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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spells &amp; Karma" data-source="post: 429692" data-attributes="member: 23">Keep It In The Family continues to stream gently onwards. I'm now into Series Four, with Series Three having introduced number of changes.First up is the recast of Jacqui, with Sabina Franklyn stepping into Jenny Quayle's shoes. As mentioned before, I have no idea why this recast took place, since the original actress was perfectly fine. It's juicy to think there might have been trouble backstage, but it could be something as ordinary as availability. Assuming neither of these is the case, my best guess would be that a slightly more glamorous Jacqui may have been required to give more of a contrast between the sisters. Whatever the case, she works well and has good chemistry with the rest of the cast.The recast is no doubt a key reason for the change to the opening credits. They've gone the whole mile with the animated version giving way to a live photograph album with old photos of (I assume) the cast at various stages of their lives. It's fine, but less fitting and I suspect was cheaper to film. One notable improvement, though, is the music. It's exactly the same, but the first two series' themes started a couple of bars in, so there was always a sense of having missed something and it used to irritate me.Curiously, even though I only remember Sabina Franklyn as Jacqui and the "corrected" music with the theme starting at the beginning, I don't remember the photo album imagery at all, but clearly remember the animated opening from the first two series, so there's clearly some mashing up going on in my collective memory.The third change is one that could potentially have had the biggest impact on the tone of the series: after writing the first two series in their entirety, creator Brian Cooke wrote only half the episodes in Series Three, and then dropped out altogether. For the last two series, the bulk of the episodes will be written by Dave and Greg Freeman, the former instantly known to me as the writer of Carry On Behind (and Columbus, but the less said about that, the better). Greg went on to adapt Who's The Boss? into The Upper Hand, but would also go on to be a successful playwright. Meanwhile, a few episodes have been penned by Please, Sir!'s David Barry. Honestly, though, the episodes are pretty indistinguishable. Whether it's due to the skill of the replacement writers or because the series writes itself is difficult to say, but it works and I'm still laughing which is really the objective.One change to which I am most definitely not looking forwards is the departure of Pauline Yates in the final series.  I'm not sure why this happened, but at this point I can only imagine it being to the series' detriment. Dudley's eccentricities are mostly the right side to tolerable because Muriel is there to rein him in. Without her grounding, I envisage things going downhill quickly. But I'm trying to keep an open mind</blockquote>

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