Waiting for God

"Waiting for God" takes place in the corners of the earth in the Bayview Retirement home. This program goes beyond the normal rules of the sitcom and instead takes television to a new level. This program brings a new light to the treatment of the elderly, religion, the meaning of life, and love. I have never seen such a good TV program, I doubt that I ever will again.

What a wonderful antidote to the usual crap on television--especially in its depiction of old people. All too often, in films and TV, old people are endowed with either great wisdom, insight or are gosh-darn cute. WAITING FOR GOD throws all these clichés out the window, showing us that old people can be nasty--just like anyone else! The film has two leads--Diana and Tom. While Tom isn't a major grouch, he is a bit of a trouble maker and loves being eccentric. Diana, on the other hand, is a nasty old crank that could care less about people she deems are beneath her--and that is practically everyone! And her anger and clever meanness is given plenty of righteous opportunity to come out at the old folks home they live in, as Harvey (the manager) is a total moron and his assistant, Jane, is just...well, pathetic.

Week after week, Diana (with assistance from Tom) make their lives miserable--along with Tom's truly awful son and daughter-in-law. There is a lot more I can say about the show, but the bottom line is that excellent writing, truly original characters and a nice sense of irreverence make this a must-see...especially if there is a little Diana within you.

Aging happens to us all. Much to our gratitude and dismay, my wife and I reside in "assisted living", complete with our very own "idiot Baines". In these circumstances the often grim humor of "Waiting for God" often rings true, and nearly always entertains hilariously. We wish it were still in production!

One of the funniest shows to come out of England in the nineties, it has a terrific cast of veteran television and stage players. It's funny and timeless comedy with a bit of slapstick humor and a polished verbal English wit. The wonderful relationship between atheist feminist single Diana and the widowed Tom Ballard is fascinating to watch unlike most relationships, they get better when they're together than apart. Tom's boring son, Jeffrey, can bore anyone to death but he is in a marriage to unfaithful, drunk, and pill popper, Marion, who despises and resents Diana as a threat to their inheritance. The cast includes another heterosexual relationship between old maid plain Jane and the Bayview manager, Harvey Nigel Bains. Harvey constantly mistreats the wonderful sweet Jane. He doesn't know what he's got until he almost loses her. Three great love stories and romances in a wonderful sitcom. The wait is over.

You could be forgiven for thinking a comedy set in a Nursing Home could be anything other then magically funny, I can think of few with such a setting, the closest possibly being You're only young twice from the 1970's. Running in the early 90's from 1990-1994, the series comprised 5 series, totalling 47 episodes. The standard does not drop at any point, it's a glorious mix of bittersweet humour and slapstick from start to finish. You cannot help but utterly love the cynical black heart of Diana, or the boyish innocence of Tom. They make a wonderful duo, and truly feed of one another, their different styles of humour contrasting beautifully. As the show goes on you see a slight softening of Diana, and a slight toughening of Tom. The final episode is delightful, and shows you how far the characters have come, and how much they know one another. Jane and The Idiot Bains provide constant laughs, but it's the ageing Lothario Basil who has me in stitches.

It always challenges Society's views towards the elderly, sometimes dark, but always comedy with a heart. 9/10