Stan the Man

This series was shaping up well. A Minder for the 21st century it was at times a tad unbelievable but it made up for that with its wit and charm. So what do ITV do with their best comedy drama not just for months but years? They pull it! Are they mad??? Some of us think there is more to life than celebrity this and celebrity that - give us the missing 2 episodes NOW!!!! And put Rainbow back on as well.

I agree that this series was not given a fair crack of the whip. Why is it that the TV companies are so keen to dump programmes when they are not a huge instant success!? The BBC treated another excellent comedy drama, Neil Pearson's "Trevor's World of Sport" in a similar fashion. John Thomson and Joe Absolom were excellent (as usual) in this. John's portrayal of a man returning to his home town expecting to be treated as the 'prodigal son' was perfectly pitched as was Joe's nicely understated performance as the real brains behind the duo. He let Stan take the credit when in fact he usually saved the day! It reminded me of Hong Kong Fuey in a way! I thoroughly enjoyed it but had to search hard for most of the episodes in the late night schedules. I look forward to seeing the underused John Thomson in further comedy dramas in the near future.