Thompson

Yes, it's Emma Thompson and her comedy chums. This really was "comedy" as white-knuckle ride into hell. If the sketches didn't kill you, how about the "dance" routines? I'm not making this up - there really were dance routines. All in all, a truly atrocious and embarrassing mess.

Interesting how different viewers can have a completely different take on the same show. My friends and I watched this in the early 90's, when it was broadcast in California. It was our first introduction to Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton, and the rest of the gang, and we thought it was hilarious! There's one skit I remember very clearly that had us rolling on the floor with laughter. We've been waiting for years for the tapes to become available here, alas, no luck so far. The show was written by Emma Thompson herself, who, as we all know, is not just brilliant, but very funny. She's not a bad tap-dancer either, as she proves in the titles. Absolutely recommend it to all Emma-Fans.

I watched this series when it was aired 19 years ago in 1988 and recorded video of some of it which I still enjoy watching. Yes, it was very hit-and-miss but certain sketches/segments of it were excellent and brilliantly funny, demonstrating Thompson's gift for perfect comic timing and ingeniously original ideas - such scenes as Celebrity, Witchfinder's daughter, No puddings from the sweet trolley, the Dry cleaner's, Rapunzel. The problem was that it didn't know what it wanted to be: a comedy sketch show, song and dance, monologues...... So if you only saw the odd episode, then you didn't get the full breadth of what was being endeavoured. Over all though it was worth watching because the good bits were very good and very clever without being pretentious.

I remember watching this at the time and being taken aback by how lacking in self awareness it was. There was a group of established Comic Strip players who dominated 80s comedy on TV. This series tried to be clever, clever and failed to be funny.

It was without doubt one of the worst shows English TV produced in 1988. It was predicated on a fantastic idea. Namely, the BBC giving Emma Thompson a six week half hour slot to do whatever she wished. Writer, producer, star. The results were appalling. What ever credit Thompson had with TV critics evaporated very quickly. The smugness, the self satisfaction, the pretentiousness, the ego run riot. It limped to the end of Its run, the BBC never recommissioned a second season, and she never did It again. Even now watching clips of It on YouTube. It makes me wonder If you can take someone that pretentious, that narcissistic, that ego-centric seriously? Me? I'd rather not.