Guilbert
Monday 25th November 2019 2:47pm [Edited]
87 posts
Judging from the comments above "Two pints of lager..." does not seem to be a "hit" amongst people on this forum.
I must admit I did not watch it first time round (my son who is now 30 did) but I was busy working back than so never watched it.
Before I get in to taking about it must say I have just turned 70 years of age (a young 70 I think) and now retired and have been a comedy fan for as long as I can remember. I am a fan of what I may call "quality" comedy such as Marx Brothers, Cary Grant (wonderful comic), Jack Lemmon / Walter Matthau, Bilko, the Goons, Python, Peter Cook / Dudley Moore, Porridge, Alan Partridge, Young Ones etc. I have read many books on comedy and comedians and still watch comedy on TV today.
Recently Gold have been repeating Two Pints on TV so I have been watching some of them. And while I wont pretend it is the best comedy ever, it does seem to have a bad "image" judging by the comments above.
Personally I would say it is a Comedy / Drama, similar in style to Only Fools in Horses which mixed comedy and drama. It covers the long running story of Gaz and Donna and their relationship, as well as the life and relationships of their various friends.
It is VERY rude at times, possibly some of the "rudest" comedy I have ever seen on TV. One of the episodes is called Spunk!
One of the first episodes I saw on Gold was "When Janet killed Jonny" which was a rather strange and unusual one off "horror" episode that reminded me of the Young Ones with its zaniness (I have always been a fan of zany comedy) and some rather gory horror. It was the only episode filmed with no audience.
The "horror" special effects are excellent and would not be out of place in a horror movie. This was the episode that made me want to hunt out other episode.
Here it is on YouTube and well worth a watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-0H3NUNf3A
While it is easy to dismiss the show as "chavvy" and shallow there were some fine acting and comedy performance in it,
Here is a scene from one episode where Gaz has been seriously injured in a car crash and Donna (in a fine performance by Natalie Casey) comes to see him in hospital. I found this scene very moving and reminded me of the "lift" scene in Only Fools and Horses between Del and "Dave" (Rodney) after the miscarriage, having a mixture of comedy and tears.
The scene ends with a moving song and a reprise of some of the scenes from that series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQr7h2RjyRU
Of course some of the performers like Sheridan Smith and Ralf Little (as well as Natalie Casey who appears on the West End stage) have gone on to "better" things so it cant have been that bad and I think they give good comedy / acting performances. And of course the executive producer was Geoffrey Perkins who was no comedy slouch.
As I said, not saying it is the greatest comedy ever, but I do think many young people who watched it at the time must have very fond memories of it. I know my son loved it at the time.
I found some of it very funny and think it deserves revisting.
All episodes are currently on the BBC iPlayer though only till the end of November I think (so just a few more days).
Give it a go !