It's hard to know where to start with this one. I guess it follows on nicely from the previous blog entry as it is a sequel to a much loved 70's sit-com, in this case 'Are you Being Served?'. The difference however is that this time we are over a decade since it's predecessor and there is more than just one original cast member involved.
OK, very quick plot summary. Grace Brothers has closed down and the only staff remaining were the ladies and gents departments. Their pension scheme is locked up in a run-down farm/hotel which they are not allowed to sell so they have to run it as a going concern to get their pension.
So who do we have reprising their role from the original show? Well pretty much everyone. There is no Mr Lucas/Mr Spooner (the mens' junior) nor is there a Mr Grainger/Mr Tebbs/Mr Goldberg/Mr Klien (the men's senior) but everyone else is there. They also stick to their familiar characterisations and catch-phrases which is a nice touch of nostalgia. Throw into the mix a few extra characters to flesh out the cast and you have the basic set up for two series of this comedy.
The major flaw is the obvious one. What worked in the 70's isn't going to work in the 90's and even if it did, the actors are far too old to pull it off convincingly. Don't get me wrong, it's well scripted and brilliantly acted (John Inman especially, looks like he relishes being back as Mr Humphreys). The same problem befell 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin' when they dug up that for a 4th series. The original was 'of a time' and shouldn't be tampered with.
Remember 'Carry on Columbus' and how bad that was? The same rule applies here. It wasn't that the script was 'bad' as Carry On scripts go, it's just that it was written for a 70's audience but put into 90's cinemas.
But don't think I am putting 'Grace and Favour' down. As it happens I find it wonderfully charming. What I particularly like is that it is in a serial form- i.e. each episode follows the next. The story is continuous which a lot of sit-coms nowadays forget about.
How many times have you seen in a sit-com a door get smashed, a wall fall down, a car get impounded, a kitchen sets alight, but next week, all is well, as though nothing happened. I hate that!
Anyway, back to GAF. It's charming, it's a typical Sunday afternoon British sit-com (would be run in the same slot as 'Last of The Summer Wine') and is completely harmless. It does NOT match up to the humour of AYBS, but being made so long after the original, it almost doesn't need to. I have to give it a thumbs up because I have fallen in love with Fleur Bennett who plays one of the new characters, Mavis.
I have a lovely tangent to go off on now. After watching Fleur Bennett in GAF I looked up what else she had been in. I was happy to see she appeared in an early 'Midsomer Murders' episode called 'Dark Autumn' so I tracked it down on DVD, bought it and watched it the moment it arrived to watch Fleur in all her glory....
...she was dead within the first 10 minutes :(
anyway, Grace and Favour is not as good as Are You Being Served, but in someways it does try to be something different. It's gentle, 'sweet' and 'charming' humour and completely inoffensive. It just about justifies being made and gets my thumbs up.
p.s. A drama next...I promise.
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