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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 179622" data-attributes="member: 23">Mercifully I'm on the home stretch of this series, being five episodes into the final series, retitled simply Albert! Despite the re-jigged name, there are no major changes to what's seen onscreen. Indeed, a bigger change was between Series Two and Three where Albert moved home, became engaged and interacted with mostly new characters. Even the opening titles remain the same (we are back in colour this series).That said, the two female flatmates have moved out (I hadn't missed them, and actually have just had to look this up to be sure). And Albert's fiancée Doreen has been recast, transforming from a plummy-but-shrieky brunette Sloane Ranger to a nasal blonde Cockney. The recast is definitely the lesser of two evils. I'm struggling enough with Series Four without half a dozen more episodes of Doreen Mk I.Thankfully, Amelia Bayntun is still Doreen's Mum, Mrs Bissel (and yes - someone has erroneously called her "Mrs Ewbank"). Amelia's a great character actress I know mainly from several Carry Ons (perhaps most notably Joan's Mum, Mrs Fussey in Camping), so it's good to see more of her here. In recent episodes I've noticed her character has a catchphrase of sorts - a tendency to end some of her sentences with "ta", whether it's fitting or not). Incidentally, other Carry On faces over the course of the series have included glamour girls Valerie Van Ost (called simply "Valerie Ost" here), Alexandra Dane and Adrienne Posta. Norman Rossington also had a nice featured role in which he played an old friend of Albert's.While I found Series Two and Three enjoyable, Series Four is feeling like a drag. There's very little in it that I've found funny. I'm not sure whether if it's because Albert! is an inferior product to Dear Mother... or it's a case of familiarity breeding contempt. Maybe it's just run a natural course. We've had the obligatory A Christmas Carol episode which felt very much like one of those Carry On Christmas specials (unusually, the Albert! version wasn't set at or aired over Christmas). I'm sorry to report that even a true one-hander in which only the title character appeared felt tedious this time round. I found myself getting irritated with his distracting tendency.... Found myself getting irritated with his distracting tendency... Distracting tendency to repeat...  To repeat all or part of a sentence... Sentence for no particular reason.And oh my God - the new long hairstyle looks so bad. I mean offensively bad. But not humorously offensively bad. Which for a sitcom is the biggest crime of all. It's been referenced several times. And it wasn't funny then, either.</blockquote>

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