The Tea Ladies

'The Tea Ladies' was much-trumpeted as the fruit of a wonderful new comedy partnership: Ray Galton and Johnny Speight. I've always thought it a measure of the low standards of TV comedy that shows like 'Steptoe' and 'Till Death Us Do Part' were treated with such awe. Clearly several notches above the usual ghastly run of things, they were both formula shows, lapsed quickly into cynical self-parody, and for every one new joke would happily trundle out five old ones. All the same, those several notches meant they were at least watchable and it was a disappointment to find 'The Tea Ladies' showing so few signs of even being that.