Robin's Nest

Fairly routine sitcom, more laugh a month than laugh a minute, and even those were generated by the impeccable David Kelly. The only real interest this generated at the time was that Wyatt, who was then married to DJ and recent "I'm a Celebrity get me out of here" winner Tony Blackburn, left him for O'Sullivan in mid run.

Blackburn who's star was very much on the wane at the time (The IMDB chronology illustrating this perfectly) has bounced back from whining about his (debatable) loss in countless tabloids, to relative success on both Radio and TV. Wyatt and O'Sullivan on the other hand, have sunk without much trace. What goes around....

Fairly funny spin-off for Richard O'Sullivan from 'Man about the House'. This series, produced for Thames TV between 1977 and 1981, sees Richard playing Robin again, this time married and setting up his own restaurant. Their one-armed dishwasher Albert also provides plenty of laughs. Comedy relief is also provided by Robin's parents-in-law, who look with much nostalgia upon their divorce day. Not a remarkably outstanding comedy series, but a lot funnier than others.

Having watched this show during its original run back in the day, I have just binged watch Robin's Nest in October 2023.

The first thing that stands out is the theme music. It is the worst theme music I have ever heard. Absolutely boring and cringeworthy.

How it lasted 6 seasons with that theme music is puzzling.

Apart from that, it is still fairly watchable.

During the original run when I first saw it, I was mildly annoyed by the character of Albert. However this time around, more than 40 years later, I found him fairly amusing.

Standard innuendo jokes but still fairly funny with good delivery.

Dec 202

Just stumbled across every episode of Robins Nest" being on ITVX and given that i hadnt seen them since when then were first on tv 40-45 years ago, it was a chance to catch up. This is a offshoot of Man about the House, as was George and MIldred for that matter.

I have quite recently re-watched the full series of both Man about the house and George and Mildred, so glad to have the opportunity to catch up on this.

It is of course of its time and was not bad, most of the comedy comes from David Kellys character, so it would of struggled without him.

I found it grew on me as i watched a few episodes. There were some things i didnt like though , there were 4 different titles sequences which were all bad as was the theme music. I also found it odd at the start of series 2 that the kitchen sink had moved, by itself apparently. Also there were 2 episodes involving Inspector Burke from the Police, but in the 2nd episode it was as though they had forgotten his name as Inspector Burke kept calling another policeman by the surname Burke. Also it turns out that by the end of series 4 that is supposed to only be 1 year gone since the start of episode 1 series 1.

Like i said of its time, but decent so 7 chef hats out of 10.

Have quite enjoyed seeing the early re-runs of this series, which stand up better than some 70s comedies. Some of the attitudes now seem dated - it would seem strange nowadays for a young couple living together unmarried to be seen as so controversial - and the cheap cracks against Chinese people now jar. As others have said, the later scripts settled down into twee predictability, and it seemed a pity, given that Robin's character was based on the one he played in Man About the House, that no mention was ever made of his former friends, and that the scripts couldn't accommodate at least one guest appearance. Sad that Richard O'Sullivan's later life has become rather a sad one.