City Lights was a classic 80s/early 90s Scottish ensemble comedy that is certainly fondly remembered in Scotland and rightly so.
The show centred on hapless banker Willie Melvin and his misguided belief that he is destined to become a successful writer. Always there to bring him down to earth with a Glasgow banter bang are a wonderful collection of characters, not least his sharp tongued Mum, dodgy pal Chancer, toady colleague Brian, smug boss McCleland and the super dopey Tam.
Although from very different eras and set-ups essentially the large collection of characters and sharp put-downs are similar in spirit to the more recent and also much loved Still Game. And asides from the main cast members (mostly stalwarts of Naked Video and Rab C Nesbitt) there were all sort of guest appearances from 'faces' of the Scottish comedy and general acting fraternity, not least Billy Connolly.
The story of Willie's attempts to escape 9-5 life is set amongst the changing face of Glasgow in the 1980s. The late (and much missed) Gerard Kelly is great fun in the lead and you can't beat his battle to get in the best insults in the face of the constant put-downs from manager McCleland.
I also loved the way that 'Mum' played so well by Jan Wilson, never did the 'mum' thing of encouraging Willie's writing career. No, Willie's writing was awful and she never left him in any doubt about that.
One thing that grates is the fact that to date, this show has not appeared on DVD, I really hope this does happen. As clips from the Gerard Kelly Tribute show suggest, it's too good to be hidden away in the vaults.
As the opening always told us, people are the lights of every city!
The show centred on hapless banker Willie Melvin and his misguided belief that he is destined to become a successful writer. Always there to bring him down to earth with a Glasgow banter bang are a wonderful collection of characters, not least his sharp tongued Mum, dodgy pal Chancer, toady colleague Brian, smug boss McCleland and the super dopey Tam.
Although from very different eras and set-ups essentially the large collection of characters and sharp put-downs are similar in spirit to the more recent and also much loved Still Game. And asides from the main cast members (mostly stalwarts of Naked Video and Rab C Nesbitt) there were all sort of guest appearances from 'faces' of the Scottish comedy and general acting fraternity, not least Billy Connolly.
The story of Willie's attempts to escape 9-5 life is set amongst the changing face of Glasgow in the 1980s. The late (and much missed) Gerard Kelly is great fun in the lead and you can't beat his battle to get in the best insults in the face of the constant put-downs from manager McCleland.
I also loved the way that 'Mum' played so well by Jan Wilson, never did the 'mum' thing of encouraging Willie's writing career. No, Willie's writing was awful and she never left him in any doubt about that.
One thing that grates is the fact that to date, this show has not appeared on DVD, I really hope this does happen. As clips from the Gerard Kelly Tribute show suggest, it's too good to be hidden away in the vaults.
As the opening always told us, people are the lights of every city!