Utterly ludicrous in every way, Howards Way feels like it has been beamed in from another planet, not from twenty years in the past. It's always held up as the ultimate example of British aspiration in the 80s: powerdressing, shoulderpads, big hair, big cars, mobile phones, powerboats, money money money. The world seen in Howards Way is completely unlike anything of my experience that it seems alien.
"Find out who's behind that Guernsey holding company. I'm worried we're vulnerable to a takeover bid". "Who's fronting that nominee company?". "You're a paper millionaire now you've gone public". "We must have a majority holding in the Placenta Corporation". "I'll put it to the board of Diagonal Holdings". Utterly meaningless and baffling. Every character tries to take over everyone else's company, and the business dealings are totally opaque and difficult to follow. I have no idea who owned which company at any given time, and all the obvious drama inherent in the boardroom discussions might have been in another language. Maybe this is how life really was in the 80s.
With everyone commissioning everyone else to build them a world-class boat, before going out for a luncheon appointment with The Bank, Howards Way repeats the same series of story lines over and over again. Every year, every character has business dealings in some exotic clime or other, and half the cast decamp for a sunnier location. The Bermuda stuff in the last series is very strange. Malta, Gibraltar, France and Guernsey poke their heads up from time to time.
The characters have a real life to them, though, and his is where the show really succeeds. Old fashioned Jack Rolfe (It's my bloody yard!) and staunch Tom Howard (We need to move into the 1980s, Jack!) lead the drama to begin with.
Jan Howard becomes a businesswoman overnight, then a world-class dress designer overnight. The younger generation have standard-issue sexual crises, but the one to keep an eye on is Abby. Mousy little tie-dyed teenager she may be to begin with, but the change that happens as the series moves along, leading to gobsmacking changes in series six, are very memorable. Boo-hiss Charles Frere turns out to have a heart of gold (though you'll have to wait a while to see). His battles with his dad, boggle-eyed old bounder Sir Edward, are enormous fun. Then there's Sir John, who is everyone's bank manager and blabs everyone's details to Sir Edward before beetling off to patronise awful shiny-suited Ken Masters by calling him "Kenneth". Avril is a vision of commonsense and rises above all of the double dealings around her (at least, I assume she does, as I understand very little of what anyone is talking about in those boardroom scenes).
No-one is madder than Polly. A bored trophy wife, she's rather sympathetic from time to time. She fails to understand why Jan is upset when Polly sets up another company using Jan's name, and then starts trying to expand to America. The writers must have had a brainstorm that day. Actually, there may be someone madder than Polly. Sarah Foster is utterly barking.
Also, keep an eye open for wooden Kate Harvey. At the very end of the series, she's seen shuffling some papers and explains she is planning her campaign to be elected to the local council. An episode later, someone asks if she'll be late for her committee meeting. Utterly preposterous.
Look out for some wonderful guest stars and guest characters: Catherine Schell, Pamela Salem, Michael Cochrane, a young Anthony Head, boo-hiss Francesca Gonshaw, a gozzy-eyed animal rights baddie, Stephen Grief as his standard-issue "oily foreigner" character. So much of Howards Way is familiar, it fits like a glove.
It's the characters with integrity that stand out. The only working class person allowed dialogue is Bill From The Mermaid Yard, who steals every scene he is in just by not having to talk about share prices. Gerald Urquhart's old school tie hoves into view every now and then; he is utterly competent, likable and honest. The fact that he is gay is conveniently forgotten after some quite strong and dramatic scenes in which AIDS is skirted around and then finally mentioned, and he cops off with Kate O'Mara.
"Hello Ken / How did you know I was there? Have you got eyes in the back of your head? / No, I'm standing downwind of your aftershave". Oh, Kate O'Mara.
Can it get any better? Illogical, insensible, pompous, baffling, contradictory, naff, glam, witty, addictive, dated ... I cannot recommend Howards Way highly enough.
"Find out who's behind that Guernsey holding company. I'm worried we're vulnerable to a takeover bid". "Who's fronting that nominee company?". "You're a paper millionaire now you've gone public". "We must have a majority holding in the Placenta Corporation". "I'll put it to the board of Diagonal Holdings". Utterly meaningless and baffling. Every character tries to take over everyone else's company, and the business dealings are totally opaque and difficult to follow. I have no idea who owned which company at any given time, and all the obvious drama inherent in the boardroom discussions might have been in another language. Maybe this is how life really was in the 80s.
With everyone commissioning everyone else to build them a world-class boat, before going out for a luncheon appointment with The Bank, Howards Way repeats the same series of story lines over and over again. Every year, every character has business dealings in some exotic clime or other, and half the cast decamp for a sunnier location. The Bermuda stuff in the last series is very strange. Malta, Gibraltar, France and Guernsey poke their heads up from time to time.
The characters have a real life to them, though, and his is where the show really succeeds. Old fashioned Jack Rolfe (It's my bloody yard!) and staunch Tom Howard (We need to move into the 1980s, Jack!) lead the drama to begin with.
Jan Howard becomes a businesswoman overnight, then a world-class dress designer overnight. The younger generation have standard-issue sexual crises, but the one to keep an eye on is Abby. Mousy little tie-dyed teenager she may be to begin with, but the change that happens as the series moves along, leading to gobsmacking changes in series six, are very memorable. Boo-hiss Charles Frere turns out to have a heart of gold (though you'll have to wait a while to see). His battles with his dad, boggle-eyed old bounder Sir Edward, are enormous fun. Then there's Sir John, who is everyone's bank manager and blabs everyone's details to Sir Edward before beetling off to patronise awful shiny-suited Ken Masters by calling him "Kenneth". Avril is a vision of commonsense and rises above all of the double dealings around her (at least, I assume she does, as I understand very little of what anyone is talking about in those boardroom scenes).
No-one is madder than Polly. A bored trophy wife, she's rather sympathetic from time to time. She fails to understand why Jan is upset when Polly sets up another company using Jan's name, and then starts trying to expand to America. The writers must have had a brainstorm that day. Actually, there may be someone madder than Polly. Sarah Foster is utterly barking.
Also, keep an eye open for wooden Kate Harvey. At the very end of the series, she's seen shuffling some papers and explains she is planning her campaign to be elected to the local council. An episode later, someone asks if she'll be late for her committee meeting. Utterly preposterous.
Look out for some wonderful guest stars and guest characters: Catherine Schell, Pamela Salem, Michael Cochrane, a young Anthony Head, boo-hiss Francesca Gonshaw, a gozzy-eyed animal rights baddie, Stephen Grief as his standard-issue "oily foreigner" character. So much of Howards Way is familiar, it fits like a glove.
It's the characters with integrity that stand out. The only working class person allowed dialogue is Bill From The Mermaid Yard, who steals every scene he is in just by not having to talk about share prices. Gerald Urquhart's old school tie hoves into view every now and then; he is utterly competent, likable and honest. The fact that he is gay is conveniently forgotten after some quite strong and dramatic scenes in which AIDS is skirted around and then finally mentioned, and he cops off with Kate O'Mara.
"Hello Ken / How did you know I was there? Have you got eyes in the back of your head? / No, I'm standing downwind of your aftershave". Oh, Kate O'Mara.
Can it get any better? Illogical, insensible, pompous, baffling, contradictory, naff, glam, witty, addictive, dated ... I cannot recommend Howards Way highly enough.