Never the Twain

'Never the Twain' aired on ITV from 1981 to 1991: an unusually long run for a British sitcom. It featured brilliant performances by Donald Sinden and Windsor Davies as rival antiques dealers. Most of the laughs came from the (affectionate) chemistry between the two actors, and from the (rather less affectionate) combustion of the relationship between the two lead characters, and the insults which they hurl at each other.

Simon Peel (Sinden) and Oliver Smallbridge (Davies) were formerly partners in an antiques business, who are now business rivals and bitter enemies; matters are not helped by the fact that they are next-door neighbours. Peel's antiques shop and his wares are rather more upmarket than those of Smallbridge, whose shop does a speciality in the sort of horrible old tat which is more typical of car-boot sales than antiques shops. Peel considers himself more refined than Smallbridge, and the relationship between the two men has its Felix/Oscar aspects ... except that Felix and Oscar are friends who drive each other crazy, wheras Simon and Oliver are enemies.

Peel is divorced with an adult son, whilst Smallbridge is a widower with an adult daughter; inevitably, son David and daughter Lyn get marry, forcing the fathers-in-law to form an uneasy alliance. This provided a plausible source of comedy for the first three years of the series: after the third series, David and Lyn were written out (they reportedly moved to Canada). At this point, Simon and Oliver merged their antiques businesses: rather implausible, this, as the characters had always been established as enemies and bitter rivals. The eighth series featured the return to England of David and Lyn (now played by Christopher Morris and Tacy Kneale) with an infant son, which provided new comic fodder as Simon and Oliver began a new rivalry to prove which was the better grand-dad. Honor Blackman (still sexy!) and Zara Nutley were added late in the programme's run as continuing characters.

Comparisons to 'The Odd Couple' are inevitable, but 'Never the Twain' is more similar in style (and bile, and guile) to the 'Grumpy Old Men' movies. I'll rate this very funny sitcom 8 points out of 10 for its best years (series 1,2,3,8,9) out of its eleven-year run.

Oh dear, 'Never the twain' has not aged well. I caught some re-runs on a late night channel recently and was embarrassed by the predictable story-lines and poor acting. The characters are stereotypes and most of the actors resort to spluttering and pulling faces in order to elicit laughs. The writing is generally uninspired and the jokes are juvenile and not particularly funny. A sample of the dialogue: Oliver Smallbridge: "I started at the bottom, you need brains there." Simon Peel: "Well, your brains are in your bottom." It provided work for several British B-list actors over a number of years but, apart from that, there's little to recommend it. One wonders how Donald Sinden ever became involved in the series.

Amazed this lasted 11 years it's basically a one idea comedy with no character development but the 2 leads do bounce off each other very well and it's what carries it, my biggest problem was with the supporting characters particularly the 1 episode women stars how could they be written like this in the eighties just baffles me mostly 1 dimensional and unbelievable

I have watched this series from start to finish many times, and always find it very funny every time. Cannot understand why people should want to give it a negative rating. Especially the one where they obviously don't know what they're talking about, as they even mention a completely fictitious TV channel in ITV7???????

Ignore the review as per above....Sit back and enjoy to old actors showing how easy this sort of comedy comes to them...Perfect for lunchtime viewing with some good moments..OK it is not perfect but still no way near awful as some would have u think. The two leads play rival shop owners...but of course are close friends....Compared to recent "comedies" on the main channells this should be considered a masterpiece.... Sit back and enjoy.

Incidentally is is sad that you don't see more of the show's made in the 80's..A golden age for TV viewing...Fingers crossed ITV2,3 & 4 will sort this out..Wouldn't it be great to see The Equaliser,Street Hawk and such like again.