"The Comic Strip Presents..." Five Go Mad in Dorset (1982)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Bob Spiers

Writers:

Peter Richardson (written by) &
Pete Richens (written by)

TV Series:

"The Comic Strip Presents..." (1982)

Original Air Date:

2 November 1982 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Racism | Homosexual | Number In Title | Parody | Actor Playing Multiple Roles

Cast

Adrian Edmondson	...	Dick
Dawn French	...	George
Peter Richardson	...	Julian
Jennifer Saunders	...	Anne
Daniel Peacock	...	Toby Thurlow
Robbie Coltrane	...	Gypsy / Shopkeeper
Ronald Allen	...	Uncle Quentin
Raymond Francis	...	Police Inspector
Sandra Dorne	...	Aunt Fanny
Nosher Powell	...	Fingers
Ron Tarr	...	Dirty Dick
Bimbo	...	Timmy
Barney Sharp	...	Policeman (as Barney Sharpe)

Runtime:

30 min

Trivia:

This programme aired as part of the first night of Channel 4.

Soundtrack:

In Party Mood

so accurately critiqued it stops being funny

Of course, it's still somewhat funny.

But I'm afraid it's all rather depressing.

The revealing of the misogynist, paternalistic, patronizing and racist attitudes, in the satirized story is so sharp, that what once was covered up by love for the series now rears it's ugly head.

For example, when Dick says "Anne is *just* a girl, but she's still capable of doing this and that", or when the shopkeeper is fully submissive, one realizes that this isn't a gross distortion of of the books themselves. In fact it's hardly a distortion at all. And these attitudes are recurring frequently throughout the books.

Then again one could revel in the fact that all these outdated opinions and attitudes are firmly in the past, as opposed to getting mad that it was so bad just 30 years ago.

We really could take the brighter since here, and consider how nice that those despicable attitudes {the anti-feminism, the supremacy of upper-middle class {the children} over lower-middle class {the shopkeeper}) are a thing of the past.

We could. But maybe we shouldn't.