Bad Move for Flatmates to BBC1 (Gimme Gimme Gimme)

Member Name: lasagne5

Product:	Gimme Gimme Gimme
Date:	13/11/01 (411 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Oooh! It's filthy!, Innovative and daring, Great actors

Disadvantages: Starting to lose its edge, Writing departing from original format, New series a disappointment so far...

Gimmie, Gimmie Gimmie, a comedy which caught my attention on BBC2 and UK Gold has now moved to primetime on Friday nights on BBC 1. I'm not sure it has travelled well.

It worked for Men Behaving Badly...
When Men Behaving Badly moved to the beeb from ITV and shuffled a few characters it became an outstadning success - far funnier than that lame early episodes with Harry Enfield.

Tom and Linda.. the early days..
On Beeb 2 we were welcomed into to loud, mad and filthy humoured atmosphere of the flat of Tom and Linda played by Kathy Burke and James Dreyfuss. Linda dresses like Su Pollard - the Millenium Edition. She is mouthy, neurotic and has a warped sense of her own body image! Tom, striving gay actor frets continually about every slightest occurance. The driver of this comedy is that both characters are after a MAANNNN! Any Man frankly. Often the same man in the best of the episodes. Tom is a hyper-sterotypical gay character who is an extension of James Dreyfuss' previous character PC Goody in The Thin Blue Line.

Meet the neighbours...
Their landlady is a fabulous stereotype giddy posh gran who acts mainly as exposition.
Also living in the block are a sickly couple who irritate the hell out of Tom and Linda with their sexual self help experiments and suffocating happiness.

Filth but Fun
Yes, I admit it, the jokes are a bit gross and sometimes a bit of a rip off from cheesy carry-ons but still entertaining. Kathy and James are able to build on the script and bring it to life with a clever delivery that makes the filth sparky and acceptable to those of us in front of the telly with a lager. It's over the top - so what! If I wanted to to watch sanitised comedy I'd watch the plain and yawnworthy 'My Family' which comes with a sparkling 12 rating at the worst!

So it has so much going for it.. what's gone wrong?..
There's something missing in the BBC 1 shows. The writers
have been experimenting with moving Tom and Linda out of the flat. The key used to be that we imagined Tom's auditions as he described them to Linda and enjoyed their banta as he did this. The neighbours have been given a backseat - and they were so sad they were funny.
Sadly I have also been reading about James Dreyfuss' private life and his depression/drinking weight etc - some rumours, others facts. He certainly seems to have lost his spark and as well as his figure and facial expressions. He was a very energetic performer and there is far more inertia now in his delivery. The filth has become too cheesy even for my disgusting sense of humour - it's just boring. Kathy is still just about carrying off the new regime but at times I was cringing - others, sleeping! Two episodes in they have a lot of work to do to encourage me to watch any more. I think I'll put on UK Gold and relive the old memories.

Summary: