I watched this series in 1978 and became totally addicted to it. It was on TV late afternoon each day and I could just about make it home from work to catch it. Then, after watching the next to last episode and long before the days of video recorders being common, I missed the last episode. I remember being absolutely devastated at missing it and cursed my luck for weeks. However, a few weeks ago I bought the boxed set off Amazon and decided to wait until Christmas to finally see (after forty years) what I had missed.
My first disappointment was that it was set in 1842 and dreary Victorian England with its dirty characters and depressing buildings. I certainly did not remember that. The second disappointment was the dreadful acting, even by the normally reliable Reginald Marsh. His attempt at portraying a dithering market stall holder was embarrassing to watch. The award for the worst acting of the series though has to go to Maxine Gordon's truly awful French accent. All in all I can't for the life of me understand what I saw in this dreadful series as a 22 year old man. Even Ron Moody could not save it. It was sad to hear that Simon Gipps Kent died just ten years later but I doubt he was about to set the acting world alight . Finally, the absurdity of Simon and Ron's character's spending each day dragging heavier than water items out of the same stretch of sewer while facing "breeding wild hogs" was not lost on me. How do heavy cups, jugs, and bowls get into the sewer in the first place? Why are there always more to find just the following day? What do the hogs feed on? This was badly acted rubbish which for some reason I once found very entertaining. I guess that's life for you.
My first disappointment was that it was set in 1842 and dreary Victorian England with its dirty characters and depressing buildings. I certainly did not remember that. The second disappointment was the dreadful acting, even by the normally reliable Reginald Marsh. His attempt at portraying a dithering market stall holder was embarrassing to watch. The award for the worst acting of the series though has to go to Maxine Gordon's truly awful French accent. All in all I can't for the life of me understand what I saw in this dreadful series as a 22 year old man. Even Ron Moody could not save it. It was sad to hear that Simon Gipps Kent died just ten years later but I doubt he was about to set the acting world alight . Finally, the absurdity of Simon and Ron's character's spending each day dragging heavier than water items out of the same stretch of sewer while facing "breeding wild hogs" was not lost on me. How do heavy cups, jugs, and bowls get into the sewer in the first place? Why are there always more to find just the following day? What do the hogs feed on? This was badly acted rubbish which for some reason I once found very entertaining. I guess that's life for you.