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!
Continue reading “The Obscure Sitcom Files – Mad About Alice”
Ah, sports – one of the greatest pastimes of the human world. I personally never really got into sports – I was one of those nerdy kids who would much rather prefer to linger in the toilets all class rather than do P.E. (well, I didn’t really – I was one of those who cared deeply about my grades but I would have if I could have). Still, it is a pastime so timeless that there have been numerous attempts to adapt it into comedy, some more successful than others. Modern comedic takes on it include Ted Lasso and The First Team, whilst earlier attempts include Renford Rejects and Fantasy Football League. Did you know however that there was an attempt at a mainstream sitcom starring Chris Barrie in the 1990s? Well, you might do, but let’s read on anyway, shall we?
Continue reading “The Obscure Sitcom Files – A Prince Among Men”
“The Brittas Empire” was a British sitcom running from 1991 to 1997 which featured Chris Barrie as Gordon Brittas, a manager with a Dream but not enough social skills and too much confidence to lead it without everything descending into chaos, as well as a similarly oddball staff to compliment him. This blog post in particular though is specifically focused on a later part in the series’ history, namely Series 6 and 7. By this point, Andrew Norriss and Richard Fegen (the original creators of the series) had left, with Series 5 presumably being intended to be the end of the Series, a theory backed up by the fact that their final episode had everyone being given their happy ending. However, after said special, the BBC decided to continue the series for two series, getting on new writers to fill the void left by the original two’s absence. Despite the attempts of the new writers, however, these new episodes were not well-liked by the viewers for a variety of reasons, and this post attempts to look into why this may be the case.
Continue reading “A Look At What Went Wrong With Series 6 and 7 of “The Brittas Empire””