Open All Hours

United Kingdom

Comedy
English     7.9     1976     United Kingdom

Overview

Open All Hours is a BBC sitcom written by Roy Clarke and starring Ronnie Barker as a miserly shop keeper and David Jason as his put-upon nephew who works as his errand boy.

Reviews

CinemaSerf wrote:
It took the BBC a couple of years after the end of "Porridge" to find another suitable sitcom for the considerable talents of Ronnie Barker, and so in 1976 they reunited him with producer Sydney Lotterby and "Last of the Summer Wine" creator Roy Clarke to portray "Arkwright", the stammering Yorkshire store keeper whose miserliness could give "Scrooge" a run for his money. He is enamoured of the well-endowed local nurse "Gladys" (Lynda Baron) whilst trying to keep his live-in nephew/dogsbody "Granville" (a wonderfully skilful series of performances from David Jason) from succumbing to the evil - and extravagant - ways of the world. With a few additional contributions from Barbara Flynn as the lady who delivers the milk - and sends "Granville" into spasms of sexual apoplexy at the same time; the equally frugal Stephanie Cole ("Mrs. Feathestone") and Kathy Staff ("Mrs. Blewett") the tightly cast team play well off each other, with strong, amiable, characterisations that thrive off the back of the Northern (English) stereotypes upon which the stories are based. Nowadays, the humour falls a little bit foul of changed attitudes, but Clarke never wrote from any perspective other than one that ridicules sexism, racism and agism in a thought-provoking fashion, whist still allowing both Barker and Jason to do what they do best - elicit a laugh. This was must watch television for almost ten years, and is still great today.

Similar

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised on CBS between October 3, 1960 and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays the widowed sheriff of the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His life is complicated by an inept, but well-meaning deputy, Barney Fife, a spinster aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee, and a precocious young son, Opie. Local ne'er-do-wells, bumbling pals, and temperamental girlfriends further complicate his life. Andy Griffith stated in a Today Show interview, with respect to the time period of the show: "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was when we were doing it, of a time gone by." The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and ended its final season at number one. It has been ranked by TV Guide as the 9th-best show in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, series co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The show, a semi-spin-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show titled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith", spawned its own spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a sequel series, Mayberry R.F.D., and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry. The show's enduring popularity has generated a good deal of show-related merchandise. Reruns currently air on TV Land, and the complete series is available on DVD. All eight seasons are also now available by streaming video services such as Netflix.

More info
The Andy Griffith Show
1960