Sunnyside Farm

This pathetic disgrace of a so-called 'sitcom' remains the worst piece of television, any genre, to be made in Britain in the televisual era. A complete lack of situation, a complete lack of comedy. The plot so thin it constitutes an eating disorder, the writing almost at the level of a 'disadvantaged' person, the acting so embarrasing getting caught with your pants down sounds a better bet. Even the actors Mark Addy and Phil Daniels seem ashamed as they perform.

That is not however to let them off. Daniels 'Mockney' schtick tires after just minutes of the first episode and gets worse each time. Concentrating solely on getting a laugh by saying phrases such as "oh, bellowing cows' backsides" as Cockney as possible cut no ice with anyone, nor did the vague attempt to set the sitcom in - surprise,surprise - a farm. Addy, as his stooge, fares no better. The viewing public switched off in droves, the critics tore it to pieces and it was pulled after the first series without trace. The fact that very few people in Britain actually recall this sitcom stands as testament to it's overwhelming offensiveness.

Watch it if you can and prepare to be appalled.

You cant remember much? Well i can, this was a funny as hell series which usually involved Phil getting covered in sh** in one way of another. He looked great as the cockney Londoner turned farmer who looked so out of place on the series, it just looked right. Mark Addy was great as his mate and work partner on the farm. If you ain't seen it, you got to. Try and find a copy or see if this gets replayed on UK gold. If you are a Phil Daniels fan watch just what he can do with comedy in the main role. Too bad he hasn't been in any more, it was great. It was always the highlight of my Friday night. I remember this to be on BBC two around about 8.30-9.ish in the evening and was always worth the wait. To tell you the truth, this character was more like Jimmy from "Quadrophenia" giving up his life from London and moving out to the countryside to get away from the crap of busy London. Well you guys look at his character, does he look like the jimmy character he was in Quad? You decide.

Raymond and Ken Sunnyside live in a dilapidated old farmhouse and are beholden to their Barbour wearing Tory scum landlord, Mr Letchworth. Ken (Mark Addy) is a little on the dim side (to say the least) and his brother Raymond (Phil Daniels) is a belligerent little git whom you just can't help but warm to. In fact, he's rather like Victor Meldrew in that respect, only a lot ruder and more down-at-heel.

This peculiar little sit-com focuses on the many mis-haps of the scruffy twosome and is the sort of thing that you might expect from Monty Python or the Kids in the Hall, had either of those surreal comedy teams decided to do a sit-com. It doesn't seem to care about making the masses laugh and most would find it just plain nonsensical. But there are some truly bizarre situations that made me laugh out loud and brilliant central performances from Daniels and Kitchen (Addy and the often hilariously surreal Matt Lucas are also wonderfully memorable).

I'd love to say more about this show but it's been so long since I've seen it that most of it is a bit of a blur now (no pun intended - for those in the know). Also, having been a complete flop and utterly slated in the press, it's never been released on video or DVD. In fact, my main reason for commenting on it is to put straight the user who referred to Phil Daniels' accent as 'mockney'. I really take exception to this as Daniels was born and raised in London and was using his own accent. Anybody who's heard Blur's 'Parklife' will be aware of that. Also, I never got the impression that he or any of the other actors in this unusual comedy seemed ill at ease in their roles. It's not as if they're jobbing actors who grab what they can and spend the rest of their time on the dole. I like to think they chose to do 'Sunnyside Farm' because they recognised something totally original when they saw it.

Very difficult to find this, but can be found quite easily since 2013. I have begged the BBC to release this on DVD. No reply. This is crazy humor and today i think would suit more people as i think it was ahead of its time. Many scenes are just unique and quite special in the way they were captured. A harsh sense of humor is needed at times to appreciate the crass comments, but i think the cast went on to their own things after this and to abandon this without thought was a mistake, i was looking forward to a second series but alas, never happened, if you get a chance and enjoy heavy comedy with outrageous politically incorrect moments then this is for you

I do have fond memories of this series being aired and would love to see it again. There isn't any modern programming that catches my imagination, the best all seems to be vintage - tales of a happier time. But when it comes to this particular farm, there are clips if U know what I mean and it's obvious why it will not see the light of day in the foreseeable future. We live in controlled, joyless times, hopefully one day life will become 'Sunny' once again.

To the gent that has them all on video, you can buy conversion machines really cheaply now, I would be inclined to try a certain online auction site.