Happy Families

Ahhhhhhhh. I was about 11 in 1985 when I saw this and still at Primary School, at the time I was mourning the end of The Young Ones - this gave me my fix until Filthy Rich and Catflap came along the following year. Reading some of these IMDb reviews has been very nostalgic and has helped to bring back some of the memories from it. I remember Stephen Fry as the doctor, he was playing a doctor in an advert as well at the time so I think he got a bit type casted that year and this was the first thing I'd seen him in. I remember the French artist model character after reading her mentioned on here. I can still remember the theme music which I loved at the time and the tapestry title sequence. This was being shown roughly around the time of "Girls On Top" the ITV sitcom with French and Saunders in and I was a fan of both. This was very much advertised as a Jennifer Saunders vehicle (although French was in it) and it displayed her talents well. French and Saunders got their own series about a year later and it wouldn't be until Absolutely Fabulous that she went off and did something this individual again. I remember Happy Families had me in hysterics and there was some very close to the bone humour. As I said I was 11 at the time but my sense of humour has been fairly unchanged by time (I'm now 30!) I would really love to see this get repeated. Lets hope it does.

It appears that I am also one of the few that ever remember this great series!? I just wish I could find it on DVD. Scene/s that I remember and grin about wherever I am are Ade trying to buy a sandwich in America and him being run over on the drive of his house and crawling to the door :) Saunders is also superb in the roles she plays, seeming to really be at one with the characters and manages to crush Ade so smoothly every few minutes as his craziate bonkers mum.... (another series quote ;) ) This is one of those shows I saw once and wished i'd found re-run, gutted I missed the Gold repeats :( All in all it was fantastic, but then I'm biased as I sometimes resemble Ade and quote him and his characters ad nauseum ;)

I was at the school that was used for some of the filming (I added the school name to the filming locations). They filmed during the term time so we saw the cast around campus. The headmasters garage being used (and exploded if I remember correctly?); the one side of the school converted to look like a French village street (and desperate attempts by students to get some souvenirs); a bedsit in the same corridor as mine being painted green for a scene (a nasty colour green as well but I don't remember which scene) and Ade Edmonson giving autographs on cigarette packets of students who were not allowed to smoke :) Happy days....

Happy Families follows Guy Fuddle (Ade Edmondson) in a search for his four sisters. The first episode is an introduction, then each episode is dedicated to one sister and in the last episode they reunite with the grandmother. Every episode has it's good moments. The episode with Joyce and the people fleeing from hospital to avoid her singing reminded me of Hyacinth from Keeping up Appearances. And Roxanne was great, especially the part when Guy is getting her out of jail. I also liked Cassie, a satirical view of the world of soap-opera stars.

This series shows how versatile Jennifer Saunders is. She plays five different characters and she is believable as each one of them. The conclusion is a little silly but that doesn't hurt the appeal of this show. Ade is wonderful as goodhearted, naive Guy. Dawn French (cook) and Helen Lederer (maid) are very good in their respective parts. I especially liked Flossie's (Helen's) accent. Also, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry add a little charm to the overall impression. Rik Mayall has a small part in the episode about Madeline. His portrayal of a neurotic French priest is magnificent.

after reading everyone else's comments i thought i should do my duty and post one too yea like many of the others that commented i had a vague recollection of a scary granny a drippy ade edmonson and a senile cook and very amusing sisters....especially madeline "madeline madeline i want to go to bed vis u" hehe that episode was so good but i was lucky to make a friend when i moved here who happened to love the show as much as my memory was bad and had all the episodes on tape which was great i got to see granny being all scary again and I'd completely forgot that stephen fry and hugh laurie made appearances as doctors...its a pretty good cast which you will all know from looking above and definitely worth searching for and buying. if you do find it and are not happy then i am deeply sorry..anyway i digress this is not so much a comment or review on the show as such more a silver lining for everyone like me who remembers but hasn't seen it for 20 years....i managed to get a copy tonight from ebay so if u all keep your eyes peeled then maybe you'll be as lucky as me...