New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 426391" data-attributes="member: 23">It's time to dive back in and revisit the later series of Shelley, or - as it was known for its initial series - The Return Of Shelley. <img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71R1sGPYAJL._AC_SL1336_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 634px" />By the end of its initial run in 1984, it was easy to take the view that the series had run its natural course. The later series of that run - while good enough - weren't up to the high quality output of the earlier ones. With frequent changes to format and cast, there was a sense of aimlessness and that the writers didn't quite know what to do with the character.The upside of this is that the overhaul for the revival series isn't particularly jarring and feels in many ways like a significant improvement on the mid-Eighties episodes. It helps that there's a time jump of almost five years (in both real and screen time) during which Shelley has been doing the TEFL thing in the Middle East. While that's an interesting concept in itself (shades of Mind Your Language), crucially it also helps create the sense that we haven't missed anything significant in his life in Britain. Even more than the audience, it's Shelley who is playing catch-up, returning to a gentrified world of wine bars and answering machines and Yuppie culture with its GTis, XR3s and filofaxes.The culture shock is a really nice launching pad for the series. Shelley was already bewildered by the world around him, but being surrounded by Yuppies is compounding this and providing an embarrassment of riches when it comes to material. Carol and Graham are somewhat stereotypical (she the ambitious earner, he the "nice-but-dim" public school type who works in the stock market because it's the done thing but is so overwhelmed he's secretly covetous of Shelley's freedom of spirit).Series Eight - the second series of the revival - has seen another addition to the cast in the shape of Stephen Hoye, best known to me as David Hunter's frisky son, Chris. He brings a similar energy here. There's a lot of manspreading and hip movement that exudes a sexual confidence, but the effect is sadly counteracted by his American accent (it's not bad, just a little distracting since I know what he usually sounds like. I wonder why the character had to be American? Perhaps it was intended for someone else). I'm making the most of him as Shelley's partner-in-crime since it looks like Stephen is only here for one series (plus one further episode in the next). Fortunately, Series Eight is by far the longest of any in the entire run, with thirteen instead of the usual six episodes.Another soapy connection in Stephen's first episode was Sons and Daughters' Grant "Tony Parker" Piro in a fairly small part as one of Shelley's advertising colleagues. How interesting to see him in a British vehicle (and it looks as though he did a few around that time).</blockquote>

Verification: 6 + 4 =