David Jason, one of the great nearly-men of British comedy in the 60s and 70s, suddenly got very lucky indeed with "Only Fools and Horses". Just why this series should have captured the public's imagination and won such intense approbation is an enduring puzzle to me: the comedic premise is slender and its social setting is poorly and inaccurately observed. (Even in the 1980s Peckham was not Ealing-Comedy London, full of lovable white working-class scallywags, but a tough Afro-Caribbean ghetto.)
I have to confess that I find the show unwatchable, to the extent that, despite my best efforts, I have never succeeded in watching a single episode from beginning to end.
John Sullivan had previously written some excellent sitcoms, while OFAH's principals, Jason and Lyndhurst, were actors I liked and whose previous work I had enjoyed. Certainly the acting in the show is technically accomplished (even if shoddy scripts render the characters and situations unbelievable), unlike another intensely dire, yet insanely over-rated sitcom, "The Vicar of Dibley". (The cult of obesity-related feminism seems to have catapulted Dawn French - despite her complete lack of comic timing and basic acting technique - into an unassailable position as the favourite comic actress of the BBC, if not the licence-paying public. Nobody at the Beeb seems to have noticed - or cared - that she is talentless.)
As I say, I have enjoyed David Jason's work prior to OFAH. It seems to me, however, that the disproportionate public affection for this deeply flawed show has led to his being promoted beyond his talents (otherwise he would surely never have secured the roles of Pop Larkin or Frost on his own merits). His real talents lie in being a good, second-string supporting comic actor (like, for example, the late Peter Butterworth); he is funny and touching as Granville, in "Open All Hours", for example, appropriately in the lee of a giant comic talent (Ronnie Barker).
It is painful and puzzling to me when I find myself so at odds with the consensus of opinion. I don't WANT to appear arrogantly different from the herd. I have been no less troubled by my failure to see ANYTHING clever or funny about "The Simpsons", a show even more over-rated than OFAH. Still, I must honestly record sincere reactions: I hate OFAH and I hate "The Simpsons".
I have to confess that I find the show unwatchable, to the extent that, despite my best efforts, I have never succeeded in watching a single episode from beginning to end.
John Sullivan had previously written some excellent sitcoms, while OFAH's principals, Jason and Lyndhurst, were actors I liked and whose previous work I had enjoyed. Certainly the acting in the show is technically accomplished (even if shoddy scripts render the characters and situations unbelievable), unlike another intensely dire, yet insanely over-rated sitcom, "The Vicar of Dibley". (The cult of obesity-related feminism seems to have catapulted Dawn French - despite her complete lack of comic timing and basic acting technique - into an unassailable position as the favourite comic actress of the BBC, if not the licence-paying public. Nobody at the Beeb seems to have noticed - or cared - that she is talentless.)
As I say, I have enjoyed David Jason's work prior to OFAH. It seems to me, however, that the disproportionate public affection for this deeply flawed show has led to his being promoted beyond his talents (otherwise he would surely never have secured the roles of Pop Larkin or Frost on his own merits). His real talents lie in being a good, second-string supporting comic actor (like, for example, the late Peter Butterworth); he is funny and touching as Granville, in "Open All Hours", for example, appropriately in the lee of a giant comic talent (Ronnie Barker).
It is painful and puzzling to me when I find myself so at odds with the consensus of opinion. I don't WANT to appear arrogantly different from the herd. I have been no less troubled by my failure to see ANYTHING clever or funny about "The Simpsons", a show even more over-rated than OFAH. Still, I must honestly record sincere reactions: I hate OFAH and I hate "The Simpsons".