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ronald-walker
Reviews
Turtle's Progress (1979)
Groudbreaking show that led the way for the Trotters, Arthur Daley...
It's astounding that this show has declined almost to the point of being forgotten, whereas "Only Fools and Horses" gets repeated ad nauseam on BBC... and winds up as the UK's most-loved Sitcom. The key is, "Only Fools" was a BBC creation (and the BBC don't mind repeating their successes) whereas Turtle was an ITV show (and ITV only seem to repeat 90-minute Detective-shows like "Morse", "Frost" and "Midsomer Murders")Ignore ill-informed claims that this show "only ran for one season" - it ran for TWO, one of seven episodes, one of five. And as a "crime-based comedy set in the East End of London", it broke the ground for "Minder", "Only Fools and Horses", and other similar shows. It's little short of criminal that such a groundbreaking show has been allowed to sink into such obscurity. (The production company got taken over, the company which took them over got taken over in turn... rights lapsed...) The only hope is that the 13 episodes may eventually see the light of day yet again as an inexpensive way to fill the growing demand for stuff to air on the ever-increasing number of "Freeview" channels.
Only Fools and Horses (1981)
Trotters' American Dream
Despite a dearth of new US comedies resulting in American Networks heading across the Atlantic to buy "Britcom" shows ("Coupling", "The Office"...) it seems to me more than unlikely that Only Fools will ever find a market in the USA. The reason is simple: it's a show ABOUT America. That may seem strange, since the show is set in SE London, (and filmed lately in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare) and none of the characters have American accents. But... just think about it. Delboy Trotter has swallowed "The American Dream" horse, foot and artillery - to the extent that he personifies it. The show's main purpose is to poke fun at "The American Dream". DelBoy and Rodney are perpetual losers. But they're losers with an unshakable belief that "This time next year, we're going to be Millionaires!" They also embody the concept of "relative deprivation". (The sociological idea that you're familiar with your immediate social inferiors and immediate social inferiors, but those who are more than one rung above and below you on the social ladder might as well be Martians) Del's idea of "a life of luxury" is to stop buying dodgy suits from market stalls... and to start buying them from "Man at C&A" (American readers... think K-Mart) This simply isn't Mass-market American humour. For a majority of Americans, it's about as funny as watching someone burning the stars and stripes. It takes a deep-rooted American belief... and makes fun of it. Episode after episode. Series after series. When Tony Blair declaimed "American values are OUR values", I wondered what planet he'd been living on. This, after all, is one of the most popular shows on UK TV.