I've seen most British sitcoms as they came out since the late 70s, so I don't know how this one escaped me till now. Starring Arthur Lowe and written by Roy Clarke, it deserves to be much better known - it seems to have had a DVD issue only in Australia, and its upload (thankfully) onto Youtube was also by Australians.
Clarke, best known for Last of the Summer Wine and Open All Hours, has actually written quite a few shows - I'm guessing that this one was the result of a move into London's suburbia, and the characters he observed there, but it has many of the same themes and elements as the others: retired people trying to find something to do with themselves, the yearning to get more out of life, outraged respectability and - above all - people trying to Keep Up Appearances. Lowe, though, makes a perfect vehicle for his style, and Potter - 'Potter mints, the hotter mints' - is a character to compare with Arkwright, Clarke's greatest creation. His condescending pomposity is perfect - you laugh in a 'you are awful' way, but crucially he doesn't repel you. He's not quite Cpt Mainwaring, because the latter lived in terror of his wife but Potter is always browbeating his; also Mainwaring is basically a stand-up guy, where Potter is a shameless parasite - but a strangely likeable one.
There's excellent support, particularly from John 'CJ' Barron (who looks a giant next to Lowe and the rest of the cast) and Harry H Corbett. For both Lowe and Corbett it was their last significant role. RIP.
