I really wanted to like 'Great Night Out' (writes Dan). Could ITV have another Auf Wiedersehen on their hands? There was a time when they did ensemble comedy drama well, but while this is a bit better than I expected it's let down by a couple of things.
(We're not going to look at the That Would Never Happen moments - it would take too long)
First, anything that plagurises (pays homage to?) Golden Gordon in the *first line of the show* needs to be given a yellow card.
The lines
- Five nil? five bloody nil!
- We were lucky to get nil
were really funny in 1979 when Michael Palin wrote & said them, but this time they weren't really. Since they put them in as the first lines you'd think they'd have tried to make them work better.
Second, one of Dan's golden rules of drama is that shows should never introduce gangsters, unless they're gangster shows. Was there really no other way of working out a plot for episode 2 apart from having Glyn work for 'the local gangster'? Oh please. See also Brookside, Shameless and lots of others, but at least they waited until after the second episode to bring local mobsters in.
I will probably keep watching, because some of the characters & performances are good (especially Hodge & Kath), but blimey guys, you could have made a much better show with this cast. & when is Isy Suttie going to get anything to do?
Ali didn't want to like this, so she didn't watch it.
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