A Bit of a Do

A Bit of a Do is a quintessentially British show, involving eccentricity, family squabbles, snobbery, ignorance, and prejudice.

With a brilliant ensemble of characters, personified by a veritable who's who of British actors.

A 'Do' is a colloquial term for a Celebration, that is held by a Club, or Society, to commemorate a local event.

The show is effectively a series of plays, revolving around conflicting local families, the Simcock's of Ted and Rita, with their sons Elvis and Paul.

Ted prides himself as a self made man, rising above his surroundings, to run his own business manufacturing, cast iron household novelties.

The class conflict of sorts comes courtesy, of the Rodenhurst's, of Laurence and Liz, daughter Jenny, and son Simon.

Laurence considers himself, as a pillar of local society, as the proprietor of a dental surgery.

Another couple of local characters, are the Sillitoe's, of Betty and Rodney, who is the proprietor, of a thriving local business, Cock A'Doodle Chickens.

An extra important character comes in the shape, of a local solicitor Neville Badger, who one way or another is a friend, or business associate of the aforementioned families.

It's the frankly incestuous relationships, between these families, that provide the dynamics that drive the show, indeed they are positively tempestuous, involving serial infidelity and wife swapping.

This is a magnificent programme which falls into the comedy/drama genre, there is plenty of comedy and some of the drama tends toward the serious.

Each episode begins with a cast member on the phone to a friend..."Sorry I can't make it, got a bit of a do on". Then ta-da-da-da-da-da-da George Melly leads us through the opening credits.

To set the scene: the daughter of Mrs Posh (Nicola Pagett) is marrying the son of Mr Common (David Jason). Never mind the class difference, both sets of parents are concerned that their offspring have grown up to be be wet liberals (perish the thought).

Ultimately, all that is irrelevant. The selling points of the series are Pagett and Jason but as the shows progress David Nobbs does a fine job of gradually inserting the rest of the cast into the plot. Relationships are forged, relationships fall apart, there are births, deaths and marriages. All leading to a "do".

I can't fault the first series which is close to perfect. I think Nobbs tries to do a bit much to start the second series with some questionable scenarios but it recovers. All the other characters blossom to make this a true ensemble piece.

I have just caught up with this and it is as brilliant as people said it was at the time. But nearly 20 years have passed, and some things now jar. Nothing is as distant as the recent past. Paul and Jenny as the right-on, ideologically sound, politically correct couple are great, especially the way Jenny is boring and humourless and manipulates everybody by constantly bursting into tears and rushing from the room. People like that certainly were around back in those days. But they were hard to send up – possibly because they were so earnest and smug they could never see a joke, let alone one against themselves. I like the way Liz begs Jenny to stop the "progressive preaching". But there's something wrong about Jenny. Her clothes and hairdo are too conservative (though they're dull and unsexy because fashion is a capitalist plot, and being sexy is pandering to patriarchy...). Maybe they thought the audience wouldn't get it if she spoke like that, or wore the kind of clothes a feminist eco-protester would have worn. Her constant sermons seem to be a way of explicating her far-out ideas to an audience who may never have heard them before. Another false note is struck by Rita's conversion from downtrodden, shy, unconfident wife and mother to liberated single woman (with big, big hair and a ghastly shiny outfit) – just by having her husband leave her for another woman. She too starts spouting political sermons and reveals that she met her new boyfriend at a CND rally. She is a heroine for the late 80s and we're not meant to laugh at her as we laugh at Paul and Jenny.

I'd forgotten that way back then ideas that are now being embraced by the Conservative Party genuinely divided people. Conventional people had conservative ideas; if you wanted to go vegetarian or campaign against nuclear weapons you became a weirdo, a lefty, an unconventional person. Your original social group would look at you askance or possibly eject you. You might have to join another.

These are flaws that time has revealed. The rest stands up as great drama, acting and observation. Looking forward to catching up with the second series.