Mrs Merton & Malcolm

The BBC has often been guilty of overkilling a good idea, and this is a classic example. Caroline Ahern was astute enough to retire her characters when the joke began to wear thin, but here the BBC refused to let her drop her Mrs Merton character, and instead dragged her into a unnecessary and unamusing extended life.

The humour itself is best described as being subtle, and macabre, and is not to everybody's taste. It might have worked as a late night BBC2 show, but it was not suitable for evening viewing on the flagship channel. Darker than Ronnie Corbett"s "Sorry", and less bizarre than " The League of Gentlemen", it fell uncomfortably between a rock, and a hard place.

Yes take a look at it, you might like it. But I didn't.

This is a spin off from the MRS MERTON spoof talk show . She had a son called Malcolm who would often creep up in conversations with guests and became a sort of running gag similar to COLUMBO where the eponymous detective would discuss his wife . This led to a spin off show called MRS COLUMBO which flopped . You'd think producers would learn something via other peoples mistakes

The two previous commentators I Love It and Richard have both given positive reviews to this spin off but I won't . I'm not sure if like I Love It it has anything to do with regional humour but I doubt if it does . The premise is slightly similar to the classic BBC comedy SORRY where an over protective mother treats her full grown adult son as a child but everything is done a manner so silly it becomes surreal and not in a good way . Friend of the family Arthur Capstick visits the family home and while Mrs Merton is putting on the kettle Arthur and Malcolm dance . When I say dance I'm not talking about some sort of homo erotic experience I'm talking about something that's included because it seemed to be aimed for the funny bone . It certainly misfired on this viewer

It only ran for one short series and I'm surprised it lasted that long

I love this show to death humour is a strange thing isn't it some people laugh at the strangest things don't they. So there is no point in taking a word of what I say into consideration. I love this show I laughed so hard I cried at times.The first episode with the party and Malcolm singing along to the boom box is right up my street. Its quite dark at times but somehow always manages to stay funny. . Its a a plus point in my opinion that we only had 6 episodes. So many sit coms drag on...and on. and never recapture the freshness of the first episodes . I don't know hey, dead....in front of a two bar fire !! Check it out and make your own mind up

I admit that when I first saw Mrs Merton and Malcolm I thought it was terrible. But it kind of grows on you, and by the end of the first series I was quite enjoying it. The last episode in particular was very funny. More tea vicar?

So many things about this programme were hilarious. It was very clever, as it highlighted the sad experiences of lonely and unsuccessful people in a darkly comic way. I suppose you really had to be English, and probably a Northener to fully understand why it was so funny and so true. You may also have had to had experience of people who lead similar lives to the characters, for example; gossiping about neighbours and casually talking, to get the jokes. Very touching, and I was greatly disappointed when I found out it was finishing, because it was one of the few programmes which was true and funny at the same time. Who wants perfect families, who are so-called 'typical', on the T.V? I think the people who critisized it were either fearing its truth, or too ignorant to to try and understand and relate to the humour. Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Henry Normal are geniuses, and I think everything they have written is funny.