TVKev classic: The Wright Way

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TVKev classic: The Wright Way

March 08, 2016 - 11:24
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From the archives... April 2013

While the once talented Ben Elton and his know-nothing BBC paymasters bask in the glorious failure of The Wright Way let me stress that it it's deeply unfair to describe it as the worst sitcom ever made...

The Wright Way

While the once talented Ben Elton and his know-nothing BBC paymasters bask in the glorious failure of The Wright Way let me stress that it it's deeply unfair to describe it as the worst sitcom ever made...

It was nowhere near as good as that.

How dare the state broadcaster assault us with a lame excuse for a programme that was so breathtakingly bad we should all rise up as one and demand our licence fee back.

I thought we'd hit rock bottom with Sue Perkins' atrocious Heading Out. But compared to Ben's insult to our intelligence, Sue's Sapphic drivel was a timeless classic.

It barely seems possible that the man who wrote The Young Ones and Blackadder is reduced to churning out semi-sexist mildly-misogynist god-awful rubbish.

Women eh? They never get out of the bathroom. And the flighty little things always expect girlie birthday presents from their work colleagues.

You want outmoded mid 20th century stereotypes? The Wright Way was crawling with them.

Poor David Haig... a brilliant actor wrestling with a cliché-packed script that Terry and June would have rejected for being too old fashioned.

In fact, you had to feel sorry for the entire cast who all stood around methodically delivering alleged punchlines that were dying in silence until the sudden eruption of embarrassing howls of canned laughter.

After getting soaked by the temperamental taps in the office loos (a source of endless mirth), the eponymous hero Gerald Wright explained: “I'm drying my trousers because they got a bit wet when Clive pressed the knob too hard.” Be still my aching sides...

Conveniently electing to call traffic bumps “erections”, town hall health and safety fanatic Gerald discovered that one of them was “six millimetres proud of its optimum legal altitude”.

“Clive,” he boomed. “Talk me through my proud erection.” Oh hee hee. For God's sake. And these were the best bits!  

The “situation” of this non-comedy is that irritating busy body (as seen in The Brittas Empire, The Thin Blue Line and many more) Gerald's long suffering wife has left him... and he shares the family home with his gay daughter Susan and her ludicrous partner Victoria.

Does the Beeb think lesbians are inherently laughable or something? Heading Out... and now this. Give 'em a break.

In the end I don't blame angry lefty turned multi-millionaire hack Mr Elton for taking the money and running. But whoever decided this obvious turkey should be broadcast deserves to be shot.

Talking of obvious turkeys... BBC2's sketch dirge Watson And Oliver returned for an unwarranted second series and swiftly established that it's still as dire as ever.

An advertising executive on her way to a meeting is attacked by a pretend bear. An old lady at a country shop experiences language difficulties with French customers. Really? I'm afraid so.

But the stars of the dreadful show are female. So in the interests of equality they must be allotted air time.

If this new director general guy Lord Hall Of Birkenhead (man of the people) genuinely wants to sort things out he ought to start by abolishing this stifling quota system.

And maybe inform the highly paid executives who commission relentlessly middle class garbage like The Wright Way, Heading Out and Watson And Oliver that the idea of TV comedy is it's supposed to be funny.

But back to Gerald and another of his hilarious double entendres: “What we're looking at here is a complete balls up.” Couldn't have put it better myself...

 

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