pelam123

Been watching re runs on Gold recently and its hard to escape the conclusion that Jim Royle (despite the characters popularity) really was a nasty piece of work. A lazy foul- mouthed whinging and complaining layabout, incredibly mean, he treats Anthony, his son appallingly, constantly insulting and denigrating him. Also his attitude to Norma, his Mother -in- law, is downright nasty in what seems to be his genuine contempt and hatred for her, even though we see nothing in their relationship that could possible justify such loathing.Even when we see his supposed lighter side it doesn't come close to redeeming his nastier character traits and yet people seemed to love him??

On a stylistic note, it's interesting to ponder how the show would have turned out, if Geoffrey Perkins, who was head of comedy at the BBC at the time of commissioning had got his way. He had wanted to shoot it like a trad sit-com in front of a studio audience on multiple cameras, but Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash insisted on the single camera film approach. I think common sense triumphed there.