Ever Decreasing Circles

Ever Decreasing Circles reunited writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey with Richard Briers who had been largely responsible for anchoring the hugely successful Good Life as Tom Good. Esmonde and Larbey had already been successful not only with The Good Life but also Please Sir! with John Alderton as a school master and Get Some In about a number of recruits doing National Service. Esmonde and Larbeys style was also largely of an inoffensive home spun nature in which the good in the human spirit always prevailed. Richard Briers role in Ever Decreasing Circles was as an almost cuckholded but assertive husband, Martin Brice whose main wish in life was that every thing ...  Read the complete review

After the gentle touch of The Good Life, an enormously popular BBC sitcom starring Paul Eddington, Penelope Keith and Felicity Kendal, writers John Esmond and Bob Larbey took its main star Richard Briers with them when they established their next comedy series, the marvellous Ever Decreasing Circles in the late 1980's. This time Briers was cast as Martin Bryce, a straight laced and anally retentive pillar of the community. Married to Ann, played by the wonderful Penelope Wilton, Martin is a buyer at the nearby Mole Valley ...  Read the complete review

Martin Bryce - Suburbia Man - the vital cog around which Mole Valley Valves revolve - the life and soul of his community - the organiser of Neighbourhood Watch, jumble sale, old folks' outing, night at the pictures, and everything else which is important to Suburbia - happily married to Anne - next door neighbour to the Anorakist Howard and Hilda- the very definition of pillar of the conformist community - a man to look up to and admire. Suddenly, there is a cloud on the horizon in the shape of the smug and all knowing Paul Ryman. Paul is the sort of chap you love to hate, skilled in everything he attempts, knowledgeable about virtually every subject and ...  Read the complete review