The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Outdated stereotypes and contrived tosh
ARE YOU BEING SERVED? Sunday, BBC One PORRIDGE Sunday, BBC One YOUNG HYACINTH Friday, BBC One
The BBC’s Landmark Sitcom season is, officially, a celebration of its redoubtable sitcom legacy. Chief among its offerings are revivals of old favourites such as Are You Being Served?, Porridge and Keeping Up Appearances.
Though billed as one-offs, they’ll almost certainly be recommissioned if viewers approve. The success of Still Open All Hours, which began as a Christmas special, proves that.
Naturally, this has led to accusations that the BBC is trading on former glories when it should be supporting original comedy. But that j’accuse conveniently ignores the plentiful sitcom pilots which also form part of the season.
Let’s focus on the reheated oldies.
Are You Being Served? was never a classic anyway, but the revival captured its bawdy spirit. Set three years after the original ended, it’s officially a sequel, albeit with different actors in situ. The original cast, of course, have all taken that escalator to the great shop floor in the sky.
Its torrent of camp innuendo was occasionally tinged with a coarser 21st Century edge.
For all its blatant rudeness, the original wouldn’t have stooped to gags about “seamen” and “taking Mr Humphries up the Regal”.
But you’d have to be righteously po-faced to resist smirking at such knowingly contrived tosh.
Mr Humphries may be an outdated gay stereotype, but there’s still no malice in the way he’s written and performed. Jason Watkins had a ball in the late John Inman’s fleet-footed shoes. Sheree Hewson was equally enjoyable as Mollie Sugden’s Mrs Slocombe, purple rinse, pussy and all.
It was good, breezy fun as a one-off tribute, but the novelty won’t last if it becomes a series.
Another sequel, Porridge had a more difficult mountain to climb. After all, the original is one of the greatest British sitcoms ever made. Alas, despite being written by its sainted creators Dick Clement and Ian La Franais, it was curiously listless.
Kevin Bishop did a decent job as Fletch’s cyber-criminal grandson, although his best moments involved physical comedy rather than dialogue.
His personality is identical to grandad’s, which just made me miss Ronnie Barker even more.
Clement and La Franais haven’t forgotten how to write Fletch, at least in terms of nailing his cheerfully sarcastic speech patterns. But the gags were tired and threadbare, the stabs at modernity dutifully forced. It felt like a mechanical lecture from veteran scientists with nothing left to prove.
Not a disaster by any means, but utterly pointless
A 1950s-set prequel to Keeping Up Appearances, Young Hyacinth was – remarkably – the best of the bunch.
The only good thing about the hectoring original was Patricia Routledge’s performance as the appallingly snobbish Hyacinth Bucket, but Kerry Howard echoed her mannerisms with startling accuracy.
However, it was more than mere mimicry. She played a character, not a UK Gold repeat.
Roy Clarke, that prolific veteran of gentle teatime comedy, clearly enjoyed delving into the past of one of his few memorable creations. A wry character piece shot on film, it was far more charming and, dare I say it, classy than the original. Hyacinth as a desperately class-climbing young woman carries more pathos than the middle-aged monster she became.
We’ll probably see more of Young Hyacinth, which means that Clarke, who also writes Still Open All Hours, is still a popular sitcom writer at the age of 86.
I can take or leave his work, but I bow to his incredible longevity.