Excuse the pun, but sitcoms are funny old things, they either become an instant success and hang around for years, (Dad's Army, Last of the Summer Wine, 'Allo, 'Allo, Only Fools and Horses, Never the Twain, Are You Being Served?), or they are successful but stay around only fleetingly, in some cases just to complete a certain story arc, (To The Manor Born, Just Good Friends, The Worst Week of my Life, Fawlty Towers).
You can also throw into this mix the 'Failed Sitcom', those shows that don't engender themselves to the general public and limp on for one series, (two at most), before being ignominiously cancelled, some deservedly so, (Yes, Bottle Boys, I am referring to you).
However, one show I feel that was never really given a fair crack of the whip that falls under this latter category, was this largely forgotten mid 90's effort from the BBC. 'Ain't Misbehaving' was written by Last of the Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances creator Roy Clarke , whose comedy pedigree and reputation was enough for the BBC to feel confident enough to take a punt on his latest offering.
The show starred Peter Davison as Clive Quigley, a meek and mild mannered seller of office equipment and furniture in a small Yorkshire town. His some what idyllic life is thrown into utter turmoil when he meets Sonia Drysdale, (Nicola Pagett), who drops the bombshell that his wife Melissa, (Leslie Manville), is having an affair with her husband David, (John Duttine).
At first, Clive is in denial, convinced his sweet and innocent wife has not strayed, until Sonia calls up the hotel room in which their other halves are conducting their clandestine dalliances and he hears her voice.
Sonia isn't as heartbroken as such a situation would usually demand, as is not her first rodeo when it comes to her husband's infidelity. She's more concerned about potentially losing half her hairdressing business and her house if she ever has to get divorced from this complete snake of a human being.
Clive on the other hand is devastated as his entire life revolves around his wife. Although sexually frustrated at her complete disinterest in 'marital relations', he cooks, cleans and answers Melissa's every call, whilst in contrast, she clearly couldn't give two solitary f**ks about him.
Sonia and Clive become unlikely partners in a a scheme to derail their fallen spouses' relationship with each other, without ever letting them know they ever knew about it in the first place.
In reality, apart from a few kisses and some fumblings, Melissa has not yet had sex with her lover as she is actually a mass of neuroses, not because of any feelings of guilt for her husband, but she fears being found out and exposed as a harlot in the neighbourhood although the intent and opportunity is there for her to do so and she always spends her time with her 'lover' in the bathroom being sick.
David, however,despite telling Melissa that he loves her, sees her as nothing more than a challenge and she is also not the only filly he is keeping in the stable.
Sonia and Cliff start spending a lot of time together in their quest to break up their erring spouses, something that Clive's secretary Ramona, (Polly Hemingway), notices immediately, and convinced it is they who are having an affair, starts to have romantic feelings for her boss as well, seeing him in a new and exciting light.
Over the course of the two series, Sonia and Clive begin to realise that they harbour their own feelings for each other and that their own relationship may be worth more to them than the marriages they are trying to save.
Between series 1&2 some changes were made, and not for the better either. Leslie Manville was replaced in the role of Melissa by Karen Drury and this was a definite downgrade as Manville's unhinged neurotic portrayal of the cheating spouse fearful of being caught in the act in series 1, are at times absolutely hilarious. This is a plot-line completely abandoned in series 2 as she and David have now consummated their relationship and she has now become a wanton, sex obsessed bunny boiler with no desire to hide her feelings for her lover from the world. This makes the character of Melissa even more fundamentally unlikable than she already was.
David finds this change in Melissa's demeanour intolerable and his feelings for her, if indeed he ever had any, cool considerably.
The character of Private Eye Chuck Purvis, who we only see in a single episode of series 1 played by Ian McNeice, is fleshed out considerably and appears in all episodes of series 2 only this time played by Paul Brooke and you get tired pretty quickly of this totally pointless and uninteresting character.
We are also introduced to Ramona's husband Lester in series 2. This guy is a total nutcase, completely unlikable and hard to envision as the man Ramona with all her airs and graces would have chosen for a husband and it felt like Roy Clarke was trying to take us down the Last of the Summer Wine route by filling up this quaint little Yorkshire town with completely over the top eccentrics, all that was missing from series 2 was a bath tub full of old men rolling down a hill.
Sadly, after the 2nd series, the BBC pulled the plug, which left me feeling a bit cheated as we didn't really see anything get resolved, despite the audience having invested six hours of their lives in these characters. The cheaters never got their much deserved exposure and comeuppance, the budding relationship between Clive and Sonia never really materialised and once again, we saw a TV show get cancelled without getting the proper ending the story deserved.
I enjoyed Ain't Misbehaving, but given that cheating on someone and being cheated on, isn't very funny, I guess the writing was always on the wall for any comedy who tried to suggest it was.
Enjoy!
You can also throw into this mix the 'Failed Sitcom', those shows that don't engender themselves to the general public and limp on for one series, (two at most), before being ignominiously cancelled, some deservedly so, (Yes, Bottle Boys, I am referring to you).
However, one show I feel that was never really given a fair crack of the whip that falls under this latter category, was this largely forgotten mid 90's effort from the BBC. 'Ain't Misbehaving' was written by Last of the Summer Wine and Keeping Up Appearances creator Roy Clarke , whose comedy pedigree and reputation was enough for the BBC to feel confident enough to take a punt on his latest offering.
The show starred Peter Davison as Clive Quigley, a meek and mild mannered seller of office equipment and furniture in a small Yorkshire town. His some what idyllic life is thrown into utter turmoil when he meets Sonia Drysdale, (Nicola Pagett), who drops the bombshell that his wife Melissa, (Leslie Manville), is having an affair with her husband David, (John Duttine).
At first, Clive is in denial, convinced his sweet and innocent wife has not strayed, until Sonia calls up the hotel room in which their other halves are conducting their clandestine dalliances and he hears her voice.
Sonia isn't as heartbroken as such a situation would usually demand, as is not her first rodeo when it comes to her husband's infidelity. She's more concerned about potentially losing half her hairdressing business and her house if she ever has to get divorced from this complete snake of a human being.
Clive on the other hand is devastated as his entire life revolves around his wife. Although sexually frustrated at her complete disinterest in 'marital relations', he cooks, cleans and answers Melissa's every call, whilst in contrast, she clearly couldn't give two solitary f**ks about him.
Sonia and Clive become unlikely partners in a a scheme to derail their fallen spouses' relationship with each other, without ever letting them know they ever knew about it in the first place.
In reality, apart from a few kisses and some fumblings, Melissa has not yet had sex with her lover as she is actually a mass of neuroses, not because of any feelings of guilt for her husband, but she fears being found out and exposed as a harlot in the neighbourhood although the intent and opportunity is there for her to do so and she always spends her time with her 'lover' in the bathroom being sick.
David, however,despite telling Melissa that he loves her, sees her as nothing more than a challenge and she is also not the only filly he is keeping in the stable.
Sonia and Cliff start spending a lot of time together in their quest to break up their erring spouses, something that Clive's secretary Ramona, (Polly Hemingway), notices immediately, and convinced it is they who are having an affair, starts to have romantic feelings for her boss as well, seeing him in a new and exciting light.
Over the course of the two series, Sonia and Clive begin to realise that they harbour their own feelings for each other and that their own relationship may be worth more to them than the marriages they are trying to save.
Between series 1&2 some changes were made, and not for the better either. Leslie Manville was replaced in the role of Melissa by Karen Drury and this was a definite downgrade as Manville's unhinged neurotic portrayal of the cheating spouse fearful of being caught in the act in series 1, are at times absolutely hilarious. This is a plot-line completely abandoned in series 2 as she and David have now consummated their relationship and she has now become a wanton, sex obsessed bunny boiler with no desire to hide her feelings for her lover from the world. This makes the character of Melissa even more fundamentally unlikable than she already was.
David finds this change in Melissa's demeanour intolerable and his feelings for her, if indeed he ever had any, cool considerably.
The character of Private Eye Chuck Purvis, who we only see in a single episode of series 1 played by Ian McNeice, is fleshed out considerably and appears in all episodes of series 2 only this time played by Paul Brooke and you get tired pretty quickly of this totally pointless and uninteresting character.
We are also introduced to Ramona's husband Lester in series 2. This guy is a total nutcase, completely unlikable and hard to envision as the man Ramona with all her airs and graces would have chosen for a husband and it felt like Roy Clarke was trying to take us down the Last of the Summer Wine route by filling up this quaint little Yorkshire town with completely over the top eccentrics, all that was missing from series 2 was a bath tub full of old men rolling down a hill.
Sadly, after the 2nd series, the BBC pulled the plug, which left me feeling a bit cheated as we didn't really see anything get resolved, despite the audience having invested six hours of their lives in these characters. The cheaters never got their much deserved exposure and comeuppance, the budding relationship between Clive and Sonia never really materialised and once again, we saw a TV show get cancelled without getting the proper ending the story deserved.
I enjoyed Ain't Misbehaving, but given that cheating on someone and being cheated on, isn't very funny, I guess the writing was always on the wall for any comedy who tried to suggest it was.
Enjoy!
