When I was a kid I was so mad that some stupid news show got an award over the genius that was Red Dwarf's Backwards, and for a Christmas episode too? Clearly this was the most outrageous robbery of all time.
Then I actually watched that Christmas episode and was forced to concede that whoever had been in charge of determining who would get that award had known exactly what they were doing.
Andy Hamilton is most known for Outnumbered, and appearing on pretty much every UK panel show going these days. To some he's the guy who did radio 4 comedies like Old Harry's Game. This though is easily his finest work.
It is a real shame though about that last series which is just not anywhere as good as the rest of the show. Yes, it has it's moments but generally it is just not worth watching in the slightest.
This was like the one thing that ever thrived under Tory rule, and it just couldn't cope in Blair's Britain which would require much more spin based parody shows like Absolute Power and The Thick of It for there to be decent comedic political commentary.
What bothers me most about it is how nasty the finale is to the characters that even now decades later still gets me down. We've grown to like and sypathise with these characters, yes even Gus, and so what happens to most of them is just kind of miserable. I'd argue that there's a really blatant retcon too just to set up a wham joke. Even the 'happier' endings for some of the other charactersare rather hollow.
Leaving aside the last season the rest still holds up. I was too young to remember most of the events happening at the time, but with the opening recaps of the week news I could always follow along enough to get the jokes. The one about Robert Maxwell's death is truly an absolute all timer that still makes me laugh at the absurdity of the official story.
Then I actually watched that Christmas episode and was forced to concede that whoever had been in charge of determining who would get that award had known exactly what they were doing.
Andy Hamilton is most known for Outnumbered, and appearing on pretty much every UK panel show going these days. To some he's the guy who did radio 4 comedies like Old Harry's Game. This though is easily his finest work.
It is a real shame though about that last series which is just not anywhere as good as the rest of the show. Yes, it has it's moments but generally it is just not worth watching in the slightest.
This was like the one thing that ever thrived under Tory rule, and it just couldn't cope in Blair's Britain which would require much more spin based parody shows like Absolute Power and The Thick of It for there to be decent comedic political commentary.
What bothers me most about it is how nasty the finale is to the characters that even now decades later still gets me down. We've grown to like and sypathise with these characters, yes even Gus, and so what happens to most of them is just kind of miserable. I'd argue that there's a really blatant retcon too just to set up a wham joke. Even the 'happier' endings for some of the other charactersare rather hollow.
Leaving aside the last season the rest still holds up. I was too young to remember most of the events happening at the time, but with the opening recaps of the week news I could always follow along enough to get the jokes. The one about Robert Maxwell's death is truly an absolute all timer that still makes me laugh at the absurdity of the official story.