Fresh Fields

We Brits, particularly in the 80s and earlier 90s produced a lot of this kind of sitcom - middle class and cosy. We don't do it so much now.

I vaguely remember this during its original run. I was a child so it wasn't really something I watched, more that my parents would be watching it and I would happen to be in the same room.

The setup is fairly straightforward - Julia Mackenzie plays Hester and Anton Rodgers plays William. They're a middle aged, middle class couple of 'empty nesters' living in a very middle class part of London. She is bored and he wants to relax. Much of the comedy comes from Hester's taking up of various hobbies - painting, keep fit, DIY etc. Whilst William just wants a quiet life. Of course this ends up with mild conflict and disaster - comedy and chaos ensues.

Alongside this there are supporting characters - the 'nutty neighbour' Sonya who barges into their kitchen uninvited and announces "It's only Sonya" every time which is met by rapturous laughter and applause from the studio audience. There's also Hester's estranged parents who also provide yet more of the clichéd comedy.. The acting is very "studio-based sitcom" with lines delivered between laughter and applause from the audience. French & Saunders once parodied these kinds of cosy domestic sitcoms with perfect accuracy. This isn't to say the show doesn't have its charms - it is warm and mildly funny, but it is so utterly cosy, safe and British as to be almost a parody itself. It isn't to say the cast aren't talented, because they are all very talented performers.

It's not a bad sitcom if you compare it to others of almost the exact same style and premise. In fact it's one of the better examples of this genre. Worth a look but don't expect any surprises. You can see the jokes a mile off, but will find yourself raising the odd smile.

William works as an accountant, Hester busies herself with all manner of hobbies, including painting and pottery.

One of those magical shows from my childhood, I grew up adoring William and Hester, and having a next door neighbour named Sonia, somehow made it all the more special.

For me the show for better as it went on, Series three is the highlight I'd argue, it's full of classic episodes, including the magical Christmas special.

Every single character is fabulous, I'm not sure it would have worked quite so well without 'only Sonia,' Ann Beach just made it, always popping in to borrow something.

Julia McKenzie and Anton Rodgers are superb as The Fields, you'll see multiple talents, acting, comedy, singing and dancing. Just wait til you see Rodgers joining McKenzie and Beach performing three little maids.

It's gloriously middle class, it's all sherry in the evenings, Blue Denmark china and trips on The Orient Express, I grew up thinking that's what life was like, Opera wine glasses have never looked so good.

It makes me laugh that we never see Emma, well apart from a fleeting, veiled glance at the wedding, it's very Dad's Army.

Ignore the doubters, this is a glorious, charming, warm and fuzzy comedy, onwards to French Fields.

8/10.

Anton Rodgers is better known to me for his role on the other British comedy, "May to December." On this show, he plays alongside the amazing Julia McKenzie, a well known British musical actress. The pairing of them as a couple with an empty nest syndrome. Rodgers plays William, the beloved husband to Hester played very well by Julia McKenzie. The other cast members include Hester's mother who lives just across the driveway and her friend Sonia played by Ann Beach. Anyway, I only caught glimpses of this show the first time around but NJN has brought Fresh Fields which is also the name of a supermarket chain and a legal firm on Fleet Street in London, England. With the kids grown and gone, Hester is left to fend for herself and keeps busy by jogging, joining the local community center and pottery classes, and cooking French food. Anyway, I recommend Fresh Fields because it is a well done show for mature audiences who love British comedy. Somebody compared Julia to Lucille Ball and I couldn't agree more. She has a wonderful singing voice as well and a good comedic voice too.

I never got this show. It has a tinny quality to it, and seemed to belong to the previous decade, fitting in better with such Britcoms as Father Dear Father and The Many Wives of Patrick, than with 80's fare like The Young Ones And the Secret Diary of Adrian Mole. Perhaps this was because the subject matter and main characters seemed so out of place for the time.

Fresh Fields was about rather conventional forty-somethings at a time when the lives of the young and unconventional were being portrayed. At about this time there were, had been, enough Britcoms about the older generation (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Butterflies, A Fine Romance) but they always had a very unique spin to them. Hester Fields was a cookie-cutter kooky housewife, with a long-suffering husband and a scolding child or two, and the episode plots were variations on the kind found in old and middling American sitcoms.

Boring.

I just want to say that I agree with the previous viewers where I clicked "yes" to what they said. We never seem to get good old BBC comedies on Aussie TV anymore and there's a large audience of 70 and 80 year old who love them. Anyway at least more and more are appearing on DVD - hope I can live long enough to see them all. From the 1960s to the 1980s was the best for British comedy as far as I'm concerned. Loved Anton in May to December - it was a very touching show. First saw Julia McKenzie in Blott on the Landscape and have watched her in everything that's come our way. Cheers from "downunder" Jessie in Sydney, Australia