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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 306249" data-attributes="member: 23">7 of 1I'll Fly You For A QuidSaid to be Ronnie Barker's favourite of the seven pilots and the one he wanted to develop into a series before the Beeb persuaded him to adapt the other creation from the same writing team. I think knowing this elevated my expectations of the episode and I ended up feeling a little underwhelmed by it. Not that it's bad by any stretch. There's an awful lot that makes this one of the more interesting ideas on display in this series. Not least death, which is one of the episode's main focusses. First we hear about Grandpa Owen's moribund state from his family attending church. Then Reverend Simmonds attends his deathbed where Grandpa derides the euphemistic language he's heard over the year: "passed away", "gone to his rest", etc. He states matter of factly that he's going to die and that's part of life. Then he asks the Reverend about heaven, hints at some mistakes in his past and seems to take comfort in the Reverend's assurance. To the episode's credit it's all played perfectly straight. This gives way to a tasteful death scene which utilises and exterior shot with the cliche of the shaft of light coming from the bedroom window to the sky. It sounds cheesy and cartoony but,  by contrasting the heavenly light with an aerial shot of the bleak mining village and throwing in a Welsh male voice choir as the soundtrack, it was very effective and quite moving without being a downer. Then there's the coffin, laid out in the front room (never used by the family other than " for death or dignitaries or the woman from the Avon cosmetics") while the family talk in the next room separated only by the open partition doors where Evan Owen - having torn his father's room apart - has deduced that his father's winning betting slip is clutched in his father's hand in the coffin, leading to a moral dilemma of whether or not to open the coffin and retrieve it. And that's the episode's other key theme: gambling. The fact that the whole village can't resist a flutter and it all takes place under the critical eye of the Church makes it feel enjoyably sinful. The cast is enjoyable. Apart from Ronnie's double role as the dying old man and his son and Emrys James as the Reverend, there's Talfryn Thomas who seemed to undertake every Welsh male role going for a time and whose face will be instantly recognisable to many. There's also Richard O'Callaghan who to me will always be Carry On Loving's Bertrum Muffett. His Welsh accent is very dodgy indeed, while Ronnie Barker's is most splendid. It's difficult to say how far this concept could be stretched. One would think the gambling may need to become less in your face were this to have run to a series. But the characters - especially the sparring between Barker's Evan Owen and Emrys James's Reverend - would certainly have made it worth a go.</blockquote>

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