City Lights (1984–1991) User Reviews

Pure Dead Brilliant So It Was

[VictorianCushionCat · 9/10 · 10 February 2012]

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!

Much Loved Comedy...Please Release on DVD!

[wilsonstuart-32346 · 9/10 · 17 November 2019]

'Pure Dead Brilliant!' is Prestwick Airport, in Ayrshire's, corporate logo that greets new arrivals into Scotland....and I detest it. Given Ayrshire's links with Robert Burns, and Scotland's contribution to arts, literature, engineering, medicine and law is that the best they could come up with? This means little or nothing to most Scots (let alone anyone else) under 40... but in its heyday it was synonymous with City Lights, a successful 1980s comedy set in Glasgow, and it was repeated endlessly in playgrounds, pubs and work places across Scotland.

The late Gerard Kelly was Willie Melvin, a put upon bank clerk by day, an aspiring writer by night. I sometimes wondered if there were similarities (albeit loose) between Willie and Tony Hancock, another dreamy striver who was constantly thwarted by unwanted intervention and advice from his friends...or his own incompetence and bad luck.

City Lights had a colourful cast of eccentric characters; petty fly man Chancer and his dimwitted henchman Tam; the long suffering fiancé Janice, who wanted commitment from Willie, not words; the smary boss, Mr McLelland, and his sycophantic aide Brian; most of the Glasgow patter was supplied by Mum, who was quick to puncture Willie's pretentions. Elaine C Smith's daft mate will be forever associated with the catchphrase.

Surrounding Willie was the rapdily changing city of Glasgow, a year away from 1988's Garden Festival, The European City of Culture and 'Smiles Better'.

This is a gem if series from a fruitful era of Scottish comedy (think Rab C Nesbitt, Naked Video or Absolutely) and if it were to get a good release that would a fitting tribute to Gerard Kelly and Iain McColl...it would be pure, dead, brilliant in fact!

City Lights (1984) (Excellent Comedy)

[karen_valks · 10/10 · 21 June 2012]

This was one of the the best comedy series viewable in NZ in the 1980's

We enjoyed the antics of Willie Melvin and Chancer immensely and everyone who appeared on this series were terrific and we have never forgotten this series and have been talking about it for almost 20 years It is one for the best written and acted comedies we have seen in a long long time.

We loved this comedy and have been trying to track down the name of this comedy for years and finally we know it's City Lights but we are so disappointed after phoning BBC UK and Scotland and finding out it wasn't released and we can't believe it WHY NOT? This was one of the funniest comedies ever written and screened. The Scottish people should be proud of the actors involved they were excellent so why hide let another generatiion view it?

Please!! have this comedy released on DVD so we can spend our latter years laughing as we did when we were younger and I'm sure many people like us will be very happy and very grateful.

''Pure dead brilliant!''

[Rabical-91 · 10/10 · 22 November 2014]

On October 28, 2010, everyone mourned the tragic death of Gerard Kelly. Kelly was a fine character actor who could go from being hysterically funny to deadly serious at the drop of a hat. On New Year's Eve that same year, BBC1 screened a tribute dedicated to him entitled 'Gerard Kelly: A Celebration', which featured interviews with his family and friends, as well as clips from his best television performances including 'EastEnders', 'The Slab Boys', 'Donal & Sally' and, of course, the one he is probably most famous for, 'City Lights', in which he played 'Billy Liar' type fantasist Willie Melvin. 'City Lights' was Kelly's first regular comedy series. It was also the first sitcom made by Scotland since 'The Vital Spark'.

'City Lights' grew out of a pilot, broadcast by BBC1 Scotland on 21/12/84. Willie Melvin is a bank clerk at the Strathclyde Savings Bank ( whose logo is uncannily similar to that of the Trustee Savings Bank ), where the bane of his life is his obnoxious, womanising boss Adam McLelland ( Dave Anderson ). Willie's life is far from what he wishes it to be. He still lives with his domineering mother, Mrs. Melvin and has pipe dreams of becoming a successful author but is held back by his own incompetence as well as lack of support from his friends and family. A full series followed a year and a half after the pilot, with Jan Wilson in the role of Mrs. Melvin ( Gwyneth Guthrie left after coming under contract by STV to appear in 'Take The High Road' ).

Willie's obsession with writing causes him no end of trouble. In the first episode, he lost his job at the bank after taking time off work to attend a writing class ( he was of course later reinstated otherwise there would have been no show ). Willie's friends include Chancer ( Billy Greenlees in the pilot, Andy Gray in the series ), a dodgy dealer who sometimes is responsible for Willie's misdemeanours, Tam ( the late Iain McColl ), an idiot who assists Chancer in his dealings, Brian ( Jonathan Watson ), a colleague of Willie's from the bank and a right twerp too and Irene ( Elaine C. Smith ), a lovelorn young woman with the I. Q of a plank of wood. Willie is also in a rocky relationship with his girlfriend Janice ( Kirsty Miller in the pilot, Elaine Collins in the series) who, along with everyone else, makes no secret of her contempt for Willie's writing.

The first series proved sufficiently popular for BBC1 to renew it the following year which saw Willie move out of his mum's house and into his own flat, which was in fact that of the show's writer, Bob Black.

'City Lights' ran for a total of six series and was in my opinion one of the best sitcoms of the '80's. Gerard Kelly was great as the hapless Willie. His looks of fear and exasperation whenever things went pear shaped were incredibly funny and he did full justice to Bob Black's excellent scripts. Andy Gray was hilarious as Chancer, likewise Iain McColl as Tam and Dave Anderson as McLelland. Elaine Collins left at the end of series two, hence her character had to be written out. Janice was later replaced by Fiona ( Ann Bryson ).

In 2021, 'City Lights' was given a new lease on life when BBC Scotland started giving it repeat screenings. It had lost none of its appeal.