Quote: lofthouse @ July 18 2013, 11:54 AM BSTIt's an old fashioned style of sitcom, a bit like Miranda is. Some people simply won't tolerate this - everything's got to be like Peep Show or The Inbetweeners, i.e. Full of swearing and adult themes.
If people want dick jokes there are plenty of other shows to fulfill their needs.
I totally agree, lofthouse. Whilst I do like adult comedies, it is nice to watch something that's funny without swearing.
OMG. I tried hard to watch this the other night but after a few minutes I had to switch off. For a start the continual laughing at sub standard gags was annoying in itself, not sure if it's a laugh track or studio audience, but there was way to much laughing at not very funny material. I am still waiting for a good new BBC sitcom.
Quote: lofthouse @ July 18 2013, 11:54 AM BSTIt's an old fashioned style of sitcom, a bit like Miranda is. Some people simply won't tolerate this - everything's got to be like Peep Show or The Inbetweeners, i.e. Full of swearing and adult themes.
Well I love modern stuff like that too - but there is still room for the more gentle and, yes, old fashioned style of sitcom like C.A.S.
That's why it's on at 8:30pm - it's a family show.
If people want dick jokes there are plenty of other shows to fulfill their needs.
That.
Quote: comical masterpiece @ July 18 2013, 1:56 PM BSTOMG. I tried hard to watch this the other night but after a few minutes I had to switch off. For a start the continual laughing at sub standard gags was annoying in itself, not sure if it's a laugh track or studio audience, but there was way to much laughing at not very funny material. I am still waiting for a good new BBC sitcom.
It is a live audience, it was shot at Pinewood Studios earlier this year.
Quote: lofthouse @ July 18 2013, 11:54 AM BSTIt's an old fashioned style of sitcom
I think the sitcom overall is fairly modern, despite it featuring a pensioner, and not being 'sweary'. The humour derives from surreal situations like the ice-cream Ripper tour, Office-style cringe in the form of Michael not wanting to appear racist, and of course the strange and marvellous way the Count's mind works; none of which you would have seen in Are You Being Served? or It Ain't Half Hot Mum.
Quote: lofthouse @ July 18 2013, 11:54 AM BSTIt's an old fashioned style of sitcom, a bit like Miranda is. Some people simply won't tolerate this - everything's got to be like Peep Show or The Inbetweeners, i.e. Full of swearing and adult themes.
It's not really an old fashioned sitcom because they were actually funny and well written most of the time. Don't know how anyone could conveniently label this as the same unless you're comparing it to one of the really crap ones.
It's got nothing to do with it having swearing/adult themes or not, it's just not very good. Like Miranda. Nobody is saying it has to be like Peep Show or anything else to be funny.
Quote: bob4apples @ July 18 2013, 3:11 PM BSTit's just not very good. Like Miranda.
Prepare for a shit storm. 
Quote: Gordon Bennett @ July 18 2013, 3:20 PM BSTPrepare for a shit storm.
Why, are they showing repeats of it?
Quote: lofthouse @ July 18 2013, 11:54 AM BSTReally??
Missed that
I miss Malcolm and Jeffery!
Made a pic of it with vlc:
I'm hoping that this means some of the radio show regulars might appear at some point.
Why invent that Polish woman ??
What was wrong with Sally?
I watched ep 1 & 2. It's a wonderful character very well played adrift in a medicore script. This means there's enough to enjoy, but not enough to love. The radio show was better, though I'm not one of its fan army (only heard a few episodes, seemed pretty good).
I think my problem is that it feels like some set pieces strung together - now, in ep 2 that was quite artfully done, the architecture was very intricate, so I'm, not saying it's lazy writing, but I still wasn't convinced by it. You can sort of see the joins.
In short, the arias are good, but the recitative is pretty flat. 
I enjoyed it on radio, not obsessively, but sufficient to look forward to it when it was on, shining out like a somewhat weather-beaten beacon from the swamp of 6:30 mud. If I missed it, I didn't bother seeking it out on Listen Again, but I was glad when I caught it.
That said, the TV version leaves me stone cold. I think my main problem with it is that Rory Kinnear, who with the best will in the world is not a funny man, unfortunately has the acting chops and screen presence to appear as a co-star, rather than a supporting role slash straight man. But their relationship isn't the crux of the script, or the story arc, and we're left being shown a lot of stuff about his life which I don't think we care about. If you're going to complicate which was a pretty straightforward original idea, you need to use the complication to add extra funny, and it really isn't funny enough (or, indeed, at all).
Throw in the fact that it's lit incredibly unflatteringly (in 2013, is it really not possible to shoot without borrowing the floodlights from Wembley?) and the audience are screaming hysterically at non-jokes, which paradoxically makes them less funny, and it's just not very good. Linehan may have been on the project as co-writer, but he's a name with a reputation, and I would have thought he would have got more involved to stop it being so slack. I made it part way through the second episode before I gave up, and I doubt I'll try again.
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ July 19 2013, 9:43 AM BSTtheir relationship isn't the crux of the script, or the story arc, and we're left being shown a lot of stuff about his life which I don't think we care about. If you're going to complicate what was a pretty straightforward original idea, you need to use the complication to add extra funny, and it really isn't funny enough../
It does appear to be something of a mash-up, with largely separate contributions from The Count and from Linehan's ideas.
Quote: Tokyo Nambu @ July 19 2013, 9:43 AM BSTI made it part way through the second episode before I gave up, and I doubt I'll try again.
The second half was the better half.
Definitely. The first third of ep 2 was flat but it steadily improved and the last third was very very funny.
Watch to the end people!
Last third was more Linehan, but the first was more Delany, IMO. The "Human Egg" bit and all. But the ice cream van - Ripper tour onwards it's just classic Linehan 
