"Blessed" (2005) TV series

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Ben Elton

Writer:

Ben Elton (writer)

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

14 October 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Cast

Ardal O'Hanlon	...	Gary Chandler (8 episodes, 2005)
Mel Giedroyc	...	Sue Chandler (8 episodes, 2005)
Robert Webb	...	Bill Hathaway (8 episodes, 2005)
Michael McKell	...	Ronnie (8 episodes, 2005)
Rowland Rivron	...	Styx (8 episodes, 2005)
Hannah Jane Fox	...	Vicky (8 episodes, 2005)
Sally Bretton	...	Mary Hathaway (8 episodes, 2005)
Ray Panthaki	...	Lance (8 episodes, 2005)
Siobhan Doran	...	Jodie (5 episodes, 2005)
Huw Higginson	...	Builder (5 episodes, 2005)
Jeff Edwards		(4 episodes, 2005)
Lynn Ferguson		(4 episodes, 2005)

Runtime:

30 min (8 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

The episodes were named after song titles and the groups who sang them: - I'm So Tired (The Beatles) - Ever Fallen in Love with Someone (Buzzcocks) - I'm in Love with My Car (Queen) - Just Looking (Stereophonics) - Hit Me Baby One More Time (Britney Spears) - Who Wrote the Book of Love? (The Undertones) - Walk Like a Man (The Four Seasons) - Let's Spend the Night Together (The Rolling Stones)

Young Ones Turning In Their Graves

Sadly, I have to agree with the majority of viewer comments so far. As much as I enjoyed Blackadder and think that Ben Elton is an intelligent and genuine human being with a good, if patchy, track record, for me Blessed fails on all levels.

Primarily consisting of irritatingly smug middle class characters delivering deeply obvious and unfunny lines in a stilted way that made the performances in Ever Decreasing Circles seem like Lenny Bruce on crack, perhaps the worst sections involved the occasionally hapless depictions of musicians in a recording studio, which seemed to be based on half-remembered episodes of Rock Follies.

In many ways, it's sad to see someone who subverted and refreshed the nature of sitcom in the 1980s produce such a dated, tired, clichéd and hopelessly out of touch series. Constantly at odds with the way real people live, speak and look, it appears that Elton's art has turned into everything The Young Ones seemed to be fighting against.