I loved watching this show back in the early 90s. It's as wonderfully English as you could hope for and the cast are great. Patricia Routledge makes the show what it is but Clive Swift is the perfect complement to her and deserves enormous credit.
My main problem with the show is that it stayed within the same formula from start to finish. After a dozen or so episodes it becomes very predictable and loses it's edge. It's not a massive problem as the formula is clearly a success, plus back in those days we had to wait a week for a new episode so it managed to stay a bit fresher. However, much like Last of the Summer Wine, the lack of differentiation holds the show back a little bit and it doesn't reach the heights of One Foot in the Grave or other classic sitcoms from the era.
My main problem with the show is that it stayed within the same formula from start to finish. After a dozen or so episodes it becomes very predictable and loses it's edge. It's not a massive problem as the formula is clearly a success, plus back in those days we had to wait a week for a new episode so it managed to stay a bit fresher. However, much like Last of the Summer Wine, the lack of differentiation holds the show back a little bit and it doesn't reach the heights of One Foot in the Grave or other classic sitcoms from the era.