At Home with the Braithwaites

I really love this series, in which winning the lottery magnifies all the existing problems of a dysfunctional family. It's hilarious but ultimately very sad. While many over-the-top things happen, the writer is faithful to underlying truths about human frailties. The characters are three dimensional, even the real assholes, and the acting is uniformly good. Peter Davison is especially stellar in a performance that exemplifies his strengths as an actor. His comic timing is spot-on and he makes the weak, petulant philandering husband a sympathetic character without pulling any punches to blunt his shortcomings. You want to kick him in the face one minute and hug him the next. The desperate, hopeful way he looks at his estranged wife any time she gives him the tiniest glimmer of encouragement broke my heart. If you are a fan of Davison's, this series alone is worth buying a region-free DVD player for. While it's definitely British in both setting and tone, there is nothing in it that is at all difficult for Americans to "get."

I couldn't believe my eyes and ears seeing and hearing this over-the-top completely dysfunctional family and all of their weird friends and relations. Susan Wainright, the writer should be given top marks for the storyline which each week delivers more surprises than the previous week's episode. The first series was almost what one would expect from a family as weird and mixed-up as this one is but the second series excelled and I almost cringed at the antics of each and every character. Talk about behaving badly, well, this is the ultimate in "bad behaviour" and I'm sad that there is only one more episode to go before the end of the second series on Australian TV because I'll really miss my Saturday night dose of great British black comedy.

Alison Braithwaite is married to David. Together they live with their three daughters. Alison's life is turned upside down when she discovers that the Eurolottery ticket her youngest daughter got her for her birthday has landed her £38,000,000! In a bid to be responsible she decides to use the money for charitable purposes... but in doing so she keeps it a secret from her family.

And that's just the start of it all. The whole family are having their own particular crises, and somehow they all end up crashing in the middle. There are so many secrets being hidden away and the eventual outing of the truth is enthralling and unpredictable.

Light-hearted and heart-warming, this production makes being a fly on the wall such an enjoyable experience. It never fails to deliver while never being too serious. If there is a message in there somewhere then it is that life never goes as planned.

Thoroughly enjoyable... I hope there is more in the pipeline!

When you type in ''the best british tv series ever'' in google search, AHWTB doesn't appear in any list. Most of the Shows that do appear, are just pathetic and boring. ''At Home'' is a Great Show, and in my opinion it should be present in a list of 10 best British TV shows at least.

"At Home with the Braithwaites" is absolutely excellent. Sarah Smart who plays Virginia is the best character. She is a stunning actress I'm sure she'll defently go far and have a wonderful career. She's such a natural.

The TV Series is about the Braithwaite family. They arn't really that happy. The mum Alison is a housewife. The dad David is a bad tempered miserable money lender who is having an affair with his secretary. The eldest daughter Virginia is at university and is completly screwed up and is a lesbian who is also in love with the next door neighbour, the middle daughter, Sarah is at school and is a moaney old cow. The youngest is Charlotte and she's quite weird.

This is the situation they live in. Then Alison win's the lottery, 38 million but doesn't really know what to do with the money and she doesn't tell her family. Eventualy with the help of two other women she sets up a company that helps people (her family still don't know.) The next string of events are that Virginia is doing that badly at University she gets kicked out and is now living at home but all she thinks about is Megan the next door neighbour. So she comes out to her but also reveals that she knows that she (Megan) had sex with the window cleaner. Then Megan flips out and ignores her sending Virginia into depression. Sarah has made a fool of herself writing a love letter to a teacher and now has completely lost all self control and is having sex with the other next door neighbour, Phil.

Soon Virginia tells only her mum about the fact that she's gay and then Alison tells her about the money and the company. But then Virginia goes mad and stars to spend, spend, spend.

At the end the press find out that it is Alison that has won the money and cast it all over the news and the whole family finds out. Then Alison finds out about David's affair and she takes him back.

This TV Series is truely amazing. It's so good that it's the only series that I've remembered to tape every single week. Also if you like that series in the second one things really get interesting...