All About Me

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

I was interested in giving this show a glance 'cos it's set in my home city of Birmingham and,of course,who better to headbill it than that legendary stelwart of our comedic prowess,Jasper Carrott.But I have to say,the results are certainly not very encouraging.Jasper was fantastic in The Detectives,which I happen to regard as one of the finest comedy series ever created by the BBC,but here he just can't seem to help matters at all.

The premise rests around Colin the Builder (Carrott),his three children from his previous marriage,new wife Rupinder (Nina Wadia) and her disabled son (Jamil Dhillon) and the various mis-adventures they get up to in each weekly episode.

It opens to various shots around Birmingham (i.e.,the BT tower,the Brindley Place canals) shot in a cheap,almost camcorder esque fashion,which plays to a rather unappealing opening soundtrack.It also sets the tone for the rest of the series.Indeed,as one IMDB reviewer already pointed out,it feels more like one of those videos they might have played to you as a class back at primary school as opposed to a professionally made BBC production.Such shoddy,see through production values are complimented by poorly executed gags,with dire delivery and almost non-existent comic timing from the mainly inexperienced younger cast members.Jasper merely seems trapped by such a witless,dire script that even the greatest comedic expertise in the world probably could not save.It's no wonder,in fact,that Meera Syal appeared to have walked out by the second series.

The high notes lie in it's ingenuitive plot angles,that of the problems and adversities that may lie in a mixed-race family,and of having a child with a disability as one of it's main characters.These are certainly very inspired angles to explore.Unfortunately,this dismal series is never able to exploit them to their full potential,and ultimately emerges as a waste not only of some creative ideas,but of the talents of one of our finest funnymen ever to hit the big time.*

It says a lot about the United Kingdom when television programmes like this not only get made but also run for three series. Unfunny, politically correct to the point of sickening and poorly acted and written. Meera Syal has not been funny or accomplished in anything that she has been in, go on tell me I am wrong, and Jasper Carrott, funny guy as he is, is well past his eighties prime. This is such a bad comedy that it could have been made by ITV but even stinkers like The Upper Hand and the one with James Bolam as a car park attendant look like Fawlty Towers compared to this rubbish. I would love to sit down with the writer/director of this show so that they can point out the humour in this programme. Admittedly the majority of the UK's population is made up of poorly educated chavs but this would not tickle their funny bones. That's if they could tear themselves away from Big Brother or from their mobile phones but that's another story. Complete and utter dirt!

This show is like one of those cheap videos that they would show at school to try and inform you about racial awareness and people with disabilities while trying to add some cheap jokes to keep your attention. It's a nice idea using the kid who can't speak as a narrator though he is hardly ever used and only speaks about 5 or 6 times per show. You will smile, at the most, about 3 times during the half hour and cringe a lot more wondering how Jasper Carrot ever got lumbered with this pile of tree-hugging crap.

Hi

I have been watching this programme from the first episode. I am grateful to the writer for including within the family unit a person who has a disability. In doing so you are raising awareness of disability issues in a way that is inclusive and portrays,with humour, the `normalness' of family life. Respect!

However, As this particular sit com developes, I am becoming very interested in the writer for one reason. The characters portrayed are beginning to eclipse my own family, with the exception that we are not a divorced couple with children and neither are we of different cultural backgrounds. The uncanny similarities lay primarily with the disabilities portrayed.

Our eldest son had a rare metabolic illness which meant he had no co-ordinated movement or speech but was intellegent and communicated, like Rhaj through facial expression. My youngest son has, yes, you have guessed it, Aspergers Autism. I watched this evenings episode and the script unveiled explaining to my `Builder' husband that I suspected that the youngest boy had autism. At that point my daughter rang me to ask if I was watching the programme and if I had been instrumental in providing the plot. As she is a script writer she was mortified to think I had given away a potential story line which she could have used.

So my question to the writer is this. Out of pure curiosity who did you base the script on and what research did you undertake?. Is this co-incidence or it there some divine explanation for the similarities. Scaaaarrrrry or what!

P.s Has Ruvinda got a job and if so what?. (hopefully she hasn't or if she has, is it the same occupation as mine!)pass me the garlic please!

Regards

Sandra Duncan

Jasper Carrott is a brilliant stand up comic and always makes me laugh (Back to the front is evidence enough) but hes only in this disappointment of a sitcom because the producers wanted to get more people to watch it. Its not something anyone will remember in years to come but Jasper Carrott will. Don't watch this show if you want to see Jasper. Watch the show i recommended earlier. This sitcom does him no justice and i tend to find this is the BBC trying to be politically correct as most shows on British TV seem to be trying to do these days. Its also generally not very funny and tends to be too predictable in terms of Joke execution.