Charming and brutal
... View MoreAbsolutely amazing
... View MoreThis is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
... View MoreI think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
... View MoreYou could be forgiven for thinking a comedy set in a Nursing Home could be anything other then magically funny, I can think of few with such a setting, the closest possibly being You're only young twice from the 1970's. Running in the early 90's from 1990-1994, the series comprised 5 series, totalling 47 episodes. The standard does not drop at any point, it's a glorious mix of bittersweet humour and slapstick from start to finish. You cannot help but utterly love the cynical black heart of Diana, or the boyish innocence of Tom. They make a wonderful duo, and truly feed of one another, their different styles of humour contrasting beautifully. As the show goes on you see a slight softening of Diana, and a slight toughening of Tom. The final episode is delightful, and shows you how far the characters have come, and how much they know one another. Jane and The Idiot Bains provide constant laughs, but it's the ageing Lothario Basil who has me in stitches.It always challenges Society's views towards the elderly, sometimes dark, but always comedy with a heart. 9/10
... View MoreYes I had to put a spoiler warning on this because I can not talk about this show with out expressing how educational it is on issues pertaining to the senior community. Always with enough humor to take the edge off, but still enough of a spotlight to get their point across. From senior sexual relations to "being dumped" by your family to cancer to diabetes to fraud prevention to death. It takes a good long look at Europe's treatment of the elderly and offers a subtle warning of "someday this will be you too" ... not just age-wise but also health-care-wise.This series is more than just being about cranky Diana & her loopy friend Tom, his boring son Jeffery & his drunk/slutty wife Marion, gypsy Harvey and the long-suffering Jane who pines for him.I will guarantee you that if you get a chance to see this show you won't regret it and the story lines will stay with you years down the road.
... View MoreHere we have a programme centring around two elderly and cynical people in a retirement home located in Britain's version of Florida: Bournemouth. Did I say elderly? Well, only in age, not attitude. Take one Tom Ballard, a gentleman deposited by his son into the retirement home who is one half of the cynical pair. Although cynical, his character expresses this with good humour and resignation, philosophy, and plays upon the ageist attitude that old people are helpless and eccentric, leaving one to wonder whether he is actually mad, or just pretending to be.The other half, Diana, a worldly woman who sees the effects of society's attitude toward the old now that she is of retirement age and, in contrast to Tom, vents spleen any chance she gets, usually towards Harvey, the young man who runs the Home whose character is a composite of the 20-40 yuppy age group's attitude towards those beyond 65.The humour is quick-firing, very British, and also pulls no punches with regards to attitudes and observations of society during the latter half of the 80s and into the 90s. All told, an excellent series that will take a long time in the future before it seems dated.
... View MoreOne of the funniest shows to come out of England in the nineties, it has a terrific cast of veteran television and stage players. It's funny and timeless comedy with a bit of slapstick humor and a polished verbal English wit. The wonderful relationship between atheist feminist single Diana and the widowed Tom Ballard is fascinating to watch unlike most relationships, they get better when they're together than apart. Tom's boring son, Jeffrey, can bore anyone to death but he is in a marriage to unfaithful, drunk, and pill popper, Marion, who despises and resents Diana as a threat to their inheritance. The cast includes another heterosexual relationship between old maid plain Jane and the Bayview manager, Harvey Nigel Bains. Harvey constantly mistreats the wonderful sweet Jane. He doesn't know what he's got until he almost loses her. Three great love stories and romances in a wonderful sitcom. The wait is over.
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