Michael Giltz: DVDs: "The Royle Family" -- A Classic Britcom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/dvds-the-royle-family-_b_81854.html [4/5/2009 8:05:48 PM] APRIL 5, 2009 HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING STYLE GREEN WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY 23/6 VIDEO BLOGGER INDEX ARCHIVE Make HuffPost Your HomePage Get Email Alerts Twitter: Follow Us BIG NEWS : Angelina Jolie | Madonna | Chris Brown & Rihanna | Paul McCartney | More...</p><p> LOG IN | SIGN UP Michael Giltz BIO Become a Fan Get Email Alerts Similar Bloggers Email Print Be the First to Submit This Story to Digg DVDs: "The Royle Family" -- A Classic Britcom Posted January 16, 2008 | 04:23 PM (EST) Read More: Absolutely Fabulous , British Comedy , Dvds, Fawlty Towers , Jim Rockford , Julia Louis-Dreyfuss , Lovejoy , Movies, Nora Ephron , Ray Harryhausen , Ricky Gervais , Seinfeld , Sidney Poitier , The Honeymooners , The Royle Family , TV Shows , Woody Allen , Breaking Entertainment News It's the simplest idea imaginable: a blue collar family in England flops down on the couch and watches the telly.</p><p> Quite literally, that's it for The Royle Family - The Complete First Season($24.98; BBC Video).</p><p> But that simple idea is executed so brilliantly that this wonderfully acted,hilariously funny sitcom takes its place proudly alongside classics like Fawlty Towers, Blackadder,Absolutely Fabulous, Monty Python's Flying Circus and the original UK version of The Office.</p><p> I'm not exaggerating: for half an hour, the Royles just sit there and watch the TV.</p><p> It doesn't take long to sort out the cast.</p><p> Jim Royle (Ricky Tomlinson) is a crotch-scratching, farting, man of thehouse with a million opinions and none higher than his opinion of himself.</p><p> He rails against the high cost of living, though if he has any job it escapes notice.</p><p> His wife Barbara (Sue Johnston) takes a job at the local bakery and is forever lighting up and crushing out cigarettes into an overflowing ashtray.</p><p> She also has a gift for turning one word lines like "Oh" into multi-syllabic symphonies of concern, admiration, curiosity and whatever other emotion she can squeeze out of it.</p><p> Their daughter Denise (co-creator Caroline Aherne) becomes more and more sluggish as the season wears on because she's "overwhelmed" with the prospect of marrying the stolid, unflappable Dave Best (co-creator Craig Cash).</p><p> And underfoot of them all is teenager Antony (Ralf Little) who is abused as a lazy arse even though he is always the one who has to make the tea, empty the garbage, run down to the corner for ciggies, answer the phone and so on.</p><p> Like The Honeymooners, The Royle Family revels in repetition and grows richer on repeated viewing.</p><p> Whenever anyone enters the house, Barbara askswhat they had for tea and then parses the answer.("Liver and onions? Ooooh.") The first season is sopitch-perfect and strikes such a delicate balance between revealing the lives of these people and letting absolutely nothing happen that you fear itshould never have been repeated. (When was the last time you watched a US sitcom and thought it Popular Stories on HuffPost Fashion Face-Off! 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What's remarkable is how the show manages to both skewer the narrow lives and banal existence of hard-drinking, hard-smoking families without ever condescending to them.</p><p> A sly smile or a roll of the eyes is enough to take the sting out of the harshest comment and god knows any moment of genuine warmth will soon be undercut by a belly laugh.</p><p> The Royle Family - The Complete Second Season ($24.98; BBC Video) wisely expands on the formula.</p><p> The show was so focused on that couch in the first season that when a scene takes place in the kitchen or at the dining room table or even the upstairs bathroom, it feels like an actionsequence in a summer blockbuster.</p><p> This time the storyline revolves around Denise being pregnant,a situation which turns the raspy voiced gal from sluggish to virtually immobile.</p><p> But whateverthey're discussing, it usually happens in the TV room and about the most anyone can ever bear toask is that the TV be turned down or muted.</p><p> God knows they would never think of turning it off.And if you're watching The Royle Family, you wouldn't either.</p><p> An absolute gem.</p><p> My only problem? They've yet to release Season Three here.</p><p> Bloody hell.</p><p> Also out: Extras: The Complete Series ($49.98; HBO), Ricky Gervais's fine followup to The Office that was of course not as good but still far better than one might have feared; the long, long overdue DVD debut of Spike Lee's landmark She's Gotta Have It ($19.98; MGM); the stilted and silly An Affair To Remember ($19.98; Fox), which pales in comparison to the 1939 Love Affair version (what was awkward plot-wise in '39 became just laughable by '57) but is offered in a very nice 50th anniversary edition that will make Nora Ephron very happy; When Harry Met SallyCollector's Edition ($19.98; MGM), which I couldn't embrace in 1989 because it was so clearly inthe shadow of Woody Allen but now that Woody Allen doesn't make Woody Allen moviesanymore, this seems like a relief - at least it's Woody done pretty well; Syndromes and a Century($27.99; Strand), a placid drama by the festival favorite Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul;two terrific B movies - It Came From Beneath The Sea and Earth Vs.</p><p> The Flying Saucers ($24.96 each; Columbia) -- but the draw here isn't the unnecessary color-tinted option, it's the great printsand fun extras like Tim Burton chatting with special effects legend Ray Harryhausen;actor/director Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey ($39.95; Criterion), a spin on the most dangerous game presented with Criterion's usual care; Julia Louis-Dreyfus' curse-be-damned sitcom hit The New Adventures of Old Christine ($29.98; Warner Bros.); two charmingly battered mystery solvers, The Rockford Files Season Five ($39.98; Universal) and antique dealer Lovejoy Complete Second Season ($49.98; BBC Video); The Ten ($26.98; City Lights), an unexpected comedic flipside to The Decalogue; the love-themed Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown ($19.98; Warner Bros.) which contains three Peanuts TV specials in all; Susan Sarandon slumming it in the "gymcoach from hell" comedy Mr.</p><p> Woodcock ($28.98; New Line); the klutzy comedy Good Luck Chuck ($29.95; Lions Gate), which would count as slumming for anyone but Dane Cook; Sidney Poitier's landmark In The Heat Of The Night ($19.98; MGM), which includes commentary by everyone except Poitier; the kiddie combat show Medabots - Complete First Season ($34.99; Shout); and I Am An Animal ($24.98; HBO), an unblinking look at PETA head Ingrid Newkirk.</p><p> So what's your favorite Britcom? Comments for this post are now closed Email Print More in Entertainment...</p><p> HuffPost Stories Surging Right Now Style On CBS' "Washington Unplugged" Arianna was on CBS' "Washington...</p><p> Huff TV Arianna Appears on ABC's "This Week" Roundtable With George Stephanopoulos(VIDEO) Arianna was a guest this morning on... "BRUNO" TRAILER!Calamity, African Babies, Chase Scenes And More (NSFW VIDEO) IT'S HERE! The trailer forthis July's Sacha Baron Cohen...</p><p> NATO Leaders Focus On Afghanistan, ButMost Reject Obama's Plea For Troops (SLIDESHOW) STRASBOURG, France— On the eve of the NATO...</p><p> First Lady Fashion At Friday's NATO Concert (PHOTOS) Another night, another fashion opportunity for NATO leaders and their spouses! 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Comments 14 Pending Comments 0 Ads by Google Dr Oz Life Extension™ Warning! Want To Use Resveratrol? You'll be Shocked at What We Found. www.DrOzAdvice.com Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to View Comments: Newest First Expand All lulu21 See Profile I'm a Fan of lulu21 permalink peep show is hilarious. it's the funniest britcom i've seen since the office (the english one). i think you can get the first season on netflix.</p><p> Apples See Profile I'm a Fan of Apples permalink Michael, I'm thrilled that you devoted so much attention to The Royle Family.</p><p> I've just finished watchingthe second series DVD not realizing that you had a column on the whole thing.</p><p> The series is excellentand it rings incredibly true.</p><p> The Christmas episode is both surprisingly touching and accurate, down tothe minute details of the living room decorations and what Christmas is like in front of the telly in aBritish northern working class family home, presumably a terraced rental.Don't forget about 'Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge,' the faux late night talk show.</p><p> Again,accurate observations of a talk show with a host whose ego is off the map, and a different Abba themetune for each guest.</p><p> There are some genuine belly laughs, and the great thing is there is only oneseries, played straight, which was perfect.</p><p> The Alan Partridge character, played by Steve Coogan, went on to a further series after he was demoted from TV for accidentally killing his last guest.</p><p> Classic stuff. taptaptap See Profile I'm a Fan of taptaptap permalink Not a britcom, but I'm madly obsessed with French and Saunders.</p><p> Michael, have you seen The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle? taptaptap See Profile I'm a Fan of taptaptap permalink Blimey, you've named all my fave britcoms! Thanks for writing about the Royles.</p><p> Bloody good, innit?Caroline Aherne's writing and creation of this family is sublime.</p><p> Light us anuvva ciggie Cherl.</p><p> Liberalfrombirth See Profile I'm a Fan of Liberalfrombirth permalink The Office, Fawlty Towers, Coupling, As Time Goes By, Monarch of the Glen, To the Manor Born,Jeeves and Wooster, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Blackadder, Vicar of Dibley.</p><p> Probably more, butthese come to mind first.</p><p> I will definitly check out the Royle Family after reading this review.</p><p> BTW,despite the odd commercials for "Clatterford" (Jam and Jerusalem in UK), calling it an "hystericalsitcom", it is nothing of the sort.</p><p> It has a few laughs and some eccentric characters, but it's a very nice, Computers India Barack Obama Michelle Obama Sports Olympics Housing Crisis Fox News Cars MORE BIG NEWS PAGES » Books by this author A cabin of one's own: New England's MacDowellColony celebrates 100years of artistic utopia.And the gay and lesbianartists who prosperedthere celebrate ... (Thenational gay & lesbiannewsmagazine) by Michael Giltz Affairs to remember:Farley Granger beddedAva Gardner, ShelleyWinters, and LeonardBernstein.</p><p> In hisautobiography, IncludeMe Out, Hitchcock's muse... (The national gay &lesbian newsmagazine) by Michael Giltz Absolutely Fabulous British ComedyDvdsFawlty TowersJim RockfordJulia Louis-DreyfussLovejoyMoviesNora EphronRay Harryhausenchemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of...</p><p> HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES Bloggers Index Read All Posts by Michael Giltz Related Tags Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:08 PM on 01/20/2008 Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 04:54 PM on 01/19/2008 Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:05 PM on 01/18/2008 Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:23 PM on 01/17/2008This Blogger's Books from Michael Giltz: DVDs: "The Royle Family" -- A Classic Britcom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/dvds-the-royle-family-_b_81854.html [4/5/2009 8:05:48 PM] HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING GREEN STYLE WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY FUNDRACE ARCHIVE Advertise | Login | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Jobs | FAQ: Comments & Moderation | FAQ: Huffpost Accounts | Contact Us Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | Archive | User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type Comments are closed for this entryadult show about and for women in a small village.</p><p> That is "adult" as in thoughtful, well-written, etc, not smutty! It tackles life changes such as widowhood, loss of job, putting parents in nursing homes, but it's upbeat and I really enjoy the way the women help each other and grow through difficult times.</p><p> If you don't expect a sitcom, but a gentle ride with some laughs and occasional outlandish characters, Clatterford is nice indeed.</p><p> Season One on DVD.</p><p> HGPilot See Profile I'm a Fan of HGPilot permalink "Coupling" is absolutely brilliant -- it's basically like "Friends", but with dialogue and content that you'd never get away with on American television.</p><p> Which is why I was surprised when NBC tried to repeatthe success of "The Office" by creating an American version, cutting the 40 minute scripts to 30minutes, and not at all surprised that it failed miserably and was cancelled after 3 episodes or so.</p><p> Lookfor this at your video store or put this in your Netflix queue. lanceomatic See Profile I'm a Fan of lanceomatic permalink One of my favorite Britcoms was "Yes, Minister"/"Yes, Prime Minister." Anyone interested in politics hasgot to watch this series.</p><p> Minister of Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) wants to to do the right thing but is thwarted most of the time by Sir Humphrey Applebey (Nigel Hawthorne), who is committed to the bureaucracy of the Civil Service.</p><p> Things don't seem to change much when Jimbecomes Prime Minister, though there are a few episoded where Humphrey does get hiscomeuppance.</p><p> You must be logged in to reply to this comment.</p><p> Log in or Ricky Gervais Seinfeld Sidney Poitier The Honeymooners The Royle Family TV Shows Woody Allen Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:21 PM on 01/17/2008 Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:50 PM on 01/16/2008 Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:33 PM on 01/16/2008
