Mum's Monday: Sandylands

When I first saw the trailer to this program it was billed as an original. However, my first thought was of another program ‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’ 1976 with Leonard Rossiter. Where the main character also faked his own death and came back. Although watching the first episode this is where the similarities between the two programs end.

So in episode one, it is a bit of a cliché really, people living in their own little world by the sea set in their own unique, strange, funny and unusual ways and a young lady Emily (Natalie Dew) who managed to escape into the big wide world or in this case London, comes back more, now I don’t want to be mean but the only way I can describe it is as, worldly wise. A part that is amusing yet awkward is karaoke duets with one person singing, yeah it doesn’t work. Well when it comes to ‘The morning after the night before, this could be classed as a different to the normal hangover, Dad Les (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is alive.

Episode two, it the day of the memorial but it is alright ‘Daddy’s here’ and amusingly that is the problem. It is nice to hear the heart to hearts between father and daughter. I actually like the music that was chosen just before the memorial. I have to mention the CD music not the recorder playing that is. Well the memorial started off with a lovely tribute by Emily, and then well an unexpected guest nearly gets caught and now the memorial is done with, and now another guest has shown up at the Bed and Breakfast.

Episode three, ‘Step one, fake death, step two who knows? Peru or Thailand ‘Picture the scene’, take your pick. This is amusing to watch a little exasperating though. Someone should also know that arresting someone is not a date. So Tina (Harriet Webb) has well ‘Hello Les’ fun to watch but very LOUD! Well it ok I now know where Peru is, I can safely say it is ‘Over there’ I love the Geography lesson, so funny. It ends. I know they say ‘Always leave people wanting more’ but this is an extreme case of this.

I don’t condone insurance fraud and I like how that was tackled. Overall this three-part series has been amusing and somewhat heart-warming to watch.