I never thought LoG was meant to be genuinely creepy, I always saw it as a kind of folk-tale burlesque, and the G'mas special reinforced that, with the curse story and vampyres and all that. It's more akin to something like the Wizard of Oz (the book I mean); the language is very similar. "Oh, what a world, what a world...", "He's only a thing of cloth and straw...", for example. I find this quite difficult to explain because it might be something wrong in my head. Probably more on this later.

Also, Papa Lazarou is meant to be ridiculous, just like Edward and Tubbs. We Corpses are often going on about bathos, and much of the humour in LoG is bathos of dictionary definition type 1: false pathos, exaggerated to an absurd level. The way they quiver their lips and that. And, I don't see where this "better on the radio" thing comes from. Some of the worst material, like the Charity Shop women, is in that as well. That scene with buying a leather bag and going on about Muriel was just two people talking really quickly in pepperpot voices, and it was dreadful. Incidentally, I hope you all noticed "Ingleby; The World's Smallest Escapologist" in the circus episode. I know a lot of it was not up to standard, but the first episodes of each series had a real pace and joy to them. And the music was great on the telly and rubbish on the radio. And the laughter on the radio series spoiled it horribly. So there.

To be honest I enjoyed the radio series more than the tv series, but they both have thier merits.

I never did think that the radio series was overly dark, or maybe thats just because I live in a town that is depressingly like Spent.

You Must Be the Husband was OK; Happy Families was great; That's Love was not; and Colin's Sandwich was really rather good, if I remember. For real genius though, and genuine creepiness, see Ever Decreasing Circles (but I have said so much about this on other threads that I'm even starting to bore myself with it now). This does make all those others you mentioned look like, your words, crap.

Well that told me then! Incidentally I'm a fan of the LoG. Sew there. Ow! Not there, there!

When do you think Reggie Perrin got crap? I've seen 1st 2 series and both are excellent. I have heard it said that no. 3 is not as good. Is this what you think?

>When do you think Reggie Perrin got crap? I've seen 1st 2 series and both are excellent. I have heard it said that no. 3 is not as good. Is this what you think?

I didn't bother watching the recent one (well didn't stick with it, rather) since it was devoid of Leonard Rossister. My claim for crapness might be unjustified as I haven't watched it in ages, work took me away from taping the recent BBC2 repeats (then again I can only blame myself). But I remember feeling awkward at the change of actors involving one character. Reggies son-in-law. There you go an unjustifiable reason for saying it got crap. That's why I don't write articles saying "I'm Alan Patridge Was Not Rubbish" Then again I got the feeling that the series run out of steam. By the way does anyone remember David Nobbs' A Bit of A Do.
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yes, David Jason was in that wasn't he? and so was the woman who was Diana in Waiting For God and she was in Tenko but i can't remember her name please help!

Series 3 of Perrin is not as consistent as 1 and 2, but it does have some glorious scenes, and a few great new characters.

McBlane the chef and The Shy Vet are worth the price of anyone's admission.

Don't get confused, y'all. 3 series of Fall & Rise of RP (mid 70s) plus 1 series of The Legacy of RP (mid 90s).

Series 3 was not as strong as the first 2 but it was still brilliant in places. Butler, he right. And creepy Robert Gillespie was in it too. There's an incredibly un-PC scene where the commune members black themselves up to bring down the value of the neighbouring properties, perhaps explaining why we don't see this series quite so often these days.

Legacy was dire despite its capable cast. BBC1 ran the last episode at a different time to all the others, presumably they cared about it as little as the viewers. Never repeated. No point without Big Len, really there wasn't.

The guy that played Tony 'Titty City, Arizona' Webster wasn't found in time for him to appear in the series, although he did turn up after it was completed. 'Bugger', he was reported as having said. He was replaced by Michael Fenton Stevens from Radio Active/KYTV who was just annoying. No charm, do you see? I'm told that the book was good though.

The Perrin books that I've read are beautifully written. Nobbs has a wonderfully concise way of writing, the dialogue is quick & sharp and he can be extremely wistful at times. Also try 'Second From Last In The Sack Race', that's my favourite. Ever.

Just bought his new one, 'Going Gently', very excited about reading it. Fingers crossed that he hasn't lost his talent (which seems to be more in books than telly these days).

btw Roy Clarke is now just a calculating crowd-pleaser. Open All Hours was pretty chuckle-filled though, mainly thanks to the per-per-per-performances of Barker & Jason.

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>btw Roy Clarke is now just a calculating crowd-pleaser. Open All Hours was pretty chuckle-filled though, mainly thanks to the per-per-per-performances of Barker & Jason.

Absolutely correct. Remember I said I cringe at Keeping Up Apperances and anyway as someone pointed out about Last of The Summer Wine you will find...

1. Someone rolling down a hill.
2. Something rolling down a hill.
3. Someone on something rolling down a hill.

But I still find Thorndike eerie. Remember even Ronnie Barker could not save Clarence. Oh Christ I'm going to attract some defenders of that series now. Please world swallow me up!

>>>>But I still find Thorndike eerie. Remember even Ronnie Barker could not save Clarence. Oh Christ I'm going to attract some defenders of that series now. Please world swallow me up!
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Barker wrote Clarence though, didn't he? Under a psuedonym at the time, but it was published in that compilation of his writing last year (or whenever it was).

>yes, David Jason was in that wasn't he? and so was the woman who was Diana in Waiting For God and she was in Tenko but i can't remember her name please help!


It's Stepanie Cole. I'm a big fan of A Bit of a Do, although I thought the book was a lot better - it's nice to see someone else who's read Second From Last in the Sack Race too, which I think is Nobbs' best book. Though I thought the TV series based on it, called The Life and Times of Henry Pratt, was a failure. I done't know why: great cast (Jeff Rawl, Alun Armstrong and Maggie O'Neill, if I recall)shot on film by Adrian Shergold (fine director - he made Goodbye Cruel World and Holding On) but it fell totally flat. Anyway, also in A Bit of A dop were Gwen Taylor from Duty Free, Tim Wylton (who's in My Hero now - why do I know all this?) and Nicola Pagett. She was really good in the series, but she hasn't been in much recently - however, and sadly, she apparently went a bit mad a few years ago- she accused her husband of being a pederast and developed a bizarre crush on Alistair Campbell. True. So, her last TV appearance was in Ain't Misbehavin' which was also - ta da! - written by Roy Clarke. Maybe we could start a new game, and call it Seven Degrees of David Nobbs... or something...

>It's Stephanie Cole.

Tar very much.