Aside from Rab C. Nesbitt and the rubbish Amanda Holden vehicle Big Top; British TV comedy can be pretty good. Two recent must see shows came in the shape of Bellamy's People: A spin off from the satirical radio 4 phone in show featuring characters of the good British public, written and preformed by Paul Whitehouse, Charlie Higson and hosted by Gary Bellamy played by Rhys Thomas. The second was the long-talked-about-prequel to the institutional Only Fools and Horses: Rock & Chips.
The latter was a strangely under promoted look at the underpinnings of the Trotter family and a fleshing out of a back story that had been vaguely referred to over the twenty odd years that Fools and Horses has graced out TV sets.
When I first heard of Rock & Chips I was worried about it's place in the franchise, it couldn't be worse than the appalling The Green Green Grass spin off that follows the Boyce family's relocation to the countryside. Because of this I was worried that Rock and Chips would be an unnecessary telling of an all to familiar story, John Sullavan just indulging his ego and making the already tired characters jump through more hoops. The same way the recent 3 part one-off Dave sponsored Red Dwarf episodes had failed to capture the original spark of the long running sci-fi comedy series. Despite summoning the original cast and crew and giving the whole thing a modern look with good production values, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth just didn't work.
Rock & Chips' feature length look and feel was a pleasant surprise, delivering on laughs and heart in equal measures. Thoughtfully made with a cinematic style and no canned laughter it made for good viewing. Thankfully it didn't look like Heartbeat or Goodnight Sweetheart. I was also pleased it wasn't the start of another poor run of an 'over -lit' spin off, Rock and Chips merely tracks how the dysfunctional Trotter family we all love came to be.
Set in 1960 it shows a young and familiar Del and his school friends buzzing around the streets of Peckham selling what ever they can get their hands on. Although The Inbetweeners star James Buckley's portrayal of the young Del was very watchable, despite looking nothing like a young David Jason, the story focuses more on his mum, Joan Trotter, played by Kellie Bright, and her struggle to keep her family together.
If you were a Fool and Horses fan then check out Rock & Chips on the BBC iplayer and if you loved the Fast Show or just want a giggle Bellamy's People is running on BBC2 - catch up on the iplayer too...
The latter was a strangely under promoted look at the underpinnings of the Trotter family and a fleshing out of a back story that had been vaguely referred to over the twenty odd years that Fools and Horses has graced out TV sets.
When I first heard of Rock & Chips I was worried about it's place in the franchise, it couldn't be worse than the appalling The Green Green Grass spin off that follows the Boyce family's relocation to the countryside. Because of this I was worried that Rock and Chips would be an unnecessary telling of an all to familiar story, John Sullavan just indulging his ego and making the already tired characters jump through more hoops. The same way the recent 3 part one-off Dave sponsored Red Dwarf episodes had failed to capture the original spark of the long running sci-fi comedy series. Despite summoning the original cast and crew and giving the whole thing a modern look with good production values, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth just didn't work.
Rock & Chips' feature length look and feel was a pleasant surprise, delivering on laughs and heart in equal measures. Thoughtfully made with a cinematic style and no canned laughter it made for good viewing. Thankfully it didn't look like Heartbeat or Goodnight Sweetheart. I was also pleased it wasn't the start of another poor run of an 'over -lit' spin off, Rock and Chips merely tracks how the dysfunctional Trotter family we all love came to be.
Set in 1960 it shows a young and familiar Del and his school friends buzzing around the streets of Peckham selling what ever they can get their hands on. Although The Inbetweeners star James Buckley's portrayal of the young Del was very watchable, despite looking nothing like a young David Jason, the story focuses more on his mum, Joan Trotter, played by Kellie Bright, and her struggle to keep her family together.
If you were a Fool and Horses fan then check out Rock & Chips on the BBC iplayer and if you loved the Fast Show or just want a giggle Bellamy's People is running on BBC2 - catch up on the iplayer too...
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