The Riff Raff Element

...as Ronald Pickup would have said to his hapless son. In this case it's directed at those losers at the Beeb. Get your fingers out, for goodness sake! Put The Riff Raff Element out on DVD! When you look at the stuff they do put out, it's hard to understand. For instance, I see from Amazon that the Beeb has put out Series 6 of Bergerac this week. You'd think they could spare us that for a month or two (it's always on satellite anyway) and put this wonderful series out instead. It's really hard spinning this comment out to ten lines because of IMDb's rules - I've said all I want to say really, and now I'm just waffling to get the length up. I hope readers will forgive me!

If anyone reading this comment ever has the opportunity to get their hands on this wonderfully written and superbly acted comedy/drama, then be prepared to set aside a good few hours of your time. I guarantee the first episode will hook you and then all you will want to do is watch the next and the next until you find your day has passed in the company of possibly TV's most mismatched family to hit the screen. Quality like this is really few and far between and only 2000 Acres Of Sky could be up there with it as offered by the BBC some years later. I felt compelled to write this review/comment having found very little about the show on the internet and even fewer people who have written about it. Everyone i have ever mentioned this series to has never heard of it. I think it will surface again one day on some DVD release and end up in TV reviews 20 years from now as one of those series to receive a possible cult status. It really is that good i assure you. The writing by Debbie Horsfield is akin to the quality of Bruce Robinson. Sentences and catchphrases are well crafted and delivered by a wonderful cast who you instantly want to have in your own life (maybe you do?). The mismatching of a very well to do family with a family down on their luck is a fantastic social commentary. There is not a single character who is misplaced in the whole nucleus. I urge any reader of this to get their hands on a copy (Series 1 ran for 6 episodes with Series 2 also running for 6 episodes but 5 minutes longer in each episode). I wish there were more.

So glad I found these comments, on what can only be described best television so far.

It was a delight to watch all these characters gel together. Their antics left you in a transfixed way. Week after week, it was compulsive viewing.

If only the BBC would have released this on video (at the time), and now hopefully DVD would have followed! It would give me utmost pleasure to hear the views of anyone out there.

Is there anyway one could acquire a copy of the series? What a pleasure and nostalgic trip it would be!

I have visited the locations were the series was filmed, totally delightful. The pub is nice, the hall is wicked. It can only be accessed on foot.

As evidenced by the lack of comments on this page, not many people watched this show, which was probably why it lasted for only 2 seasons, but it was top stuff. Basically the plot surrounded the upper class Tundish family renting out a wing of their house, advertising it with the line "The riff-raff element need not apply". Their worst nightmares came true when the Belcher family, a group of new age travellers who typified everything that they were opposed to responded, but because they were so strapped for cash they let them move in anyway. They all ended up hopping into bed with or developing unrequited love for one another, exposing crucial flaws in the ludicrous British class system as they did so. The relationship between Alistair Tundish and Petula "Pet" Belcher in particular was unbelievably touching.

No one in the show has gone on to do anything except possibly Greg Wise, who hasn't done much since he's been in the sack with Emma Thompson and I can't say I blame him as that's a position I would be quite happy with, but I'd still like to see him in more films as he was the star of this show and his shock demise towards the start of Season 2 still brings a lump to my throat. The gorgeous Jayne Ashbourne has also done very little which is a real shame, likewise Celia Imrie, an extremely talented British actress who has never got the top roles she deserves. Basically it was a brilliant show and I know it's the acme of foolishness to expect another season after so long a gap but it would have been nice to have seen what happened after the cliffhanger ending to Season 2 (most of the Belchers were carted off to the police station for the murder of Jayne Ashbourne's evil husband). Can we at least have a DVD then Mr BBC?

This series was representative of some of the best that the BBC offered in the mid-1990s. Ronald Pickup is fantastic in his role as the titular head of the family, and a great comic foil for the rest of the cast. Celia Imrie has gone on to other things (hurrah for Acorn Antiques!), and some of the unsung heroes of British telly were all involved.

So why have I never seen this repeated on TV, or for sale on video/DVD? I have only my own (very warm) memories of the programme, and would love to re-live those memories - I just hope that it hasn't fallen victim to the BBC's unexplained policy of simply deleting some programmes from its records.

BBC - Let me pay you to buy it...!!