Shelley (TV Series) Hearth and Home (1980) User Reviews

Hearth and Home

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 9 September 2019]

An educational episode. I certainly learned a lot about the human body and so did Mrs Hawkins.

Fran is to busy reading a book by George Orwell and Shelley wants to talk to her.

Eventually Shelley picks up a book on the human body to pass the time away and amazed by what he reads.

Only to be joined by Mrs Hawkins who is astonished by the facts that Shelley tells her. In fact she ends up reading the book herself.

An unusual episode, a three hander in the same room and the laughs keep on coming.

"I'm listening to the twaddle you're talking!"

[ShadeGrenade · 9/10 · 27 January 2009]

Of all the 'Shelley' episodes I have reviewed, this was the most difficult to do because nothing much actually happens in it. There are no subsidiary characters, just the three main ones.

Shelley and Fran are in their bed-sit as usual. She is engrossed in a dog-eared copy of George Orwell's 'Keep The Aspidistra Flying' while he - plainly lonely - tries to strike up a conversation with her. But her only responses are non-committal grunts.

Shelley finds a book by Anthony Smith called 'The Body' and begins quoting useless facts, hoping to provoke a response. But gets nothing.

Mrs.H comes in and Shelley tries to talk to her instead. She looks baffled as he reels off facts about the Human Body she had not previously been aware of...

With only three characters, and the action remaining fixed in one room, everything is dependent on the script. Luckily with Peter Tilbury at the helm, you cannot go far wrong. Josepone Tewson's expressions are hilarious, particularly when Shelley tells her how long her intestinal piping would be if unrolled.

Funniest moment - Shelley saying to Mrs.H: "Do you know that the Human Body is composed mainly of water?". Looking at her, he sarcastically adds: "Or in your case, tea!".

A single setting . . . and a singularly brilliant episode !

[SceneByScene · 6 September 2023]

An episode with a clever content and an original style.

Set in a single setting: the couple's bedsit. And recounting just one event: Shelley & Fran reading & conversing together. We finally see the two intellectuals conferring, intellectually!

And how erudite their conversation is . . . Fran is reading George Orwell, Shelley a book about what the human body is all about. Amongst other important matters, the couple cover chromosomes, metaphysics, the length of the human intestine, and tea. Not to mention dreams, the relevance of foetus vs embryo, and atoms that "come together, like 159 buses".

With "Mrs H" popping in for a cuppa along the way - to what, with her usual down-to-earth way, she flatly refers to as "the nutter's room" - some truly hilarious conversation ensues. And Mrs H even decides to join the reading group, borrowing Shelley's own book, becoming absorbed in what she is learning. Genius penning of characters. Excellent scene writing.

Written & performed superlatively. Only a team who knew how to work well together could produce an episode of this quality.