Endstation Paradies

Aging happens to us all. Much to our gratitude and dismay, my wife and I reside in "assisted living", complete with our very own "idiot Baines". In these circumstances the often grim humor of "Waiting for God" often rings true, and nearly always entertains hilariously. We wish it were still in production!

These classic British comedies state timely and their humor. I rate this one up there with Their best. I wish it would come back.

One of the funniest shows to come out of England in the nineties, it has a terrific cast of veteran television and stage players. It's funny and timeless comedy with a bit of slapstick humor and a polished verbal English wit. The wonderful relationship between atheist feminist single Diana and the widowed Tom Ballard is fascinating to watch unlike most relationships, they get better when they're together than apart. Tom's boring son, Jeffrey, can bore anyone to death but he is in a marriage to unfaithful, drunk, and pill popper, Marion, who despises and resents Diana as a threat to their inheritance. The cast includes another heterosexual relationship between old maid plain Jane and the Bayview manager, Harvey Nigel Bains. Harvey constantly mistreats the wonderful sweet Jane. He doesn't know what he's got until he almost loses her. Three great love stories and romances in a wonderful sitcom. The wait is over.

I have been waiting for some time for this to appear on DVD and here it is. Loved it when it first appeared, like it even more now. Diana is a role model, ie just the sort of person I want to be when my children do what they threaten, and put me in a home, and Tom would be an irritating but useful companion. Our bodies may give out on us, but the brain does not always follow suit, and from this we get this glorious programme. Jane, (an undersung hero of UK TV) the long suffering P. A. to the obnoxious Harvey Bains who is the only person to be fooled by his facade of niceness, tries so hard to bring Diana and Tom into some sort of religious salvation before its too late, and plays one of the best characters in the programme. Not to forget the randy little chap (Bas?) who has his own way of enduring old age, and Tom's poor son and his dreadful wife. Truly a TV sitcom of brilliance. More, please!

What a wonderful antidote to the usual crap on television--especially in its depiction of old people. All too often, in films and TV, old people are endowed with either great wisdom, insight or are gosh-darn cute. WAITING FOR GOD throws all these clichés out the window, showing us that old people can be nasty--just like anyone else! The film has two leads--Diana and Tom. While Tom isn't a major grouch, he is a bit of a trouble maker and loves being eccentric. Diana, on the other hand, is a nasty old crank that could care less about people she deems are beneath her--and that is practically everyone! And her anger and clever meanness is given plenty of righteous opportunity to come out at the old folks home they live in, as Harvey (the manager) is a total moron and his assistant, Jane, is just...well, pathetic.

Week after week, Diana (with assistance from Tom) make their lives miserable--along with Tom's truly awful son and daughter-in-law. There is a lot more I can say about the show, but the bottom line is that excellent writing, truly original characters and a nice sense of irreverence make this a must-see...especially if there is a little Diana within you.