The Grimleys (The Grimleys)

Member Name: polydeuces

Product:	The Grimleys
Date:	15/06/08 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 7

Disadvantages: 7

You often hear people say that all the best sitcoms are American, well I disagree. The Grimleys is now into its third series and it continues to follow the life of Gordon Grimley and his unrequited love for Geraldine It is now the late 1970's. In the previous series Gordon was a pupil at the school where Geraldine was a teacher but now the years have moved on and Gordon has become a teacher himself.

Unlike many sitcoms The Grimleys is not all cosy little stories and it has a black comedy edge to it. It was not afraid to have Geraldine run over at the end of the last series and spend the intervening years in a coma whilst Gordon became a teacher. This new series even started with Gordons bete noir, PE teacher Doug Digby (who was played by Brian Conley), being killed in a bizarre gymnastic accident which resulted in him becoming impaled on a javelin.

Gordon is superbly played by James Bradshaw who brings great pathos to Gordons attempts to make himself desirable. Geraldine is played by Amanda Holden and she proves it is possible to have a Brummy accent and still be attractive. The objectives of her affections now is woodwork teacher Mr Trebilcock (Craig Kelly) who is better looking than Gordon and a bit of a wide boy. The first programme of the new series featured a wonderful moment when Digby died and was buried in a coffin which was a scaled up pencil case produced by Trebicocks class.
Gordons family feature in the programme through his bone idle father (Nigel Planer) his mother who is the school cook (Jan Ravens) and his brother (Ryan Cartwright) who is a punk and is in one of Gordons classes. A lot of the music of the 1970s in featured in the programme and this adds to the feel of the programme. Noddy Holder also features as the headmaster and this adds to the 1970s atmosphere and also to the quirkiness of the programme as does having Alvin Stardust as the barman in the local pub.

The Grimleys is very enjoyable. The humour is sometimes a little black and almost always very dry. You are not likely to have a huge belly laugh at it as the script often does not go for the obvious. It is a well crafted and comic look at life and can be recommended whole heartedly.

Summary: 7