Godot Taxis
Monday 25th January 2010 6:16am [Edited]
5,741 posts
Quote: Dave @ January 22 2010, 8:41 PM GMT
Concering Rock and Chips, it's a bit of a naff idea, really.
The whole idea of Only Fools and Horses is that their present is a comedy but their past is a tragedy. They went to great strains to describe how nasty Freddie the Frog and Reg actually were. In 'Sleeping In Peckham' - the worst OFAH episode ever - Del tells Rodney that Freddie was "a homebreaker, conman, a thief, a liar and a cheat". So how are we meant to symphathise with such a character who is ultimatley so unlikeable. None of the backstory characters are likeable - even Grandad was a lazy sod in his early days.
Good points, Rodney - sorry Dave. There's a strong argument for never doing a prequel, and that is: if the backstory needs to be told, why not start the drama there in the first place. Then there's the George Lucas form of prequel where a character goes through a door in one movie and comes out of it in another - ie everything is shown - nothing happens off screen. Letting things happen off screen is one of the writer's most powerful tools so it seems like a strange thing to throw away.
I enjoyed this and in many ways it was a serious exercise but there were a few issues. It wasn't a funny show, but what laughs there were weren't shared out too fairly. Trigger, Denzil and Boycie seemed to be underused and with Grandad Sullivan showed that he has either forgotten Grandad's backstory or never knew it - an utter waste of Phil Daniels - and amazing really that he took the part.
I also agree with Aaron about the presentation of Joanie - the actress playing her brassy friend Reenie would have been a better choice than Kellie Bright - whose lined face and knobbly knees would surely have failed to catch Freddie the Frog's eye.