Directed by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin
Starring the Brockman family: Hugh Dennis as the dad, Pete, Claire
Skinner as the mum, Sue, Tyger Drew- Honey as the oldest child, Jake, Daniel
Roche as the middle child, Ben, and Ramona Marquez as the youngest, Karen.
This is an unusual idea as this puts the children in charge as
they are fed ideas from the shows directors, and it is up to the three children
to improvise and lead which way the scene goes. The show ran for five seasons
on BBC1, gathering a good following.
The first series has my favourite and my least favourite scenes in
it.
During the first episode, my favourite scene is when the father,
Pete, who is a school teacher, marking some school work. One of his pupils had
mixed up the Queen Elizabeth 1st and 2nd. According to
that pupil, the virgin queen Elizabeth the 1st has 4 children and one of them
flies a helicopter. This scene puts a comedic spin on a natural mistake, that
anyone could have made, plus it does have depth, and builds up the main
character’s world that they live in.
My least favourite scene is when one of the kids, Ben, is at a
farm park and doesn’t want to obey his father, Pete, and shouts “Stranger” at
him. The more Pete struggles, the more Ben shouts. Eventually, Pete is able to
take control of the situation and leave the shop, embarrassed. The shop is
quite busy, and so many people are watching with confusion. At one point, this
scene was taken by Comedy Central and used to promote the show. This scene, I
feel, is inappropriate and could’ve resulted in a lot of trouble for the family
if this had been a real life scenario. The show is known for going near the
mark with its comedy, and that factor was made clear from the first episode, so
the audience knew what they were getting into, and understood the comedic purposes
behind the show. With this scene, however, I felt crossed the line between
having a bit of fun and a serious matter. Turning a serious matter into a bit
of fun wasn’t what I saw during the first episode and subsequent. It came out
of the blue, and therefore didn’t create that comedic impact that may have been
intended.
Overall, the show’s a fun, light-hearted, and clever idea for a
program that is worth a watch either by watching repeats, or on DVD.
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