Executive Stress

There aren't greater actors in a situation comedy than Penelope Keith, Geoffrey Palmer and Peter Bowles - Americans have loved them in their various series for decades

Yet for some reason, this series is unavailable to rent or purchase in Region 1 DVDs. PLEASE make them available!

Don't get me wrong. I can complain about very little about this series. Penelope Keith is wonderful. I have to admit that I prefer Geoffrey Palmer as Donald. Peter Bowles characterization is less bewildered and more condescending, which changes its comic timing. Even so, the series is far better than the vast majority of all the drivel you see on TV. Its portrayal of the publishing industry is suitably sarcastic and wonderfully satirical. Having said that, I rarely award anything a rating of 10.

My biggest complaint is that the DVD is available ONLY for Region 2, so those of us who live in the Western Hemisphere are left in the dark (so to speak).

SOMEBODY PLEASE ISSUE THIS DVD FOR REGION 1. Maybe Shout Factory, or some other company that cares more about authenticity than sales volume.

I never really get the reasoning behind any sitcom replacing main characters with different actors midstream with no explanation, but this one is quite good in both iterations. Geoffrey Palmer is completely different than Peter Bowles acting wise, but they are both masterful. Penelope Keith is always flawless in her perfectly crisp comedic delivery. Very very well done and enjoyable. Now available streaming on Acorn.

"Bewitched'" switched Darins (unfortunately Darin 1 became ill) we at least write out the character and bring in another if similar character- but I dislike this practice of changing out major characters- so this series was "OK" in the tired sitcom variety. but when I saw Donald was now Peter Boyles, not Geoffery Pqlmer, I thought, that's it for me. A little tired and dated, but it's same format today. and the so called American has an awful American Accent- I am tired of seeing Aussies, English playing Americans. But I have yet to see an English show- with an non-American actor do an American accent. who thinks they can do this successfully (except Hugh Laurie). Martin sheen has played 2 Americans and is always a cartoon character.

2 French shows- recently did it- Origins switched out a great actress because she was "too old"- the replacement is dull and bland. and Julien Baumgarten, in Origins, became Caine, the wheel chair bound detective- (yes it pushes credulity). French TV what gives!.

As a comedy vehicle for Penelope Keith "Executive Stress" written by George Layton is every bit as good as To the Manor Born. This is empirically backed up by iMDB figures. Layton has form and has been the quiet writer of many excellent "Comedy-Drama" series.

The maindraw back is that this was an ITV comedy, Thames to be exact. ITV doesn't have a track record in comedy and Thames even less so with the only Comedy worthy of the name that ever came from ITV being Rising Damp and that was Yorkshire TV.

This is a shame because it is rather good. Had Executive Stress been a BBC production I think it would be remembered rather better than it is. ITV comedy rarely gets repeated, for good reason in most cases, but this deserves it's spot amongst "The Good Life", "Porridge" and "Yes Minister" on the perennial roundabout of repeats with the BBC big boys.

So what held it back? Well the jarring change of main character didn't help. Geoffrey Palmer for Peter Bowles is hardly like for like, brilliant though they both are. Particularly with Peter and Penelope's history.

The aforementioned Thames production just robbed it of that certain something. Exposure for one. No-one watched ITV for comedy. All of the great comedy experience was tied up in the BBC. John Howard Davies was by no means a slouch (The Goodies, Python, The Good Life etc) but all of that experience was within the confines of the BBC. Maybe it's the fact that writers were restricted to about 22 minutes of actual programming once you take credits and adverts out of the equation. This is opposed to the 29 minutes you would get as a BBC writer / producer. Brevity certainly doesn't make things any tighter. Only Fools and Horses really blossomed when that went to 59 minutes. So maybe the longer screentime allows for something "More".

Anyway this is well worth a watch and is one of the better 1980s situation comedies. The fact that it is an ITV production , makes me even more astonished that it came out so well.