The Riff Raff Element

So glad I found these comments, on what can only be described best television so far.

It was a delight to watch all these characters gel together. Their antics left you in a transfixed way. Week after week, it was compulsive viewing.

If only the BBC would have released this on video (at the time), and now hopefully DVD would have followed! It would give me utmost pleasure to hear the views of anyone out there.

Is there anyway one could acquire a copy of the series? What a pleasure and nostalgic trip it would be!

I have visited the locations were the series was filmed, totally delightful. The pub is nice, the hall is wicked. It can only be accessed on foot.

If anyone reading this comment ever has the opportunity to get their hands on this wonderfully written and superbly acted comedy/drama, then be prepared to set aside a good few hours of your time. I guarantee the first episode will hook you and then all you will want to do is watch the next and the next until you find your day has passed in the company of possibly TV's most mismatched family to hit the screen. Quality like this is really few and far between and only 2000 Acres Of Sky could be up there with it as offered by the BBC some years later. I felt compelled to write this review/comment having found very little about the show on the internet and even fewer people who have written about it. Everyone i have ever mentioned this series to has never heard of it. I think it will surface again one day on some DVD release and end up in TV reviews 20 years from now as one of those series to receive a possible cult status. It really is that good i assure you. The writing by Debbie Horsfield is akin to the quality of Bruce Robinson. Sentences and catchphrases are well crafted and delivered by a wonderful cast who you instantly want to have in your own life (maybe you do?). The mismatching of a very well to do family with a family down on their luck is a fantastic social commentary. There is not a single character who is misplaced in the whole nucleus. I urge any reader of this to get their hands on a copy (Series 1 ran for 6 episodes with Series 2 also running for 6 episodes but 5 minutes longer in each episode). I wish there were more.

It's cheered me no end to discover that out there are other people with enough passion to put their frustration into print regarding the mysterious disappearance of some of our greatest British comedy dramas. The Riff Raff Element was an absolute classic mix of comedy, pathos, quirky plot lines and brilliant performances that British writers and actors do best. Nearly 20 years on, it's a series that I continue to recall and discuss with friends with great enthusiasm, and I simply can't understand why it was never repeated. I can only assume that it lies rotting in a back room somewhere in the company of another criminally neglected series---the wonderful "Roger Roger", by Fools and Horses writer John Sullivan. In an era when we're drowning in repeats of repeats of repeats, please, please, someone bring back some of these gems,or at least release them on DVD!

I adored this series back in the 90s, and like others here have lamented the fact that no dvd was available - well I have just ordered the dvd of both series on amazon, and am very excited about the thought of watching it again. I hope it's as good as I remember it to be. Perfect casting, Greg Wise was my favourite character as Alister. It deserves to be better known.

This series was representative of some of the best that the BBC offered in the mid-1990s. Ronald Pickup is fantastic in his role as the titular head of the family, and a great comic foil for the rest of the cast. Celia Imrie has gone on to other things (hurrah for Acorn Antiques!), and some of the unsung heroes of British telly were all involved.

So why have I never seen this repeated on TV, or for sale on video/DVD? I have only my own (very warm) memories of the programme, and would love to re-live those memories - I just hope that it hasn't fallen victim to the BBC's unexplained policy of simply deleting some programmes from its records.

BBC - Let me pay you to buy it...!!