The Rag Trade

That's what the very aggressive shop steward played by Miriam Karlin would shout after blowing her whistle, at least half a dozen times during each episode of this series. Peter Jones played the owner of Fenner Fashions, a small factory cum sweat-shop situated in London. The hilarious (in my view) situations which occurred in every episode, centered around Karlin doing her utmost to avoid her and her fellow union members, from completing any work. Unless they were given incentives, which the poor harassed Mr. Fenner would have to indulge, in order to complete orders on time. Christopher Beeny played the smarmy van driver, who was always making advances toward long haired Gillian Taylforth (Cathy Beale, from Eastenders). While Anna Karen (Olive from another gem of a series On The Buses) played one of the skiving machinists.

It deserves a DVD release.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Fenner Fashions was run by its owner, Harold Fenner, however it's really run by shop steward Paddy, who can stop production with one blow of her whistle.

I came here after working my way through the wonderful classic series, and so many comments slated this remake/follow up series, having watched it in its entirety however, I have to disagree.

It takes some time to settle down, and of course it's hard not to compare these episodes, with the classics, as so many of them were straight up remakes. However, this is a worthy series.

You can see where the characters have come from, Kathy is an updated Carole, Mabel is an updated Lily, and Tony is an updated Reg. Bringing in Anna Karen as Olive was a stroke of genius.

It does run out of steam a little towards the end of the second series, but it still remains watchable throughout.

Standout episodes include The Accident, Stress and The Italian Line. Self Defence needs to be seen to be believed.

My advice, check it out.

7/10.