Ah, the family sitcom – a popular type of sitcom that has been practiced extensively over the years, especially by the BBC. Do you know what can also be funny? Divorce. Speaking of divorce, the sitcom that I’m going to be looking at today is one which explores this somewhat delicate process through the eyes of a duo who should not be together at all. But is it any good? Let’s find out!
Background
Not particularly too much is known about this sitcom, although it seems to have been created as a fluffy, feel-good sort of comedy (at least, that is the opinion of Amanda Holden, who is the leading star of the sitcom). Interestingly, Holden did have a brief relationship with the other co-star, Jamie Theakston, dating in the Summer of 2003 before she dumped him. Interestingly, Holden and Theakston had at the time been getting into scrapes with the tabloid, Holden through her split with Les Dennis, and Theakston with his ex-lovers and companions. With this in mind, it allowed the opportunity for The Guardian to point out the dangers of having the co-stars be so similar to their on-screen personas.
In whatever case, the show did very poorly with critics – The Daily Telegraph stated that although Holden was surprisingly good at holding the show, she wasn’t completely successful and that the show wasn’t laugh-a minute-funny. Meanwhile, the Evening Standard called it a contender for the worst comedy of television, whilst The Guardian called the plot a bit thin and described the sitcom as safe (not the most surprising seeing as this show went out pre-watershed at 20:30, but other shows have stretched the boundaries that would be expected from that slot). Even the Radio Times called it one that was “mired in the 1970s, larded in smut and haunted by the spirits of Terry and June”.
Ratings-wise, it didn’t do too bad, pulling in 6.5 million viewers for the first episode and becoming the 13th most-viewed programme on BBC1 for the week. By the last episode, however, only 5.056 million viewers were watching, making the show number 28 in the top 30. After this, the show was canceled, although it is unclear if it was due to ratings or the reception of the show.
Nowadays, if the show is remembered, it is not as a positive memory – in fact, the Evening Standard actually considered it for the “It’s So Bad We’d Rather Sit Through the Eastenders Omnibus novelty tankard” award of noteworthiness in late 2004 – and this is perhaps something which is not helped by the fact that the show has mostly disappeared – only three episodes exist online in a complete form, and in spite of promises by the uploader that more will be uploaded, only a portion of Episode 4 exists as well.
Talking about it in his book Radio Times Guide to Comedy, Mark Lewisohn said that the show had potential, having a likable lead pairing, good performances by the child actors, and being blessed by John Gordon Sinclair and Dan Clark, but that it was somewhat contrived and not much different from the 1972 sitcom My Wife Next Door.
Synopsis
The situation is one of simplicity – Alice (Amanda Holden) seemingly fell in love with an up-and-coming doctor named Doug (Jamie Theakston), had a child called Joe (Billy Hill) and was destined for a loving marriage… until Doug decided to focus more on his career than his family and decided to take a far too distant job right under Alice’s nose, leading to a massive row and them divorcing. In spite of this however, Doug still wants to be a good father to his son, and he regularly visits, ensuring that the former couple regularly butt heads on many an occasion and providing the comedic situations for the show. There is also the small matter of them still having feelings for each other, which leads to jealousy over new boyfriends and girlfriends and the occasional kiss at the end of each adventure.
Alice is more of the struggling mother, having had a poor start in life with a horrible school, and she’s doing everything she can with dealing with life as a divorcee, including making sure that Joe gets to the right school, trying to hide her relationships with other men from him, and sorting out birthdays. Joe himself seems to be your typical child, interested in stuff that is above his age and all, but Alice is constantly worried for him, including the possible (and, with the lens of 2023 behind me, quite dated) fear that Joe may be over-developing his feminine side.
Doug in contrast is more of a selfish git of a man, explaining once that he wouldn’t open the door for ugly women, and he seems to spend most of his time being an annoying prick whilst trying to rile up Alice. With this in mind, no wonder they get into flaming arguments (“We’ve just beaten our record” explains Alice, “We have started a row in four minutes 25 seconds – that is 15 seconds off our personal best”).
The show does have a supporting cast – firstly, there’s Ted (John Gordon-Sinclair), a childhood friend and likely to remain single pal of Alice who is fairly level-headed and kind to her, but really bad at presentations (“You know I can’t speak in public” he tells Alice – apparently, it even sets off his allergies). Together, he and Alice have started up a small firm in interior design, although they only get their first proprietors in the first episode.
They also have another employee – Jason (Dan Clark). Jason is the sort of person who you look at and wonder how he even made it into the world of employment in the first place, with the first episode alone featuring a gag about how he can’t even properly file stuff. If you want to know why he’s here, it is noted that he only got his role because Alice and Ted needed to pay back a favor to his parents.
Additionally, there’s Kate (Debra Stephenson), Alice’s sister, whose cloud-cuckoo-land tendencies may be useful when it comes to children, but not so much to any other situation, and Sancha (Jessica McClunie), a friend of Joe’s, who for a child is on the creepy side, being the sort of person who tries out arson and who is completely unfazed by 15-rated movies.
Opinion
If you want to know just what the quality of the show is going to be, its opening is one sang by singers who can’t hold a tune to save their lives and which depicts a bizarre mix of live-action heads on animated bodies which just makes you worry that their heads are going to fall off their necks.
The major issue of the show is that it isn’t particularly funny, something which emerges when the first episode becomes reliant on a weak joke based around lunchboxes being depicted in an entendre sort of way. Not helping matters is that the jokes tend to be somewhat contrived – for instance, “School Craze” is one of those Fawlty Towers-esque cascade of lies that comes down in a somewhat contrived manner when it ends with Alice admitting literally everything in front of one of the teachers, who in spite of his policy of honesty still lets her child in.
The second weakness of the show is the main couple. Firstly, there isn’t much comic timing from the duo, and their acting is as stiff as a wooden robot. Secondly, I think the intention of the show is that they are meant to still have feelings for each other, to the point that I suspect that if the show was allowed to continue, it may have ended with Alice and Doug deciding to remarry. However, this doesn’t quite come across as the two spend most of their time arguing, with little chemistry and the only indication of possible romance being an occasional kiss which is pointed out in too obvious a way to the watcher. As such, I was not invested in this couple and was annoyed when they interacted. In fact, I wanted to see Alice paired off with Ted because he seems to be a really nice guy who genuinely cares for her. I will say though that the interactions do capture the feeling of awkwardness in a divorced couple, when they’re still expected to interact in spite of their changed feelings, fine enough.
Some of the supporting cast is pretty weak – Jason seems to be nothing more than a dumb caricature that doesn’t really contribute much to the plot. Same with Kate, who doesn’t quite live up to the potential scatter-brained personality promised by the press release, and is a bit boring as a character. That said, it wasn’t all bad – I actually really liked Sancha because of how creepy she acts at times, and Ted wasn’t too bad a character either. When the plot wasn’t focusing on Alice and Doug fighting as well, I was invested in Alice’s tale – the show actually probably would have done better if it focused more on her struggles to raise a child in the wake of a recent divorce and her poor education and reduced Doug’s role to the one-off appearance because when it does touch on that, it’s not half-bad.
Favorite Episode
“Sick as a Parrot” – blame my hyperfixation on The Brittas Empire, but I just love it when animals go psycho in a show and this episode doesn’t disappoint with a devil of a parrot who can’t take sarcasm and bites at things. Probably helps that this is the episode that is only partially available so I don’t have to watch it all go up in flames.
Conclusion
It tries its best and it probably doesn’t deserve as much hate as it gets, but it isn’t a very good show. Still, if you want to have a look at it, it is available on Youtube.