Getting Sam Home

ferret

Dedicated Member
I was having a look through what is coming up on the tv over the next couple of weeks and noticed that Drama was showing Getting Sam Home. Whenever this is on i always watch it...love the story and the way it's filmed...one of my favourites.
 
I was having a look through what is coming up on the tv over the next couple of weeks and noticed that Drama was showing Getting Sam Home. Whenever this is on i always watch it...love the story and the way it's filmed...one of my favourites.
Yep, agree it was well written and acted... It almost feels as though it is 'out of line' with the episodes around it, like it was a 'one off special'..

Said it before, I'll say it again... I dont think I've ever seen Linda Baron act bad/poor in any show :)
 
So looking at the long view. How many shows can come up with many of the original actors many years later with the same location which pretty much looks the same. OK, maybe the story lines might have been thin, but much better than some of the trash that passes for entertainment.
 
I concede some TV today is total trash but the great TV series are concluded when the writer know it is time to stop Fawlty Towers, Porridge et al . Whilst I love LOTSW dearly there are some later episodes which perhaps are a step too far with very thin plots and Still Open All Hours now has a predictability about it because Roy Clarke has clearly run out of ideas and is recycling bits of the Original and far Superior Open All Hours .

If you look at other series held in high[and high-ish ] esteem some sadly have episodes where the plot is really thin and offer little entertainment value , a good example being Dad's Army episode " When did you last see your Money" about Jones misplacing £500 , yet the preceding episode " All is Safely Gathered In " is a classic . To me it marks that the demise of the show is knocking on the door and it is time to consider ceasing production.
 
I think we watch these shows to the bitter end for the characters more than the plot, these days the plots and characters are to painful to watch
 
Yep, agree it was well written and acted... It almost feels as though it is 'out of line' with the episodes around it, like it was a 'one off special'..

I think I see what you mean when you say it feels 'out of line' with the others. It does have a different feel than most of the episodes. The show already has a cinematic feel to it, but this one feels quite...different. I remember seeing it for the first time back in '06 and vibing with how there was no laugh track to it.
 
A lot of the longer running series seem to be less in their later series in my view. The story liens get used and often in any situation there are only a limited number of plots which is why Fawlty Towers was stopped after 12 episodes as it was decided that all usable and funny ideas had been exhausted. I think, for example, some of the later Dad's Army are not as good as the earlier ones. partly there is the change of personnel - once you had lost Private Walker then the group dynamics alter and also because the plots tend to be recycled. Same happened in It ain't 'alf hot mum where the later ones were less appealing than the earlier ones.

AsTerry says "I think we watch these shows to the bitter end for the characters more than the plot,... "
 
With a couple of writers or a team you clearly get a significant greater of volume of ideas which you can cherry pick the best from with a single writer like Roy Clarke [I assume he would never accept any assistance but stand to be wrong] then there is clearly a sole reliance on that person and is limited to the extent of their imagination , the strain to keep it fresh must be immense . I saw the drama documentary about Morecambe and Wise and their Christmas shows and it is well documented the pressure on their main script writer Eddie Braben was immense to the extent that he suffered a breakdown/nervous exhaustion under the pressure to make each show bigger and better than the previous years . People site the Python's as truly original but to me they " half inched" most of their ideas from the one and only great Spike Milligan whose shows were just so different.
 
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