broad as this format, which, if handled by someone like David Renwick, might have been brilliant.

Don't agree with the criticism in that writeup though, I can't think of any points where the character development was inconsistent.

Forgot about that one:

Grim to Kray: "It's my arse on the line and it's time for you to pull your finger out"

Same joke in different variations.

I liked the show. But I think it wasn't as good as it could (or even should) have been. But I don't know why because the actors were mostly very good.

I think they deliberately ended after 2 series because Fawlty Towers did 2 series and it turned out well. Dinnerladies did the same thing but it did not work though. That's what I think. Now I think this is a fantastic comedy with great characters. Credit to David Haig for his superb acting. I rate this comedy 9/10 because it had only 2 series. This comedy had years left in it. I think Elton took a lot of inspiration to write this because he loved Dad's Army so much.

Loved this sitcom, just brilliant.

I also really love this show, in my opinion it's one of the best Britcoms ever done. Atkinson was of course great as always, but much more than Blackadder and Mr Bean, this was not just an Atkinson-one man show, but a fine ensemble comedy where every character got great lines in every episode. Especially Grim and Goody are among the funniest Britcom characters ever, Gladstone was also great, Dawkins and Habib were not very funny or interesting, but they also had their moments from time to time. And if you're re-watching it nowadays you will see that it still holds up very well and is really a timeless classic. I wish I could say the same thing about The Wright Way, but it's really terrible to see how TWW is almost exactly the same show, but is still much worse because everything that was done right at TTBL was done completely wrong there.

Got these on DVD, a truly brilliant series which is forgotten, it never seems to get repeated at all.