Mann's Best Friends

The joy of Roy Clarke's work is the word play delivered in a dead pan manner; there was very little of that here.

What replaces it is a degree and physical comedy which doesn't really work. One big problem is the fact that the main character rescues animals to keep in his house. A monkey and snake appear in the plot at various points and the characters have to act to these creature which are just out of shot.

Did the author really think that he could have a plot which revolved around animals without actually using real animals in the filming?

Roy Clarke has an excellent comedy reputation however "Mann's Best Friends" does not further it. Two completely opposite characters meet up: Fulton Mackay takes some of his Porridge role to play a bossy former manager. Barry Stanton plays an animal loving landlord who needs someone bossy to tighten up his house. The trouble is neither of them are leading actors. They are fine bouncing their roles of someone more adept to the limelight.

We get a couple of 80's comedy basics - Bernard Bresslaw as the friendly bovver boy and good time girl Patricia Brake. So a number of decent actors but the script and setting are not up to scratch. You get the feeling this was pushed through without much thought being applied. Could it have been better? Re-arrange the actors and let Mackay play off a more dominant lead. Play around with the script to let the cast play around with the words. The Bresslaw/Brake characters were the strongest so why weren't they more prominent.

While this isn't the best sitcom of all time, I sat through the entire series and there are plenty where I haven't got that far. So still worth watching.