Examiner par gilleliath

'Solid and entertaining', yet 3/10? You'll have to explain that one to me. It's true that this is something of a forgotten sitcom, in the sense that it doesn't get talked about and nobody seems to be repeating it. I guarantee, though, that anybody who was around at the time will remember it - language, Timothy!

As a good sitcom should - and like Ronnie Barker's parallel show, Open All Hours - it relies on the strength of its characters and the chemistry of its stars for the comedy, rather than contrived situations as was so common then. The interplay between Timothy and Mother, especially, is magic; and when she slaps him, she really goes for it...

The show does at one point reference Phyllis' somewhat Thatcher-like quality, and - though it probably wasn't the intention - I don't think it's entirely far-fetched to see it as a metaphor for the nation's toxic Mother from Hell, the stifling and manipulative figure from whom Tory boarding school boys still, like Timothy with his mother, can't entirely wean themselves.

There are funnier sitcoms, yes, but few that are more satisfying or so difficult to get tired of. And I have tried.

I saw by chance that one of the writers, Peter Vincent, died recently. He did a bloody good job. RIP.