Hypnotic!

Mike Sh.

This is the ultimate show "about nothing".  Nothing much ever happens here - just a working-class family in a northern British town (presumably an old industrial town, not too different from the old New England mill town in which I dwell) sitting languidly in front of the television set talking languidly and not doing much of anything else (aside from ordering around the much put-upon teenaged son, making him do nearly everything around the house, and then complaining about his laziness and shiftlessness).  Most of the characters are extremely phlegmatic to the point of grogginess; they can't even seem to keep their heads erect as they sit on the sofa.  It really makes one wonder if they've all been downing cough syrup by the bottle.  Their faces are as expressive as those of Basset hounds and they murmur, coo and cluck as if they had just emerged from twenty-six hour naps. (The only exception is the father, Jim Royle, played by Ricky Tomlinson, who looks like an aged hippie and has some very odd personal hygeine habits, but at least expresses his opinions with animated humor).

Now I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea on how I feel about this show. The fact is, I absolutely love it.  It's somewhat odd at first to sit in front of the T.V. watching people sit in front of the T.V., but to say this show is addictive is a gross understatement.  It is hypnotic, memserizing, fascinating.  It draws you into its vortex until you feel as if your sitting alongside this family in its slightly shabby living room, and laughing along with them.  You can watch several episodes back to back without realizing that two or three hours have slipped by.  And as odd as these people can be sometimes you find you really like them, and feel as if you'd really like hanging out with them.  Jim the Old Hippie Dad in particular looks as though he might be a million laughs.

Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash, who play the daughter and her newlywed husband, created and wrote the series,and they have done an excellent job. It's sometimes a little difficult for an American to decipher their accents, slang words and turns of phrase, but if you watch a bit, you'll soon catch on, and it's well worth the time and effort.

score /10

Mike Sh. 23 June 2001

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0503180/