Tursiops
Thursday 17th December 2009 1:33am [Edited]
Welwyn Garden City
9,788 posts
I finally got around to watching this and it is by no means the train crash I had been lead to believe. The general look and feel are unappealing, but that is probably inevitable given the circus location. There are though actual funny lines, and perhaps this makes me hopelessly retro, but I like funny lines in a sitcom - so long as they can be delivered convincingly in character. Which is where the problem starts. Tony Robinson's comic timing is spot on, and Thomson and Thompson do well enough, but Bruce McKinnon could have done with spending less time working on his accent and more time working on his character, and I am afraid that Amanda Holden just does not have a funny bone in her (admittedly luscious) body. As she is the lynchpin, this is a problem. I can imagine the show working much better with a genuine funny woman such as Sally Philips in the lead.
Quote: Dolly Dagger @ December 16 2009, 8:17 PM GMT
I get the feeling this was written as the first episode; there's a joke about Ruth Madoc's dog that expects the audience not to know she's a dog trainer and it's explained that the clowns are family and why Amanda Holden is running the circus.
The Beeb keep doing this with shows; it really smacks of a lack of confidence in the product.
