Best of British comedy...

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...

Smeg...

After reprimanding the dumb V+ box for failing to record over the weekend, I finally watched the new one-off, 3 part, Red Dwarf episode Back To Earth, made especially for the re-branded UK Gold channel Dave. Good job Dave made its name from repeats; don’t think they’ve stopped playing all three parts since their original airing. And don’t worry Mooko, I’ll watch it again with you…

So was it any good?

Unsurprisingly yes and no: It was good to be watching an episode of the Dwarf again and it was good to see the full cast reunited, plus from a geek point of view it was interesting to see how it had changed and to see new sets and special FX. Sadly as with the latter series this triple bill lacked that certain something that made the original shows so brilliant.

The first thing that hit me was the lack of canned/studio laughter. Without checking back I’m not sure if this was the style adopted for the last few series but it was quite jarring and created a quiet and empty feeling. I’m sure writers would argue that if the gags are funny enough you shouldn’t need an audio prompt to signal a joke, but it didn’t work. I remember when Only Fools And Horses tried it for a special, think it was Miami Twice and it didn’t work there either.

Similarly to the Fool and Horses special were Back To Earth’s production vales. Miami Twice was the first Fools to be shot entirely on film, rather than a mix of video/studio cameras and 16mm for the location stuff. This Dwarf was shot using the revolutionary Red camera systems, which can offer a camera capable of shooting images 14 times higher resolution than current HD. I’m fairly sure the production would have shot at the recognised UK HD standard of 1920x1080 but this is still 6 times more detailed than the SD we would have seen the old series on. So it has a very different look, and I suspect because it’s progressive, a more filmic quality to it.

Red Dwarf has gone through a few stylistic changes in the past; series one looked low-fi and flat with sets recycled from Prisoner Cell Block H. It wasn’t until series 3 that we saw the arrival of the iconic white sleeping quarters, reminiscent of Alien and the brilliant Star Wars style model work. Back to Earth has gone even further in opening up JMC’s huge red mining vessel. The bunk area, corridors, lift and cargo decks look good, passable even for a low budget serious science fiction film. Using modern FX techniques such as virtual sets, digital matt painting and 3D modeling Red Dwarf looks better that ever. And that’s a problem. When the special edition of the original Red Dwarf series was released with touched up SFX – Lucas style – it was interesting but not necessary. Replacing the model work with crude 3D CGI was a bad move. Although Back to Earth’s FX are better executed, it still lacks that hand made quality. The look of Back to Earth is too filmic, to well shot and too well graded, I’m impressed but it doesn’t fit the series legacy.

Aside from the look and the style the main problem with Back To Earth is the writing. There are a few laugh out loud moments and the story is okay. It could almost be taken straight from the past series, and almost has been, there was certainly a feeling of been here before, but generally this it was lacking something.

This as all Dwarfers know, is not a new problem, since season 7 aired in early 1997 Red Dwarf has been lacking a key member; co-creator and writer Rob Grant. Originally the two man team, current writer/director Doug Naylor and Rob Grant split after an alleged fight over series 7. Grant later denied this and was quoted saying he 'wished to have more on his 'tombstone' than Red Dwarf on its own'. Fair enough, but with him went a part of the Dwarf. We’ll never know who was responsible for which aspect of the writing, who did the science and who did the jokes, but Grant certainly shared some of the heart and whatever it was that made Red Dwarf so good.

I also found the Blade Runner referencing a bit much. All science fiction filmmakers look to Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece for inspiration and insight, the occasional nod or homage is fine but this was unashamed wholesale rip-off. I realise it was integral to the plot but just because it has been written in to the script doesn’t make it any good. Homage’s should be subtle or ironic or at least funny. Even down to costume, scenes, lines and plot devices. Lazy…

So Back To Earth is passable in a nostalgic sense, reminding you of all the great writing and performances of the brilliant first 6 series. A must if you are a die-hard Dwarf fan but not really worth it if you were only a causal viewer.

Alternately if you loved series 7 and 8 then go for it, you bastard…