Mann's Best Friends (1985– ) User Reviews

C- could do better

[tlloydesq · 5/10 · 12 June 2014]

Roy Clarke has an excellent comedy reputation however "Mann's Best Friends" does not further it. Two completely opposite characters meet up: Fulton Mackay takes some of his Porridge role to play a bossy former manager. Barry Stanton plays an animal loving landlord who needs someone bossy to tighten up his house. The trouble is neither of them are leading actors. They are fine bouncing their roles of someone more adept to the limelight.

We get a couple of 80's comedy basics - Bernard Bresslaw as the friendly bovver boy and good time girl Patricia Brake. So a number of decent actors but the script and setting are not up to scratch. You get the feeling this was pushed through without much thought being applied. Could it have been better? Re-arrange the actors and let Mackay play off a more dominant lead. Play around with the script to let the cast play around with the words. The Bresslaw/Brake characters were the strongest so why weren't they more prominent.

While this isn't the best sitcom of all time, I sat through the entire series and there are plenty where I haven't got that far. So still worth watching.

Clarke's Off Day

[omnipotentbill · 4/10 · 19 March 2018]

The joy of Roy Clarke's work is the word play delivered in a dead pan manner; there was very little of that here.

What replaces it is a degree and physical comedy which doesn't really work. One big problem is the fact that the main character rescues animals to keep in his house. A monkey and snake appear in the plot at various points and the characters have to act to these creature which are just out of shot.

Did the author really think that he could have a plot which revolved around animals without actually using real animals in the filming?

Good cast but totally wasted

[gd-parry · 3/10 · 24 February 2022]

Clarke loves his ensemble comedies, but this is weak. Good comedy actors wasted in a setting that just serves for them to hang out but with nothing at all in common.

Fulton Mackay could have stepped straight out of Slade Prison, and that's not a bad thing - he is the high point of this show. His bemusement is relatable to what is going on.

Barry Stanton tries but his role as an animal-rescue obsessed scatterbrain is difficult to pull off when the animals he protects never appear - combined with the conversations he has with his recently deceased mother - one would think he should be taking some medicine.

Bernard Bresslaw's character reminds me of Bernie in Carry On At Your Convenience or Camping. Kind hearted but dim, it just seems a lazy facsimile and probably one of his last roles.

Patricia Brake - the lovely Ingrid from Porridge, appears to be a lady of low repute who entertains numerous men in her rented room - she's allowed to stay as she's the most reliable with paying on time which arouses Ordway's (Mackay) suspicions.

Liz Smith is much more than the usual absent-minded eccentric from Vicar of Dibley but again her role is not that clear other than to keep her daughter away from this odd bunch.

Just don't know what Clarke or ITV were thinking but there's nothing to recommend here.