I Love much of the 1970s TV, that being the decade of my childhood, so it was quite a nice surprise to see something from that era that i'd somehow i'd managed to miss. Maybe i made myself forget it on purpose.
Sadly, the 'main' actors display little comic ability or timing, and they struggle to do even the slight humour that's presumably expected, and i find watching this quickly tiring, The acting is wooden, which combined with the bland script, and dull characters all make it this a disappointment, maybe it'll improve as the series progresses and cameo actors come and go, but i doubt it, even as a child i doubt that i would bother with this.
Maybe stronger leads actors would help, these kind of shows need strong leads, and although the main actors were reasonably well known at their time, they certainly weren't 'A' list, or even 'B' list, so they weren't confident enough as leads to carry the viewers attention, which is where this show fails, if a stronger central character was available, maybe then, it would be fun watching the maelstrom ensue around him, but here, it's hard to tell the difference between the scenery and actors.
The talented Michael Pertwee however has brought several staples to our screens, so I imagine he was able to get more well known names (at that time) to sign up for this show than what the poor script actually deserves. The production seems nice enough, and looks remarkably well for it's vintage, but as a hardcore UK 70s TV fan, even i would call this a Christmas turkey.
I do like the fact that it's a little time capsule of a TV era that i (wrongly) thought i had a reasonably decent knowledge of, and i just found myself waiting for familiar actors of my childhood to appear, but i won't be bothering watching for them. Conclusion, very poor indeed.
