Warm, cheerful and entertaining (The Tales of Para Handy)

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	The Tales of Para Handy
Date:	12/07/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable marine comedy!

Disadvantages: Rather broad Scottish at times

The Tales of Para Handy is not so much a sitcom but more a drama with lots of funny moments, most of them revolve around the wily and cunning behaviour of Para Handy (Gregor Fisher) who behaves in a similar way to Greengrass in the early days of Heartbeat or even to some extent Del Boy!

The stories are based on the books "Para Handy" by Neil Munro and are well acted out by an almost completely Scottish cast - some of who would star in Rab C Nesbitt and Still Game. Having run on BBC1 from 1994 to 95, it has somehow never appeared on DVD form and has rarely if ever been shown again, but is available on video and is well worth a watch.

There's regular banter with lots of witty comments between the puffer boat crew and some enjoyable scenery as they sail between various destinations in the Western Isles as well as docking in Glasgow now and gain.

This is all in quite a broad Scottish accent but it's entertaining enough to keep you focussed to understand it.

Overall it's got a very warm glowing, cosy and yet cheeky feel to it - many of the humorous parts revolve around the odd decisions the crew make or the scenarios they find themselves in, this usually has a very regional and often rural feel to it, such as the first episode - which happens to be one of my favourite where they end up trying to transport a bull between western isles and manage to lose it.

Summary: Cool!