Quote: Afinkawan @ January 25 2010, 9:37 AM GMTNo, it definitely wasn't a comedy and I think it benefited from being a completely different style to OFAH.
Quote: swerytd @ January 25 2010, 11:02 AM GMTIt wasn't a comedy as such, but there were a lot of funny moments. Joanie uses a lot of the wrong phrases as Del did later on and, at times, James Buckly had Del spot-on.
Actually the script is pretty much a regular John Sullivan script. He certainly didn't 'tone down' the humour. It contained all of the things that Sullivan has always put in his scripts - puns, new slang, old jokes worked into dialogue, malapropisms, physical comedy -the saveloy that Del throws out of the bus window hits Reg on the head in the same way that the suitcase chucked out of the window of the Villa Bella in Jolly Boys Outing hits Boycie and Trigger on the head. In fact Sullivan has used this gag loads of times. I remember it in Dear John where Kirk and his mates roll a caravan down some dune which we later learn contained Ralph.
The point is that material the same as this would have produced an acceptably funny OFAH episode 15 years ago, were it performed by David Jason in front of a studio audience.
Quote: Luke @ January 25 2010, 12:12 PM GMTSome of the jokes were awful, but he got away with it before because it was in a studio audience based sitcom, he can't get away with it in a dramady. To highlight why John Sullivan's writing ability has been defunct in the last 10 years is the character Trigger. Trigger was arguably one of the best characters in the original OFAH series, he was slow but he thought he knew what he was doing, he still felt he was one of the lads. In the last couple of Christmas specials and this dramady he's turned so dumb he's actually coming off as mentally ill. "He's odd. When I saw him he was roaring with laughter at the television" "There's nothing odd about that?" "The television wasn't on". See? It's just really lazy writing, just like how in the last Christmas special Trigger became so dumb he didn't know what blinking was. He was in his fifties and he didn't know what blinking was? How about in the next one John, Trigger starts pissing on the sofa, but it's funny right, because he's like 'i thought this was the bathroom?' Yeah? :I
Basically I thought a lot of it was cringeworthy and simply unnecessary. John Sullivan really doesn't know when to let things go does he? Imagine if The Office continued for years and years? It would lose all it's credibility? Imagine a prequel to The Office where Brent's in a band and Gareth is the hall monitor at school? Sounds okay on paper, but really take a moment and think what it would be like? Yeah? Well John Sullivan should have took more of those moments before he made this, in fact before he made any post 1996 episodes.
Sullivan was a funny writer - and is, I think. But he has never really been a wit and his comedy has always contained a strong vein of cruelty.
In a previous post I suggested that Sullivan had forgotten or not known Granddad's backstory. I now think that considering the show first aired in 1981 he can be forgiven for that. It was conceived years ago when Britain was a different place and he was a different person. Trigger, Grandad - he most likely know less about these characters now than the fans.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 25 2010, 10:11 AM GMTOnly caught a bit of the end, but Lyndhurst's eyes seem to be getting closer together all the time. How long before he goes full-Cyclops?
