In the first episode (presumably the pilot), some of the performers seem not quite to have got to grips with the style of the writing. They play it as if it's a more conventional kind of comedy, with the result that they sometimes seem to be trying a bit too hard, a bit theatrical, and unconfident. But with the second episode they shift beautifully into gear; they quickly find the measure of the writing (which truly is poetic, in the sense that it has a rightness which means you couldn't change a word), and learn to trust it.

The studio audience doesn't really help, it has to be said. Some of the best-performed scenes are the filmed ones, where the absence of an audience means the cast aren't tempted into playing for laughs, and where the rhythm of the writing isn't unhelpfully broken up by them. This isn't yuk-yuk comedy. Many of the best lines get no audience reaction at all, but that doesn't mean they aren't still sublimely funny.

All of this makes it a great disappointment to have to dock a star for the DVD's presentation. I've no quibble with a lack of extras, and I can just about put up with the BBC's all too frequently dismal (or non-existent) documentation, but surely there is no excuse whatever for the disastrously inadequate DVD menu?

But do get this DVD anyway. If the overused word 'Classic' has any meaning left, this is one. (And don't hold your breath for an on-air repeat: with programmes as old as this, it's rarely the BBC that's to blame for not scheduling them; it's almost always to do with the artists' contracts. Ironically, because videos and DVDs weren't even thought of at the time, it's easier for them to be issued in this way than for them to be re-broadcast.)

An Absolute Classic
Review date: 2006-01-08 Rating: 8 out of 10

Oh how long I have waited for this DVD to be released.

The incomparable Robin Bailey, wonderful John Comer and Liz Smith who is, as always simply superlative.

This series is the forerunner of later "dysfunctional family" series like "The Simpsons" and "The Royle Family" in much the same way as The Goons set the standard for later classics like Michael Bentines "It's a Square World" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus".

This is quite simply the best series that the BBC NEVER repeated and I look forward with eager anticipation to the release of subsequent series.

I didn't know you cared? Well I did and I do.

remember "I didn't know you cared"
Review date: 2005-09-24 Rating: 10 out of 10

if you watched this in the 70's you must must get this DVD, It is absolutely brilliantly well written, very witty clever.life was hard for our Carter, "I WELL UM" I got it loved it can't wait for the 2nd series to be release this was and I do mean was one of the all time greats.
and remember I WELL UM................Pardon

By Eck Lad, I fought all through 1st world war.....
Review date: 2005-07-27 Rating: 10 out of 10

When I saw that this masterpiece of British comedy had at last been resurrected from the BBC archives, my heart fluttered in a little dance of joy. OK that's a bit prosaic I suppose but you get the drift.
This was a gem of a series scripted by Peter Tinniswood and, at 30 years old, is still beyond compare (Except, of course for Last of the Summer Wine)
The dvd has all 7 episodes of the first series which revolves about the some what bizarre Brandon family. Starring such stalwarts as Robin Bailey, John Comer and Liz Smith, the actual series came from the radio show of the same name, And the bizarreness flourished.
The sharply scripted characters of Uncle Mort, Annie, Les, Carter, Liz and Uncle Stavely take the archetypical northern family and propel it into a further dimension of comedy.
If you've never seen an episode then invest a few bob on this dvd and prepare to be bemused and amused.

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