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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 389254" data-attributes="member: 23">The final series of In Sickness &amp; In Health drew to a close last night. It remained watchable enough, but the bloom was noticeably off the rose and the series was running on fumes.Arthur English was noticeably absent from the final series (due to ill health, it seems), and Alf&#039;s new &quot;old friend&quot; Michael was an all-too-transparent substitute who just didn&#039;t work for me. Most of Alf&#039;s scenes were now with Mrs Hollingbery and Michael and I just found myself questioning why he would have these people around. Mrs Hollingbery just seemed to get less and less likeable. Immediately after standing Alf up at the altar she was shaming him in front of her friends and assaulting him and his friends by pouring drinks over him. She did nothing but moan, and - unlike Else - he wasn&#039;t stuck with her through marriage. Yes, she cooked for him (and even cut his toenails - shudder), but I just couldn&#039;t see why he&#039;d want to be around such toxicity, especially when in many ways he&#039;s mellowed as a character. Fred Johnson appeared throughout but seemed to play a smaller role in the final series (my guess is due to Ken Campbell having other commitments) where I would have preferred his role to be amped up. There was the recurring gag about his wife leaving him for another woman, but even this proved more distracting than anything when Mrs Johnson briefly appeared and she&#039;d been recast yet again. Unless it&#039;s the main premise of series from the beginning, I&#039;m not generally a fan of storylines where characters come into a life changing sum of money. This was the main arc for the final few episodes but it was done as well here as anywhere. It was on the verge of being &quot;undone&quot; right at the very end, but it&#039;s disappointing that the series didn&#039;t have a proper ending since it was hoped there would be another series. Wikipedia implies the character of Alf was the main reason for the cancellation, but I find this difficult to believe. I do feel the series was stale at this point and I was more than ready for it to end, but I didn&#039;t see Alf as a problematic character by this point. The racist language has been all but dropped and Alf&#039;s bigotry had been toned right down. At this point, Alf wasn&#039;t dissimilar to Victor Meldrew who had first appeared two years before the final series and who would remain on the BBC until the beginning of the next decade. This may be the end of the sitcom version of Alf, but there&#039;s a little more still to come in The Garnett Saga.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 389254, member: 23"] The final series of [B][I]In Sickness & In Health[/I][/B] drew to a close last night. It remained watchable enough, but the bloom was noticeably off the rose and the series was running on fumes. Arthur English was noticeably absent from the final series (due to ill health, it seems), and Alf's new "old friend" Michael was an all-too-transparent substitute who just didn't work for me. Most of Alf's scenes were now with Mrs Hollingbery and Michael and I just found myself questioning why he would have these people around. Mrs Hollingbery just seemed to get less and less likeable. Immediately after standing Alf up at the altar she was shaming him in front of her friends and assaulting him and his friends by pouring drinks over him. She did nothing but moan, and - unlike Else - he wasn't stuck with her through marriage. Yes, she cooked for him (and even cut his toenails - shudder), but I just couldn't see why he'd want to be around such toxicity, especially when in many ways he's mellowed as a character. Fred Johnson appeared throughout but seemed to play a smaller role in the final series (my guess is due to Ken Campbell having other commitments) where I would have preferred his role to be amped up. There was the recurring gag about his wife leaving him for another woman, but even this proved more distracting than anything when Mrs Johnson briefly appeared and she'd been recast yet again. Unless it's the main premise of series from the beginning, I'm not generally a fan of storylines where characters come into a life changing sum of money. This was the main arc for the final few episodes but it was done as well here as anywhere. It was on the verge of being "undone" right at the very end, but it's disappointing that the series didn't have a proper ending since it was hoped there would be another series. Wikipedia implies the character of Alf was the main reason for the cancellation, but I find this difficult to believe. I do feel the series was stale at this point and I was more than ready for it to end, but I didn't see Alf as a problematic character by this point. The racist language has been all but dropped and Alf's bigotry had been toned right down. At this point, Alf wasn't dissimilar to Victor Meldrew who had first appeared two years before the final series and who would remain on the BBC until the beginning of the next decade. This may be the end of the sitcom version of Alf, but there's a little more still to come in The Garnett Saga. [/QUOTE]

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