Not on Your Nellie

I love Hylda Baker, and this is really her show - the other characters orbit her like errant moons around a tiny but immensely powerful sun. Her malaprop-entendre wit is as honed as ever, but during this series she demonstrates a level of energy and athletic prowess that is quite stunning. She was 69 years old when this series started, and in those days old meant 54 years old, arthritis and sclerosis and labyrinth organ disorders had usually reared their ugly heads - yet she moves like someone half her age, and seems to be game for anything! There are problems, of course.... some of the scripts are rehashed from Baker's previous series ("Nearest And Dearest") and are in one or two cases identical to episodes of that show, it's become a politically-incorrect artifact that makes its longevity difficult to determine, the third series started well but degenerated into a farcical mess when Baker broke her leg and the remaining episodes were made without her..... but it's something I love to watch. Hylda Baker is a comedy powerhouse.

I have just bought the DVD of the first series, a programme I haven't seen since it first aired in 1974 when I was 11! So many of Hylda Baker's catchphrases have stuck with me 'Don't be ricidodolous' 'I can say that without fear of contraception'etc.

It seemed so racy when I watched it with my mum and dad back in 1974,at the age of 11, although of course by todays standards it is quaint more than rude! The main thing is, the programme is still funny, and I have found myself laughing out loud, something I don't do with much of todays so called comedy.

I suppose too many people would find some of the characterisation of the pubs customers offensive, but more fool them for taking life to seriously, after all people are funny!! Recommended for anyone with an open mind and a love of true comedy.

Based on a stage play by Tom Brennand and Roy Bottomley, 'Not On Your Nellie' cast the irrepressible Hylda Baker as Nellie Pickersgill, a northern spinster who inherits a shabby London pub which she decides to run with her father Jed ( John Barrett, who'd also played her father in the 'Nearest & Dearest' pilot).

The pub's regulars consist of a gay couple ( "And what are you today, Gilbert? Oh, you're one of those, are you?" ), a layabout window cleaner called Charlie and an Asian bus conductor - typical '70's sitcom stereotypes, in other words. Nellie Pickersgill was so like Nellie Pledge it hardly seemed worth changing the surname. Various busty barmaids came and went, amongst them a young Wendy Richard.

It was crude, vulgar, hardly P.C., but very funny. In the third season, Jed's place was taken by Jack Douglas as Nellie's cousin Stanley. Baker broke her leg during the filming of one episode and had to do the next in a wheelchair. When she got so ill she couldn't work anymore, the show was sadly abandoned.

Following on from her wonderful performance in "Nearest and Dearest' the great Hylda Baker reigns supreme as the Queen of spoonerisms. She is Nellie Pickergill, basically Nellie pleader in all but name. Watching a few episodes now it still rings as genuinely funny. The plot that she takes over running her fathers pub in London gives a chance for her to mix with a variety of London types. There is a running theme of comparing the North and South, which still prevails that is both funny and true.

Although again it is an interesting window to old attitudes you can't help but enjoy Nelli Pickergill/Hylda as she steals the show. Add to the fact unlike other sitcoms homosexual and immigrant characters are, although the butt of some jokes, treated affectionately in the script. Indeed she announces herself as a maiden on arrival so the values of family are transferred to her regulars. They are all her children.

It is simply worth the watch for her wonderful use or misuse of the English language. Very funny.

Nellie Pickersgill is called to her ailing father Jed's pub to take over, but is The Chelsea pub ready for the straight talking Northerner?

If you're a fan of Nearest and Dearest, or of Hylda Baker herself, then this is a must watch show. It's a very funny watch even today, plenty of laughs, plenty of big characters, plenty of Nellie-isms. Baker is magical throughout, until the penultimate episode where she got injured and left the show.

Some of it felt as though it was lifted directly from Nearest and Dearest, and rehashed, even the premise of the show itself, bit it does work. Even Gilbert, he's basically a copy of Walter. Every time she asks him what he's come as, I laughed out loud.

The humour is camp, a little bawdy, and for 1975 it would have been somewhat risque, it's obviously very tame by today's standards, but it's still very funny.

I loved the variety of characters, sure they're a bit dated, and attitudes have changed a lot, but they're a funny bunch. It felt as though the show was well meaning.

Series one is very funny, series two is terrific, don't expect anything much from series three, sadly it ends in poor fashion.

There were multiple cast changes throughout, personally I liked the second series, which featured Wendy Richards, I thought she was really good.

8/10.