Lovable middle class gentle humour ? NOT! (Gimme Gimme Gimme)

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Gimme Gimme Gimme
Date:	18/06/02 (212 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Burke, Dreyfus

Disadvantages: A bit too crude

The BBC has always prided itself on its sit com output, consoling itself that it would never stoop to the same depths of lowest common denominator humour as its bitter rivals at ITV. Love Thy Neighbour, Yus My Dear and a thousand others were aimed fairly and squarely at small minded people who found crudity and double entendre amusing, in the grand old tradition of the Carry On movie series.

True we sometimes got something equally banal and low brow on Auntie but by and large what you remember the Beeb for is high quality classic comedy of a peculiarly middle class upbringing, things like Fawlty Towers and One Foot In The Grave.

With that background, however, it's remarkable to note that one of the biggest successes of the last five years or so has been quite one of the coarsest comedies of all time, the unfashionably vulgar Gimme Gimme Gimme, starring the wonderful Kathy Burke and James Dreyfus.

It started like much of the Beeb's greatest comedy on BBC 2, and was able in the early days with a low audience and a suitably low profile to pay absolutely no regard to the twin gods of taste and indecency and went instead for the below the belt and near the knuckle foul mouthed belly laughs normally associated with ITV.

Burke plays Linda La Hughes, a ginger slapper whose ugliness is only rivalled by her extraordinary levels of self regard - she refers to herself as an "auburn Jerry Hall", also famously declaring that "I should've been black. It's only a fluke of nature that I weren't". She's thick, she's ugly, she's fat and is desperate for a s***. She shares a flat with Tom Farrell, played by James Dreyfus, a defiantly blatant gay actor, who aspires to the higher things in life, but is every bit as much a vain and pathetic loser as Linda, and just as desperate for sex - his perfect fantasy is to be rescued by Simon Shepherd of Peak Practice (swoon).

The original premise w
as that the pair of them lusted madly for anything in trousers, and would battle to get the poor sap into bed with them. The first episode of the first series had them tussling over a cool black dude (Brian Bovell) who was prancing around in his pants in their life, but as neither of them can remember a thing about what happened the previous evening, they're not sure exactly who bedded him. Later on they find he is Jez, who has moved in the same building with his wife Suze (Beth Goddard). Consequently, Linda has always loathed Suze and the ground on which she walks.

Since those early days and a relocation to prime time BBC1, the coarseness level has been significantly downgraded and the whole bunch of them have got their act together and slickened up a bit, relying less on toilet humour and jokes such as "I have Mummy's lips DOWNSTAIRS." However, they have remained pretty true to their earthy roots and have never really forgotten how to cuss and crack the crudest of one liners.

Having said all that, Gimme Gimme Gimme is undoubtedly funny and as long as you can put up with the coarsest of all comedy scripts particularly rewarding. There's no subtlety and even less refinement, but that's not what Gimme Gimme Gimme is all about - it's about genitalia and pubic hair and fat bottoms and SEX and it's gloriously, gloriously funny in a way which will make you embarrassed at openly enjoying it.

The series is made by Tiger Aspect which is responsible for many other comedies, including Dawn French's The Vicar Of Dibley, is written by Jonathon Harvey, directed by Liddy Oldroyd and Tristram Shapeero and produced by Sue Vertue and Matthew Francis. It debuted on 8 January 1999 (yes, I thought it was a lot longer ago than that as well) and has now run for three series, with each being more popular than the last.

Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Won't somebody help me chase the shadows awa
y
Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight
Take me through the darkness to the break of the day

The first series is available on video for £14.99, including the following episodes:

Who's that boy
The big break
Legs and Co
Do they take sugar
Saturday night diva
I do I do I do


The series is probably the biggest thing that either Burke or Dreyfus have yet done. Our Kathy is gaining a reputation as a talented character actress and has found fame supporting Harry Enfield, most notably as Waynetta Slob and Perry, while Dreyfus was previously seen as the fey PC Goody in The Thin Blue Line. They're perfect in their parts (OOER MISSUS) in Gimme Gimme Gimme, but they're so one dimensional and shallow that it's not true, which is why they?re so very good.

I'll close with just a few more of Linda?s memorable lines - courtesy Caroline Marshall's tribute site http://dawnfrench.tripod.com/gimme.html

(On Madonna) "She is looking so rough in't she?"

Speaking about the Royle Family; Linda says "I hope they're not on tonight. Moaning Northern ponces? You know that docusoap, the one where they all sit around talking about television and smoking? (Linda of course is staring at the TV clutching a cigarette!) How many people do you know that actually do that?"

Linda yells at the telly, "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? What a rip off! Phone a friend? What if you haven't got any friends?"

On herself: "I'm naturally funny. D'you know, sometimes I walk down the street and people just burst out laughing".

"Oh my God who's that gorgeous creature? Oh my God it's me!"

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