After Henry

The Bottom Line - 2.5 out of 5

"After Henry" is a mid-grade Britcom. Britcom fans such as myself will enjoy seeing Prunella Scales (Mrs Fawlty from "Fawlty Towers"), as she is a fine actress and does admirably here. However, the show isn't memorably funny, the premise of multi-generational households is a well-tilled one and there's little new here, and the remaining cast is mediocre. The general impression left on the viewer after several episodes is that it's a rather run-of-the-mill program.

As an American who loves Britcoms, I try to watch and rent all that I can find on telly and in vid shops. I don't have the luxury of comparing "After Henry" to the regular programming that British viewers see each night. My comments on the show are in relation to the shows I have seen. The best shows would include "One Foot in the Grave", "Blackadder", "Fawlty Towers" and "Red Dwarf". "After Henry" is clearly not in that lofty class, but is passable. You could certainly find yourself watching worse... and better.

Television chiefs in Britain, desperate for new comedy ideas, seize on any successful radio series. When it first appeared, the idea of three generations of women under the same roof, and the sympathetic depiction of a gay man not in the first flush of youth were quite fresh. "After Henry" lost something in the transfer to TV, possibly because on TV it made fewer demands on the imagination. The cast, principally Joan Sanderson (qv) as Prunella Scales's mother and Benjamin Whitrow (qv) as the bookshop owner, were fresher, too.

Prunella Scales plays a recently widowed woman living with her 18 year old daughter in the flat above and her 70 something mother in the flat below. Sarah's husband's death (the titular Henry) has somewhat destabilized life for these women and while they most definitely care for one another, they also get on each other's nerves on a regular basis. Joan Sanderson is absolutely hilarious playing Scales' interfering mother with an incredible ability to either blissfully ignore personal criticism directed at her (usually from "Sarah dear") or tartly respond to it. Scales is also funny as she trods angrily down to her mother's flat or tentatively and carefully up to her daughter's. She often finds herself torn between maternal concern for her flighty daughter (nicely played by Janine Wood) and fear of turning into her own mother. She creates a very human character in Sarah who makes as many mistakes as she does wise choices in restructuring her life without her husband. And despite the grim subject matter, the series is much more funny than sad.

I enjoyed this show very much and only wish it would be running again. Very humorous with a good mix of characters. The lives of a grandmother, mother and daughter all living in a 3 storey flat. One of the Britian's BEST comedies ever made.

After the first few sentences of each episode you can see how it's going to unfold,more amusing than laugh out loud funny and I doubt you will remember any highlights but as in the 70s and 80s women in British comedies were little more than eye candy this must have been a major departure with 3 leading ladies.