Just Good Friends Page 6

Quote: MrsLogicFromViz @ 2nd December 2023, 12:33 PM

I think that it could have been resolved with fewer episodes.

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So did Sullivan, I think I'm right in saying.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 1st June 2022, 9:12 AM

The end of series 2 last night, great ep and the intended end of the sitcom proper, but followed up with a 90 minute Christmas special prequel as a send off for its fans. Such was the furore from the fans that it and the couple ended, Sullivan had to bring them back for a final series two years later.

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Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 3rd December 2023, 10:47 AM

So did Sullivan, I think I'm right in saying.

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Absolutely. I would have honestly liked to see them part forever as I don't think that they're a particularly great match when all's said and done. I reckon that, if it was a real life scenario that they wouldn't be still together.

Yeah when I recently watched S3 not having seen any of it before, I thought it had lost some of the sparkle of the first two series but then JS did have a lot on his plate at the time with OFAH and Dear John both going strong. But it still won a Bafta for the best comedy that year and I believe he got a lot of praise from women at the time for the way he made Penny more independent and successful in her career.

Quote: MrsLogicFromViz @ 2nd December 2023, 12:33 PM

I'm now ploughing through S3 and it's dragging. I think that it could have been resolved with fewer episodes.

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That's a very good point. Penny, despite being privately educated, didn't seem to shine a great deal during the first two series. I also wondered why she didn't embark on any other relationships other than Vince and Graham? She was (and still is!) an extremely attractive woman.

Because she was a maungy cow. (Yorkshire word derived from the invading vikings)
Nobody would stick her for long

Actually, she is! Nail hit on head

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 3rd December 2023, 12:53 PM

Nobody would stick her for long

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Well I would, and it wouldn't take me long

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 4th December 2023, 3:38 PM

Well I would, and it wouldn't take me long

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Naughty boy! I don't think that I would have jumped Nicholas' bones, though, but I would have loved to run my hands through his Golden Retrieveresque locks.

Running again on That's TV, but halfway through the third and final series already. Great episode where she takes revenge on his suits, or so she thought. The endings are a big highlight for me, when they return for a quick punchline scene after the end credits have rolled. Not 100% on it but I'm thinking that was something only Sullivan did, a sort of trademark of his. ? 🤔

Analysing it now, in the context of all his other work at that time, I find it pretty amazing how well and fully crafted it is, this is not a minor sitcom, it had a bigger pull than OFAH for a while, from memory. And I'm loving that mid 80s big hair and shoulder pad look, yuppie glamour was a great fad imo, as hilarious as it can look now, but everyone dressed up then, now it's the complete opposite, alas.

Great post! I watched it all via NowTV last year and was surprised just layered it was. I think that John Sullivan is thought by many as merely the creator of OFAH and series such as JGF and Dear John often don't get a look in.

As a woman, I cannot hugely understand how Penny could forgive Vince. I know that I couldn't? Her subsequent bad marriage was also beautifully and sensitively crafted.

Thanks. But yeah I do think it's a bit contrived for the audience, it's that old Hollywood thing of demanding unlifelike happy endings to please the public (and make their money). Finding out he was married would've ended it for anyone with some self respect, never mind a well brought up gal like her.

I think Sullivan probably overstated the appeal of a loveable working class rake, although I've certainly known of posh birds having affairs with oiks with less charisma than Nicholas, so it is a thing, just not sure many lead to marriages. 🤔 Am finding his acting much smoother this series, doesn't seem as nervy with his lines as he sometimes was at the start. And can't think of many who'd have done the flashness better!

You're right. A beautiful middle-class well-educated woman such as Penny definitely wouldn't have married a lad like Vince. I guess it's the UK sitcoms' obsession about class?

If someone jilted me at the altar [not that there'd be one as I'm an athiest] I'd never speak to them again. I'd probably plot a terrible revenge.*

*This is probably why this widow is failing at online dating, isn't it?

Back on topic: without re-watching S1, how did Vince and Penny meet? Was it in a pub when they were on respectively bad dates?

The special covers that.

Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 8th February 2025, 11:23 AM

The special covers that.

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Ah, thanks. I'll give it a re-watch.