pkej-1

This TV series were, and are, a hit with Norwegian audiences, and also a limited success in Sweden and Denmark. The comedy is sometimes hilarious and over the top, in the best style of British comedy, and this is, of course, thanks to the writing of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. One of the episodes is based the "Impasse" from the Comedy Playhouse, another on "Sealed by a loving kiss" and a third on "Visiting Day".

A couple of other memorable episodes is one where Fleksnes is the babysitter for a priest and his wife. His carefree and non-interested attitude give way to chaos as he takes on the role as the priest when parishioners start knocking on the door.

The Fleksnes series have had several follow ups through the years, though I can't seem to find any others here in IMDB.

The cast Rolv Wesenlund and Aud Schøneman is perfect. Rolv Wesenlund is a perfect Fleksnes. He don't care about other people, he's the perfect self-absorbed twit. Aud Schøneman is the doting mother who is content with keeping the son home, and overbearing with any and all of his faults.

The mother is actually quite in line with Albert of "Albert och Herbert" (Swedish TV series), based on the "Steptoe and Son" hit series by messrs Galton and Simpson.

Albert and Herbert, father and son, both cantankerous and cranky, both lovable. Herbert ("Hebbe lille" - little Hebbe) can't leave his father, an old junkyard proprietor. Their little house is gray and gloomy, few women have put their feet inside during the different series made.

This comedy is warm, the love between father and son shines through even during the most outrageous moments. I think it was in this last series they split their home in two equal parts with a white demarcation line, each forbidden to cross into the other's side. This has been done in many American movies/shows, but this is the one _I_ will regard as the original, because it was the first I saw on film.

Thomas von Brömssen is still one of the great actors of Sweden and Scandinavia, too bad he never made it internationally as Stellan Skarsgård did. The late Cederhök was a big old lovable dad in these series, and the dynamics between the two actors will surely never be seen again in Scandinavian comedies.

For a frame of reference for international audiences the comedy is on par with the "Odd Couple", the same dynamics.

The quaint atmosphere of the village/town/city where the scrapheap is situated seems to be a '50 postwar Oslo, though it is Swedish through and trough.

If you ever get the chance to catch it, do.

Bo Hermansson, the director has done a string of pretty successful television comedies in Scandinavia.