At Home with the Braithwaites

I couldn't believe my eyes and ears seeing and hearing this over-the-top completely dysfunctional family and all of their weird friends and relations. Susan Wainright, the writer should be given top marks for the storyline which each week delivers more surprises than the previous week's episode. The first series was almost what one would expect from a family as weird and mixed-up as this one is but the second series excelled and I almost cringed at the antics of each and every character. Talk about behaving badly, well, this is the ultimate in "bad behaviour" and I'm sad that there is only one more episode to go before the end of the second series on Australian TV because I'll really miss my Saturday night dose of great British black comedy.

I really love this series, in which winning the lottery magnifies all the existing problems of a dysfunctional family. It's hilarious but ultimately very sad. While many over-the-top things happen, the writer is faithful to underlying truths about human frailties. The characters are three dimensional, even the real assholes, and the acting is uniformly good. Peter Davison is especially stellar in a performance that exemplifies his strengths as an actor. His comic timing is spot-on and he makes the weak, petulant philandering husband a sympathetic character without pulling any punches to blunt his shortcomings. You want to kick him in the face one minute and hug him the next. The desperate, hopeful way he looks at his estranged wife any time she gives him the tiniest glimmer of encouragement broke my heart. If you are a fan of Davison's, this series alone is worth buying a region-free DVD player for. While it's definitely British in both setting and tone, there is nothing in it that is at all difficult for Americans to "get."

It's really nice to see a good old northen comedy, just when your getting sick of the likes of Eastenders (everybody's always depressed) along comes something uplifting. It's interesting to see what happens to a normal everyday surburban family who's path in life suddenly takes a dramatic turn. I think Amanda Redman carries it off extremely well as the women who has just won 38 millon quid (sterling). I must admit when I first seen Peter Davison in it I thought "Oh no...that man from all creatures great and small (boring)", but then I remember his role as Dr Who, in which he was quite hatstand in that so..... I was quite amazed at his performace...well done Peter. As for Virginia, she puts Phil Cool (He's a comedian from Rochdale who has an amazingly rubber face)in the shade for some of the expressions she pulls, but it's all in character and she does a great job. All in all an extremely good production. I hope to see more light hearted entertainment on terrestrial TV. Keep up the good work chaps and chappessis!!:)

With this series, ITV can be proud that it has produced a show that can stand alongside the best of the recent crop of programmes on all four major networks. It features a wonderfully disfunctional family , and their unusual circumstances. The humour, unusually for ITV, is refreshingly bitter. The filming, the characters, the casting, the acting are all superb. Best of all, the addictive storyline started well, and sustains itself equally well. Surely one of the shows of the year.

When you type in ''the best british tv series ever'' in google search, AHWTB doesn't appear in any list. Most of the Shows that do appear, are just pathetic and boring. ''At Home'' is a Great Show, and in my opinion it should be present in a list of 10 best British TV shows at least.