Down to Earth

In what was a wonderful rural drama set in a the countryside near a town/village in Devon things were moving along at a steady pace with great acting from all concerned right up until the start of this series. It's the sudden disappearance of the Brewer family that is the problem. Maybe Angela was giving birth when this latest series was filmed and maybe Ian had another commitment he couldn't get out of and the same for the actors that played their children and the gardener and their oldest child's best friend. That is large number of cast members to just vanish from the current series. Couldn't filming have been held back until EVERYONE was available to make this new set of episodes? If the worst came to the very worst couldn't Denise Welch's character or Ricky Tomlinson's have said a good sensible reason as to why the Brewer family went away. As it is, bad writing and bad directing has meant that the characters Tony Murphy and Jackie Murphy have gone from only just managing to run the pub (due to Tony's 'hair-brained' schemes for a quick pound all series long) to having enough money to buy the small-holding from where the Brewers disappeared without selling the pub to fund the purchase. So where did that sudden windfall come from? And there is no village feel as the same faces are not seen again and again. Who runs the shop(s) and the post office? Where is the friendly policeman/woman? In fact where are the people? The show has deteriorated to the point where it is now complete rubbish. All feel for the countryside has gone.

I watched the first two series of this show + it was fantastic. Cosy Sunday drama kinda thing, so not everyone's cup of tea, but it was quite unique as far as I'm concerned...very quirky and different. It was not afraid to put major setbacks in the family's life, and not afraid to have a sad ending to an episode unlike other cosy dramas I've seen. However, at the beginning of series 3, when the original family moved out and a new one moved in, the show lost something for me. I had grown attached to the old family, and to replace them so suddenly made me stop watching, so I can't really comment on the show post series 2, but from what I saw it wasn't a patch on the first two series.

Brian follows his dream to grow flowers in the country.

A good cast and interesting characters make this just about bearable. Unfortunately, it's hard to find anything else of interest here.

Brian is a florist and Faith is a teacher. The business is going down the toilet so the family sells up and move into a leaky old barn. And then the unrelenting stupidity really begins.

She hands 450 quid for a rubbish cow. They have done absolutely no research or homework about starting a farm. The two daughters move from nightmare schools in London to nightmare schools in the country.

The idiot husband whines about money every chance he gets yet showers thousands on junk they don't need. The ongoing 'bad daughter' routine is exhausting. The father is absolutely useless at everything including bring a father!

Basically, everyone apart from the youngest daughter, needs a good punch in the face!

This is a very good series. Well acted, well written and often idyllic yet realistic too. It takes an enchanting but honest look at country life. 2 series have been shown so far of this family TV favourite. In the first, the Addis' took the plunge and moved from their familiar urban lives in London to totally different lives in the countryside. The second series revisits the Addis' and elaborates further on their lives once fully adapted to rural life. Fine actors such as Pauline Quirke, Warren Clarke, Toby Ross-Bryant, Ellie Beaven, Alexandra Stone and Caroline Hayes play very likeable characters and make this clean, easy-to-the-eye programme very enjoyable.