Sorry I'm a Stranger Here Myself

Henry Nunn seeks to escape from television. His wife Sybil has long been obsessed with the thing, so when Henry's Uncle Crispin leaves him a house in the town where he was born, and this coincides with a financial windfall, Henry flees from 'Minder' and 'Crossroads' in Datchet to a non-televisual life in Stackley.

Green (later pink) haired Alex the squatter is already encamped, and Henry slowly begins to learn that modern life can be more vapid and ridiculous than anything on the small screen. Lovable shopkeeper Mumtaz (played by Nadim Sawalha - father of the wonderful 'Press Gang' actress Julia) may not have a great grasp of the English language. But he has a heart of gold. As does yogurt and Argos catalogue-loving next door neighbour Doreen. Tom, the shouty shop steward, Doreen's ever-loving, is not so amenable.

Henry sees a hint of his younger self in Alex and becomes fond of the lad, but his neighbours habit of using his home as an extension of their own drives him potty.

So, back to Datchet and Des O'Connor on the box - or remain in Stackley?

In the end, the one-eyed monster wins in Stackley. It seems almost to come as a relief to Henry when a telly arrives at the house and halts the flow of naff real life chat.

Robin Bailey makes a beautiful job of the dry-witted Henry, and the whole cast is exceptional. The show contains a message about the quality of modern day life which seems more relevant now, in our multi-channel, downloaded world, than it did in the early 1980s.

Robin Bailey plays a sort of urbane prototype of Victor Meldrew, a librarian bored with his TV obsessed wife, who moves to the house of a recently deceased uncle, only to find it occupied for most of the time by typical ITV sitcom characters of the day. They include a comic punk layabout, a comic Indian shopkeeper, a brash, blustering northerner and his slightly dotty, good-natured wife.

At its best this comedy features its share of the dry humour of series Shelley and It Takes A Worried Man, both written by Peter Tilbury, a contributor of scripts to the first series of this. Robin Bailey was ideal for this type of comedy and his timing is superb throughout. Too often though, the shows drift into inanity, with David Hargreaves' loud-mouthed, north country caricature in particular, outstaying its welcome. The characterisation of Nadim Sawalha's well-meaning grocer would no doubt face accusations of casual racism from those whom enjoy complaining about such matters, should the series be repeated today. During the second series it seems that events are moving in ever decreasing circles, to quote the title of a more successful comedy of the Eighties, and by the final two episodes it is clear that the scriptwriter has run out of ideas and inspiration.

"Sorry..." harks back to the early 1980's and unfortunately hasn't aged well. Henry Nunn is a 60 year old librarian stifled by his marriage to Sybil. He inherits a house from Uncle Crispin so ups and leaves Sybil to move to his new home (as you do). Once in the house he finds the rest of the cast – squatter Alex the punk rocker with the green hair, Mumtaz the shopkeeper with the turban (1980s so racism is rife). Finally Doreen and Tom the amiable Northern, working class couple – he is a shop steward. All the above continue to use Henry's house as something of a stopping off point during their daily life, much to Henry's irritation.

You can get attached to this programme as the 2 series wear on. Enough to keep watching when you have a spare half an hour but it is a long way from the "must watch" category. Peter Tilbury is a co-writer on the first series and you can see him planting his familiar diatribes on Robin Bailey but these miss the target a lot of the times. I don't know whether the interaction between characters was meant to be awkward but it is. I found Diana Rayworth's Doreen becoming quite enjoyable after a few shows.

There are highs but unfortunately quite a lot of the time the programme doesn't do much. Nice situation, decent actors, decent writers. It could have been better.