The Gnomes of Dulwich

it would appear that only two of us watched this series !! maybe looking back with rose tinted etc but I remember it as just good family fun - pity not more of these are available on DVD I have all the terry and june and I'm afraid my memory is better than the reality maybe so with this as well ?? I like to sit and watch some of these old series some didn't last too long like this one (6 episodes) But I know it is easy to say but they do not make family entertainment like this any more the list is endless of enduring sitcoms from this era but what will we remember from 2011 ? Not many I don't think well not ones you will be able to sit and watch with the grand kids

I used to watch this when I was a very little kid and I loved it. Can't remember much about it except it was very bright and colourful and one of the very first programs I ever saw in colour. Apparently the tapes for this show don't exist any more which is a real pity. Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott were very funny and I remember wondering if the garden gnomes in neighbours gardens used to come alive. Probably liked it because it was about 'little people' and in those days I was fairly little myself. Reading the reviews about it elsewhere it was quite heavily satirical about politics and the Common Market, but as I was under 7 when I watched it I doubt I understood those references, and I just enjoyed it as a funny story about garden gnomes and their adventures. My parents probably enjoyed it for different reasons.

I also remember seeing the show when I was young. I remember my parents allowing me to come down from my room after bedtime, to watch it (I think I also saw Monty Python afterwards...I think it followed it - possibly on BBC2?) I was too young for the clever sub-text to the scripts, I just enjoyed the idea of little gnomes being alive in the garden! I remember one episode had Terry and Hugh trying to get friendly with some female gnomes (if that was their name!) who possibly were in a neighbouring garden. It is a great shame that no episodes have been found out there in TV-Land. Whether time will have been kind to the show, who knows? In the end, could this have been another lost TV classic from the BBC?

Apart from being quite witty, the only other thing I recall is an episode which featured plastic Japanese gnomes that had moved into the garden.

I'm guessing here but I think that the script may have contained a lot of very racist dialogue. At the time it was not considered harmful or wrong by most people. Thankfully most of society has moved on.

That said, it is a shame that the tapes were wiped.

Perhaps the episode scripts are still available in the BBC archives. It would be interesting to read them.