Richard Briers
- English
- Actor
Press clippings
What today's 'mental health' comedies can learn from Richard Briers
From Fleabag to Channel 4's Big Mood, 'people with problems' sadcoms are TV's latest obsession. But sitcoms were once sadder - and funnier.
Gareth Roberts, The Telegraph, 28th March 2024Classic comedy dramas added to BBC iPlayer
Cardiac Arrest, Hamish Macbeth, Monarch Of The Glen and Making Out have been added to BBC iPlayer.
British Comedy Guide, 14th September 2023New book to shine a light on creation of 1970s sitcoms
Raising Laughter, a new book due to be published in September, will take a look at the creation of 1970s sitcoms. Writer Robert Sellers has interviewed a number of those involved in the shows.
British Comedy Guide, 17th June 2021Comfort classic: The Good Life
A show that gently sends up the English middle class is built on a sharp script and consummate acting.
Matthew Bell, Royal Television Society, 4th February 2021Extract: The Authorised Biography Of Richard Briers
Too smug, selfish and middle class: why Richard Briers hated himself in The Good Life.
James Hogg, Daily Mail, 23rd September 2018If You See God, Tell Him box set review
After a bump on the head Briers' Godfrey Spry believes he has to do exactly what the adverts say - with often disastrous results.
George Bass, The Guardian, 9th June 2016Richard Briers blue plaque unveiled
The British Comedy Society has unveiled a blue plaque in honour of late actor and sitcom star Richard Briers CBE.
British Comedy Guide, 2nd November 2015Richard Briers to be honoured with blue plaque
The British Comedy Society is to honour late actor Richard Briers CBE with a blue plaque.
Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 26th October 2015PM's promise of The Good Life invites taunts
Shouldn't the prime minister have thought of a more appropriate sitcom to repeatedly reference during his manifesto launch - given that Richard Briers also starred in Ever Decreasing Circles.
Stuart Heritage, The Guardian, 14th April 2015It is with relief that I can report that Ben Elton's new comeback series is hilarious! It is a classic situation comedy with great jokes and ... and funny characters who ... who ...
No. I'm sorry, it's no good. You see, it really is no good; in fact, it's a stinker. David Haig plays Gerald Wright (hence the title!), an annoying man who wants everything done a certain way. It's a perennial sitcom trope, done beautifully by Richard Briers in Ever Decreasing Circles, for instance, or decently by Chris Barrie in The Brittas Empire. He's a health and safety inspector for a local council, the department "that introduced the static seesaw and the horizontal slide [and said] babies must wear helmets when breastfeeding near the swings".
But what makes it a stinker are the jokes, which feel as though when the BBC moved out of Television Centre they found an old box at the back of the cupboard labelled "Leftover Sitcom Gags 1973". They are ancient, is what I'm saying, they have whiskers on them.
The main running joke involves Wright trying to wash his hands under a bathroom tap and soaking his trousers, and then someone coming in and thinking he's wet himself, and then shoogling about under a hand dryer and someone else coming in and thinking he's doing something filthy. And this happens three times.
Haig tries to make things sound funny by stretching and emphasising certain words - not a stammer, but a sort of word-mastication which would be excellent for someone trying to practice shorthand or audio typing dictation, if anyone still does that nowadays.
The show's token nod to modernity is that Wright lives with his daughter and her female partner (played by Beattie Edmondson, daughter of Elton's old chum Adrian - how cosy). He has to buy a present and they suggest a shop called Girl Shack - wait, Girl Shack? In 2013? I take it Chic Chicks or Trendy Togs or Burdz Boutique were all taken?
Finally, there is the catchphrase: "Don't get me started!" which Wright says when particularly exasperated. This is very nearly "Are you 'avin' a laugh?" from Ricky Gervais' spoof sitcom When The Whistle Blows. Sorry, Ben: this isn't the one that's going to win over your critics.
Andrea Mullaney, The Scotsman, 19th April 2013