Still Open All Hours (TV Series) Still Open All Hours (2013) User Reviews

Pilot

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 9 December 2019]

When Ronnie Barker announced his retirement from showbusiness in 1987, it marked the end of Open All Hours.

In the pilot, which was broadcast as a one off special. David Jason returns as an older Granville, less gormless but now a miser like his departed uncle Arkwright. Ronnie Barker is represented by a large photograph of Arkwright with a startled expression.

Leroy is Granville's son. Abandoned by his mother, the fruit of a one night stand. Leroy is in essence the the gormless assistant but this one is a ladies man.

Maggie Ollerenshaw (Mavis) Stephanie Cole (Mrs Featherstone) and Lynda Baron (Gladys Emmanuel) all reprise their roles from the original show. Mavis has a thing for Granville and bizarrely so does Mrs Featherstone who was attracted to the penny pinching Arkwright many years earlier.

They are mixed with new cast members. Kulvinder Ghir (Cyril) and Johnny Vegas (Eric.) All of them get fleeced by Granville who sells them nappy rash cream in order to grow them muscles or anchovy paste.

This was a bright opening episode, the older ladies show their maternal instinct to young Leroy. I thought Leroy wanting to know about his mother was a bit clunky as it was there more for the audience. However this trait was carried over from the original series as Granville always used to ask Arkwright about his mother. It was no surprise Still Open All Hours returned as a series.

Thank goodness for Delphine. Decent start.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 3 September 2021]

Granville is trying to shift some anchovy paste that's set to expire, Leroy is enjoying the deliveries, enjoying them too much.

Nostalgia, nostalgia overload, it's a sweet watch we opposed to a funny one. A few moments they will make you chuckle, but as a pilot I would say it's fairly average.

New characters are abundant, Eric being the best of them, however all are somewhat overshadowed by the nostalgia of the original cast, including Nurse Gladys and Mavis, and everyone is eclipsed by the absolute brilliance that is Stephanie Cole.

Every single time the Black Widow appears, you will laugh, Cole is the funniest element of the show, and clearly relishes the part.

At times it's super cheesy, and some of the jokes land like tin baths on glass, but you cannot help but enjoy the warmth of the nostalgia.

Decent, but there would be better episodes, 6/10.

Hilarious, Warm and Very funny, perfect Sunday evening entertainment

[talbot-dg · 10/10 · 29 January 2018]

I watch Still Open All Hours every week. Roy Clarke has done a wonderful job of updating the show. It's fresh playful and hysterically funny. If anyone is a fan of the original they'll love this. I certainly do.

An Absolute DELIGHT

[KatR3040 · 10/10 · 19 February 2023]

I can't say I am a fan of the original series, I found the humor a bit juvenile, overly sexual, and now seems very dated. But THIS show is absolutely hilarious. It's not complicated or deep, just silly in a fresh, whimsical way. The writing and casting make it the masterpiece it is. No one but David Jason could spin the stories and scams that Granville does, and remain loveable and endearing. The women in the neighborhood (Gladys, Mavis, Madge and Mrs Featherstone) are given lots of snappy one-liners. Newcomers Cyril, Gastric and the character played by Johnny Vegas will have you rolling on the floor. And special shout out to the actor who plays LeRoy, Granville's son. He is perfect in every line and move. I hope to see him in many more things worthy of his talents.

Bottom line, this show is a bright light that will lighten your heart in a way that makes life seem alot less dark. So glad to have discovered it.

Painful to watch...

[Adams5905 · 1/10 · 11 January 2015]

When Ronnie Barker was in his prime as an actor & writer, he was known (particularly at the BBC) as 'The Guv'nor'. When he retired, concerned about the quality of the material he was producing, to his antiques business in Oxfordshire, he allegedly, at his retirement dinner, told David Jason 'you're The Guv'nor now'-how wrong he was...

Having retired from 'A Touch of Frost', and after a series of disappointing efforts, I suspect (and this is only speculation) that Jason persuaded Roy Clarke to resurrect one of Barker's best-loved characters, with a two-dimensional contrived back story to place Granville (complete with a dullard son, Leroy, to take on his own original role) into Arkwright's shoes. It's been 20 years since the last episode of 'Open All Hours', and it shows-comedy always moves onwards!... If this postscript had been set in period, some (and even then, only some) of the 'jokes' might have been acceptable, but placing it in an allegedly contemporary setting, this brand of tired comedy just doesn't work, particularly as Barker, the genius, is no longer around to add that extra touch of sparkle. I watched the pilot episode in late 2013, and thought it trite, crass and clumsy-I rather hoped that the BBC had learned their lesson, and would let sleeping dogs lie-no such luck... I missed the earliest episodes of the new series, but have now caught up-I shan't be watching any more!..

In the original series, some of the jokes and set pieces could be spotted a mile away, but the cast and scriptwriter had a wonderful time getting there-this new series is just ham-fisted. Although some of the supporting cast (notably Stephanie Cole as the black widow, and Maggie Ollerenshaw as the ever dim-witted Mavis), reprising their original roles, are as good as ever, most of the 'new' characters are just too awful for words (although Brigit Forsyth seems game)-this was always a one-man show, and without it's real star (whose presence is always felt hovering in the background, and is often referred to in the script), it's just a lead balloon. Far too many 'jokes' have simply been brought forward from the original series, and Clarke is still relying on weak physical comedy-but Jason isn't the clown that Barker was, and lacks his timing, so that this inevitably falls flat-hence the canned laughter that punctuates the show, enabling the denser members of the watching public to realize that a joke or funny line has just been delivered.

David Jason was a fine actor, who should have understood that his place in the hearts of the Great British Public was assured by his performances as Delboy, Ted Simcock, Jack Frost, Granville (in the original series), and my own personal favourite, Peter Barnes (A Sharp Intake of Breath)-he should have known to leave well alone... As it is, he's blotted his copybook, and will now be remembered for resurrecting the spectre of the great Ronnie Barker, from whose shadow he could not escape, in a cheap, tawdry gewgaw of a show, that will only be remembered for its shabby paucity, when compared to the original...