Outside Edge

This is a series that I watched so long I had forgotten all about it at a loose end, I decided to catch up with it from the beginning.

It's set amoung the frankly bucolic environs of the home counties and cricket, one of the remaining male bastions.

With their other half's, left doing the matches catering.

We have two couples the Dervish's Miriam and Roger, and the Costello's Maggie and Kevin.

On the face of it the Dervish's are a fairly typical close knit unit, but once you scratch the surface you can start to ascertain that's not necessarily the case.

Roger is a control freak who likes to imagine that he is in sole charge, but in reality he enjoys lumbering Miriam with responsibilities.

When anything goes awry Roger has someone to blame, and he never misses an opportunity to berate her.

The reality that if he, actually bothered to give her a thought. Let alone a helping hand matters may have worked out, never appears to occur to him at all.

Miriam is the sweet unassuming character, that has become accustomed to her lot in life. She is someone Roger never fails to take advantage of, and never hears a single word she says.

The Costello's on the other hand appear to be a thoroughly miss-matched pair, but they actually gell fairly well in their own manner.

Maggie who is good with her hands and appears to be, the one doing all the odd jobs and maintenance.

Kevin is the one with the culinary interests and aspirations, who is in his elements when slaving over the stove.

Any thoughts that Miriam and Maggie could possibly be able to relate to one another, let alone have things in common may appear preposterous.

But when circumstances involving their ridiculous other half's, conspire against them they are flung together.

A fair amount of the story lines revolves around cricket, as indeed apparently does Roger's whole existence.

He is the local team captain, and takes every opportunity to let it known to all and sundry.

Roger's ego is such that he deludes himself, with the notion that everything revolves around him.

Whereas far from being the oil that lubricates the gears, Roger provides the grit that gums up the works.

Although the picture quality is inevitably poor due to its age, the programme isn't too dated. It's evident from the first couple of episodes that it's from a play. The acting is always good with Brend Blethyn and Timothy Spall particularly notable. Another gem is Josie Lawrence makes the most of her part. Towards the the middle of the three series the repetition of some of the catch phrases becomes a bit tiring. There is some pathos and that serves to contrast the humour well. Anybody who has lived in a small village will identify with the story lines and it manages to capture the relationships between the team members very well. Overall this a hidden gem of a comedy that I'm glad I found and would recommend it to everyone.

I've never been fond of cricket, so I was tempted to give 'Outside Edge' a miss. I only watched because of the presence of Timothy Spaull ( of 'Auf Pet' fame ) and the scrumptious Josie Lawrence. I'm glad I tuned in because if I hadn't I'd have missed I.T.V.'s last truly great sitcom, a delightful show centred around two cricket-mad men, Roger Dervish and Kevin Costello, and their contrasting wives, the prim and proper Miriam and larger-than-life Maggie. Shot on film, and without a studio audience to ruin the best lines, 'Outside Edge' was satisfying on all levels. It didn't bend over backwards to be funny. The regular cast were perfect, in particular Robert Daws, whose 'Roger' must rival 'Gordon Brittas' as the sitcom character you'd most like to throttle. The show had its tragic moments too; witness Maggie's sad pleas for pregnancy in the Corfu Xmas special. With more and more modern sitcoms relying on toilet humour for comic effect, it seems unlikely that we will get many more series of this ilk. More's the pity.

Whether you love or loathe Ricky Gervais, one favour he did do for us is kill off the godawful middle-class sitcoms that proliferated in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

For me, this one is a cut above, for a few reasons. Firstly, it's shot mainly on location (hooray, no laugh track!), secondly, the performances are mostly excellent, and thirdly, it feels like an affectionate poke at that most wonderfully eccentric of middle-class eccentricities, village cricket, and for those of us with experience of it, the deranged seriousness with which some otherwise normal people take it - as an example, I once had a 55 year old salary man who worked in banking, not speak to me for a day after I dropped an easy catch off his bowling, because I was distracted smoking a cigarette at the time.

I hadn't seen this programme since the 90s, I re-watched most of the episodes, as well as the original play from the early 80s, with a different cast of actors. Aside from Paul Eddington, who I think is exactly the right mix of gentle stalwart Brit with a dash of psychosis, and Prunella Scales who is always lovely to see, I think the 90s cast was an improvement, particularly Josie Lawrence and Timothy Spall, who bring a genuine warmth to the characters, even when confronted with lazy plotting about 'serious issues' that sitcoms in those days felt compelled to include for some reason.

Then there's Brenda Blethyn, who pretty much steals the whole show as the much downtrodden and ignored Mim. Robert Daws just confused me a bit in the role of team captain Roger, as he seems to be doing an impersonation of Rik Mayall (not that there's anything wrong with that), even his hairdo is the same.

Overall, I can't say I regret re-watching it, it's a nice gentle bit of 'forever England' (even if you live in Ireland, Wales or Scotland).

'Outside Edge' must stand as one of the best, if not one of the most overlooked, comedies of the 90's. The casting was absolutely superb, Daws, Spall and Lawrence were each brilliant, but it was the 'dowdy down-trodden' 'Mim' played by Brenda Blethyn that stole the show. It's crafted blend of subtle satire and drama rarely fail to hit the right notes, it has the power to both amuse and deeply move, all within the space of thirty minutes. Admittedly the last series never truly recaptured the glory of the first, but then the whole of the first series is an absolute gem. In short an a must see for both cricket and non cricket enthusiasts.