MovieChat Forums > Still Open All Hours (2013) Discussion > Loved the original, this is murder...

Loved the original, this is murder...

posted 8 years ago by darrenhutchison
4 replies | jump to latest

I loved Ronnie Barker especially, but I am a big fan of David Jason in both open all hours and only fools and horses. Just wanted to clear that up before I give this absolute pelters.

For starters, do they really think it is gonna be successful when you employ Johnny Vegas and Tim Healey? Again, to clear that up, I loved Healey in Auf wiedersehen pet and he had his moments in Benidorm, but honestly, Johnny Vegas? Probably the most unfunny actor there is.

Secondly, what's with the overreacting canned laughter? I don't mind it when it's actually funny, but it seems like people are cracking up at the smallest of jokes.

And finally, Granville has apparently been moulded into arkwrights shoes. He showed no sign of ever being like that in open all hours, he was a dreamer with expectations beyond the shop, but it looks like Arkwright died and Granville embodied the spirit of tightness and grouchiness.

Let's face it folks, its crap. I hardly raise a smile never mind laugh. It's all very well dragging things along into the future, but it's dragging through the mud. A classic British comedy being turned into a bloody mess.

[–] andeven 8 years ago

I almost agree with what you say but I think you'e being a bit hard with the "hardly raise a smile" comment. I find the show reasonably funny and were it a brand new sitcom it might prove to be quite good eventually. The trouble is that it is not brand new and the comparisons with the great Ronnie are inevitable if occasionally unfair.

Have to agree with the rest of your comments, though. Johnny Vegas ought to be funny given his looks and his voice but it still doesn't work for him. I'm old enough to remember Mario Fabrizi in the old BBC Hancock series - he had the lugubrious face and amusing moustache but he rarely raised more than an embarrassed snigger.In both cases the chemistry just ain't there. And as for the way that Granville has more or less morphed into Arkwright......given his attitude in OAH, is it credible that he would have retained THAT till and become generally as mean as his uncle?

Incidentally I too was annoyed at the use of canned laughter and it still seems like that to me but one of the reviewers gives an impassioned assertion that it is genuine. Does anyone have proof one way or the other?

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Prismark10 8 years ago

'Granville has apparently been moulded into arkwrights shoes.'

I guess that is the joke and the sadness of it. He spent years trying to escape and then became just like his Uncle.

It's that man again!!

[–] darrenhutchison 8 years ago

Oh it's a joke alright. Unfortunately not a funny one.