Distributor:
Roadshow Certificate: PG
| 180
minutes Available to buy Writer: Roy
Clarke Extras: No Reviewer: Paul
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Ronnie
Barker, David Jason, Lynda Barron
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
Episodes
in the life of penny pinching
shop keeper Arkwright and his
put upon nephew Granville, the
stuttering Arkwright ran a tiny
northern corner shop that opened
at dawn and closed at sunset and
was determined to make sure that
anybody who entered his shop
never left empty handed and
spent almost his every waking
moment thinking of just two
things, money and the buxom
nurse Gladys Emmanuel who lived
across the road from Arkwrights
shop and was half heartedly
engaged to him, nephew Granville
dreams of escaping but never
quite manages it.
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
Definitely
up there in the Ronnie Barker pantheon of great characters Arkwright is
rightly a TV legend, his miserly penny pinching ways were first seen in
Barker’s early seventies anthology series Seven of One but only became
a series in 1976 and then there was a gap of five years before season
two arrived. Barker is a genius at developing little bits of business
and there are great moments here, especially with the potentially lethal
till and the maudlin opening and closing sequence, he actually invented
the character of Arkwright whilst the always whimsical Roy Clarke (who
also wrote such classics as Last of the Summer Wine and Rosie – which
should definitely be a candidate for DVD release) fleshed out the
characters and scenarios. This third series dates from 1982 and features
a further six episodes, David Jason, superb as the yearning Granville,
is actually given just as much screen time as Arkwright, these 6
episodes are really like little character vignettes from their humdrum
lives, like any classic sitcoms these two characters are essentially
trapped - Arkwright by his love of money and Granville by his fear of
striking out on his own, actually a beautifully funny series that never
outstays its welcome and is one of those shows that is always gorgeous
to return to.
ANY
SPECIAL FEATURES?
No
Extras.
Trivia:
The
shop which doubled for Arkwrights in the outside shots in the show is in
Doncaster but was actually a hairdressing Salon
