roisinmoriarty-1

Raymond and Ken Sunnyside live in a dilapidated old farmhouse and are beholden to their Barbour wearing Tory scum landlord, Mr Letchworth. Ken (Mark Addy) is a little on the dim side (to say the least) and his brother Raymond (Phil Daniels) is a belligerent little git whom you just can't help but warm to. In fact, he's rather like Victor Meldrew in that respect, only a lot ruder and more down-at-heel.

This peculiar little sit-com focuses on the many mis-haps of the scruffy twosome and is the sort of thing that you might expect from Monty Python or the Kids in the Hall, had either of those surreal comedy teams decided to do a sit-com. It doesn't seem to care about making the masses laugh and most would find it just plain nonsensical. But there are some truly bizarre situations that made me laugh out loud and brilliant central performances from Daniels and Kitchen (Addy and the often hilariously surreal Matt Lucas are also wonderfully memorable).

I'd love to say more about this show but it's been so long since I've seen it that most of it is a bit of a blur now (no pun intended - for those in the know). Also, having been a complete flop and utterly slated in the press, it's never been released on video or DVD. In fact, my main reason for commenting on it is to put straight the user who referred to Phil Daniels' accent as 'mockney'. I really take exception to this as Daniels was born and raised in London and was using his own accent. Anybody who's heard Blur's 'Parklife' will be aware of that. Also, I never got the impression that he or any of the other actors in this unusual comedy seemed ill at ease in their roles. It's not as if they're jobbing actors who grab what they can and spend the rest of their time on the dole. I like to think they chose to do 'Sunnyside Farm' because they recognised something totally original when they saw it.