Harold Snoad Movies
- 1994
In this hour-long 1994 Christmas special, social climber Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced "boo-kay") wants angel gabriel blue kitchen worktops installed and hounds the Exclusive Kitchens salesman (Trevor Bannister, Mr. Lucas in Are You Being Served?) to make sure the color is still available. To her dismay, her husband Richard (Clive Swift) develops athlete's foot. She insists he pretend he has the "socially acceptable" disease gout, caused by "an excess of good living." She later invites neighbors Elizabeth (Josephine Tewson) and her brother, Emmet (David Griffin), for coffee. Hyacinth surprises Elizabeth, often nervous around her high-spirited host, with new spill-proof mugs she hopes will prevent her from spraying coffee on the carpet again. Meanwhile at Onslow's, Daddy (George Webb) is missing and has sublet his room to a Mr. Mawsby (Preston Lockwood). ~ Michelle Troutman, All Movie Guide
- 1983
"Middle Age Crazy" would have been an apt subtitle for the British sitcom Tears Before Bedtime. Geraldine McEwan and Francis Matthews starred as married couple Anne and Geoffrey Dickens, whose solitude and sanity were severely threatened by the presence of their three grown children (ages 18, 19, 20). Finally fed up with it all, Anne and Geoffrey packed up and moved out to a basement apartment some 70 miles from their former domicile, leaving their contentious kids to fend for themselves. Not to be confused with the 1995 dramatic miniseries of the same name, the seven-episode Tears Before Bedtime was seen on BBC1 from March 29 to May 10, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Lewis Flander and Carol Hawkins star in the hectic British farce Not Now Comrade. Flander plays a Russian ballet dancer who decides to defect. Unable to reach the British embassy, Flander hides out with London stripteaser Hawkins. There's an abundance of female flesh in this one, a fact that necessitated numerous snips in the TV version that made the UHF rounds in the 1980s. Watch for Not Now Comrade codirector Ray Cooney and veteran British funster Roy Kinnear in cameo roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Porcine British character comedian Ronnie Barker starred in this BBC2 sitcom, which initially aired on March 25, 1973. The series consisted of seven half-hour comedy pilots, all starring Barker. Three of the episodes graduated to weekly series status. Of these, only "Prisoner and Escort" (retitled "Porridge" for its series run) would star Barker; the others were "Open All Hours" and "My Old Man." The remaining episodes included "Another Fine Mess," "I'll Fly You for a Quid," and "One Man's Meat," the last-named property written by Barker under the pseudonym Jack Goetz. Seven of One was last seen on May 6, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
