tjhyb1

Hugely popular when it first appeared, but after two or three years, the "lovable Scouse" veneer began to wear a bit thin and audiences saw the Boswells for what they really were - a bunch of whinging benefit scroungers who were more than happy to jump the queue whenever there was something of benefit to be had. And boy did they whinge! If it wasn't Jack whinging about his pitiful love life it was Adrian whinging about the world's lack of appreciation of his artistic talents. And if it wasn't Billy whinging about his failure to get along with the mother of his child it was Grandad whinging about the late arrival of his pudding. At a time when thousands found themselves thrown onto the employment scrapheap by an uncaring government, seeing the likes of Joey Boswell pushing his way to the front of the dole office queue to wangle yet another undeserved benefit for his kith and kin was simply an insult. And then there were the blatant double-standards of "Ma" Nellie Boswell, insisting on prayers before dinner and loudly proclaiming "She Is A Tart" whenever errant husband Freddie's bit-on-the-side's name was mentioned, yet who became involved in an illicit (if innocent) relationship with another man. The hippy-trippy values that permeated the latter series were, quite frankly, thirty years out of date and the sort of thing that had earlier managed to kill off "The Liver Birds" (an enjoyable sitcom erroneously credited to Carla Lane alone), from where Lane obviously derived the Boswell family from (although that particular Boswell family had been likeable). According to tabloid news reports of the time, residents of the street used for exterior filming of the Boswell's home were less than happy to be associated with the show.

Missed this first time round, caught it by chance when UKTV ran it instead of one of the original episodes. My first thought was how awful it was. Which was also my second thought. Why bother remaking an old favourite if the actors - some of them well known from other shows - simply attempt to impersonate the original cast? Why set it at a time which contradicts the original show's sequel? John Inman's Mr Humphreys was never as camp as Jason Watkins' version. Arthur English's Mr Harman was never as boorish as Arthur Smith's portrayal. Writer Derren Litten appears to have depended entirely upon second-hand memories of the original show for his inspiration rather than going back to the original episodes and seeing how they were put together for himself. And what on Earth is the audience on? Hysterical shrieks of laughter for some mildly amusing aside? God help them if they ever get to see an original episode, there'd be mass coronaries everywhere.

It's not often that the title of a show is also part of it's description but in the case of "Bull", I think you will find it hard not to imagine yourself thinking what a load of bull---- this is. A typical, modern "sitcom" in the loosest sense of the word. It has a situation, i.e. an antiques shop, and some people think it is a comedy. I'm afraid I belong to that group of people that thinks comedy needs to be funny. I found very little funny about this. Maybe if you're the kind of pretentious lamebrain who thinks the constant repetition of a particular word or phrase is hysterically funny, then you will probably find this so. Personally, I left that kind of humour behind before my eleventh birthday.

Having "Bull" showcased on a channel that regularly screens "proper" comedy in the form of "Only Fools and Horses", "Fawlty Towers" and "Open All Hours" isn't doing it any favours. Maybe it should have gone out on Dave. After Midnight. When something good was on another channel. I'm all for variety in comedy and the encouragement of British-made TV, but this is little more than elitist undergraduate sniggering-in-the-wine-bar comedy of the type most normal, everyday folk find utterly immature and plain stupid. Robert Lindsay and Maureen Lipman, both veterans of classic British TV sitcoms, deserve better than to have this kind of puerile garbage on their CVs.

Maybe it's the setting? After all, "Never the Twain", also set in an antiques shop, or rather two antiques shop, was hardly a classic despite featuring two fairly good comedy actors and it, like "Bull", featured a dimwit assistant. Then again, Victoria Wood's classic "Acorn Antiques" skit was also set in an identical situation so maybe it's just that "Bull" isn't very good after all.