Nelson's Column

Why is it that good comedies are cut short but humourless ones are allowed to run and run and run and run and run and..... It didn't happen so much back when this was on television but the fact that it was dropped shows you that it did still happen. Now it happens more and more often, in fact it happens so often now that you can easily say that not only does humourless, boring, tedious, completely and utterly unfunny rubbish that gives the same number of laughs as a dead person (you have to be brain dead to watch them and you have to be brain dead and stupid to then say you enjoy them and then you have to be brain dead and completely moronic to say that you find them funny) such as The Office, The Royale Family, Little Britain, Bo Selecta, Ali G, Borat, (just to name a few of the many), they are then always self promoted by the industry due to the industry always giving them awards for best comedy. It's as if the industry is saying let's ignore the good stuff; let's throw it away and instead of that let's have complete crap on screen instead and hey if we give it awards we'll be able to keep the rubbish on-going for a fews years until some other rubbish can take it's place. It's the same in the music industry with all the tone-deaf, tuneless, off-key, and off-note, so-called singers that fill the charts from the number one position all the way down. The charts are clogged up with them. And then a bit of self promotion by the music industry by giving them the awards for Best Single or Best Album or Best Newcomer, (that should be Best Newcomer Of A Seriously Awful And Totally Talentless Lot) and like in television drivel ends up filling our screens and ears and it looks like doing so for years to come.

This was a very funny programme. The acting was sharp, the jokes were very funny, the script was very well written. What a shame it was not allowed to run for more than two series.

Only two series of Nelson's Column were commissioned. It's a follow-up of sorts to An Actor's Life for Me (1991), also starring John Gordon Sinclair and written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, which centers around an actor's rather than a journalist's frolics and follies.

Gavin Nelson is a journalist who has his own column (hence the meta-humor), in and out of love with his two female co-workers, he has a propensity to bite off more than he can chew on assignments; especially when his larger-than-life and "sluggish" cameraman is involved. Always looking for the easy way out, Nelson's "tall tales" oftentimes come back to haunt him tenfold.

Each episode of this series has a mediocre plot and is predictable in a lot of instances, however it redeems itself in certain areas. For instance, the cast of Sinclair, Thompson, and O'Donnell have a certain chemistry and are fantastic actors, which probably stems from all the time they have spent on stage.

It would be fantastic if this series was eventually released on DVD. It has often received harsh criticism as it wasn't embraced by the British public and actually had the misfortune to make it into the "Worst of" poll on BBC. It aired occasionally on PBS in the States.