User Reviews

I agree with the other positive reviews of this little-remembered 40-year-old BBC sitcom.

I was thirteen when the first of the two series aired and our family loved it.

My younger sister and I used to endlessly re-enact one of the scenes where Briars and Gambon have a chance meeting with an elderly farmer - an old acquaintance of Briars - whilst taking a short break in the English countryside: "It's Ralphie Tanner. You remember me?" The farmer ponders, thinking aloud in a West Country accent: "Tanner, Ralphie Tanner... Ralphie Tanner..." The (stereotypical) farmer suddenly remembers and the now enraged character bellows: "RALPHIE TANNER!! WHERE'S MY SHOTGUN!!"

OK, so not very funny when written down, but I can remember my sister laughing so hard, that her supper-time hot cocoa nearly drowned her as it ejected from of both nostrils and into her cupped hands.

Happy times. Thank you.

Richard Briers became a household name with viewers as likeable self sufficiency fanatic Tom Good in the delightful 'The Good Life', written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. In 1977, they devised another show for Briers which has him cast as a much different character altogether - as lying braggart Ralph Tanner in 'The Other One', casting alongside him the wonderful Michael Gambon as shy and reserved Brian Bryant. Sadly, the change in character styles for Briers was too much for many viewers to handle and consequently 'The Other One' did not find the audience it deserved. A great pity in my opinion as 'The Other One' was an excellent piece of work, far more deserving of recognition than some drivel that's out there now ( i.e anything that has Ricky Gervais in it! ).

'The Other One' starts off like this - divorcee Brian Bryant is flying to Spain for a package holiday and in the airport bar strikes up a conversation with Ralph Tanner, who claims to have been everywhere, done everything and has bought the T-shirt to prove it, whereas in reality he is little more than a big headed, lying fantasist. Brian is fascinated by Ralph's confidence whereas Ralph finds Brian about as interesting as watching paint dry. Ralph classes himself as a 'lone wolf', which is true as none of the other wolves in the pack want to run with him!

Ralph has no friends and so therefore values any kind of friendship, no matter who the person is and so latches onto Brian throughout the course of their holiday. The second series sees the two back on terra firma after their holiday, where Ralph trains Brian as a sales rep.

This is my favourite Esmonde/Larbey & Briers show, partly for its occassional foray into darker areas but mostly because of the chemistry between the two leads. Both men evoke sympathy, Ralph because he is lonely and friendless and Brian because he is so well meaning but lacking in self confidence. Brian later susses out Ralph but still accepts him as a friend and even manages to get him to own up that he is not who he says he is. In the final episode, Ralph's eagerness to portray himself as something he isn't becomes abundantly clear. He is ashamed of his family ( and when you see them, can you blame him? ).

Both series were as good as each other and should have been a hit but sadly it was not and that was it for 'The Other One'. Richard Briers later regarded it as one of the points of his career that best ought to have been forgotten.

The first series was made available on DVD by Metrodome in 2007 but the poor sales ensured that the second series would not follow suit, a great pity.

John Esmonde and Bob Larbey's 'The Other One' is one of the most criminally underrated B.B.C. sitcoms of the 1970's. Nobody seemed to like it at the time, including Head Of Light Entertainment Bill Cotton, who reputedly asked Michael Gambon, one of its stars: "Any chance of it being funny this week?". I have a lot of respect for the late Cotton, but here he was wrong. It was funny, if somewhat different from the writers' previous hit 'The Good Life' which had starred Briers as likable, self-sufficiency fanatic 'Tom Good'. 'One' cast him as an altogether different sort of character - loudmouthed 'Ralph Tanner', one of life's adventurers, the sort who has 'been everywhere and done everything'. In reality, however, he is a boastful liar ( there were echoes of a previous Esmonde/Larbey creation: 'Frankie Abbott' from 'Please Sir!' ). The series opens with him waiting to catch a holiday flight to Spain. He gets chatting to fellow traveller 'Brian Bryant' ( Gambon ) in the departure lounge, finding him to be both boring ( even his wife left him because he was dull ) and humourless, the only person to take him at face value. They miss the plane, and have to catch a later one, finding on arrival that their hotel rooms have been reallocated and they are forced to share a smaller one. A friendship develops under the hot sun. Ralph's lies frequently land him in trouble, such as the time he finds a spread in the dining room and tells guests it has been laid on specially for them as they are are due to leave. In fact it is for the local Mayor! When Brian goes off on the tour bus, Ralph hires a mule, only to lose it and land himself in hot water with its owner. The two men come to depend on one another; Ralph needs Brian because he believes his lies, and Brian needs Ralph because he thinks he is the sort of man he would like to be. Both are genuinely pathetic.

The comedy was driven by its characters. It was not a 'funny ha-ha' show. Briers and Gambon were wonderful. 'Ralph' must rank as the most complex comedy characterisation since 'Anthony Aloysius St.John Hancock'. Though a braggart and a bully, you somehow feel sorry for him because he is friendless. Season 2 saw the pair back in England. After helping Brian lose his job in a record archive, Ralph gives his friend a master-class in the art of being a sales rep. There is an outstanding episode in which Ralph returns to the village he was evacuated to during the war, and faces hostility from locals because of his involvement in a death of a boy years before. He had convinced the lad he could fly!

Esmonde and Larbey must have known the show was not likely to return a third time, and ended it with Brian finally meeting Ralph's appalling family, and gaining understanding of why his friend behaves the way he does. The final scene hinted that Brian was turning into Ralph and vice versa. I am glad it did not come back. The delicate blend of comedy and pathos would have been impossible to sustain. The show remained forgotten until the late 1990's when 'U.K. Gold' on Sky gave it a welcome reshowing, and in 2006, Season 1 got a D.V.D. release. At the time of writing, however, Season 2 is sadly unavailable.

Imagine you're at your 10 year old's school play. Tripping over the sets and stumbling through the lines, the only laughter at the 'jokes' coming from the parents of the child delivering the line. This isn't QUITE that good. Throughout you can see the same mannerisms in Good Life that we loved fall flat and elicit no response...even from a captured live audience. Perhaps a live audience was part of the problem because a comedy actor needs feedback in the right places so canned laughter at the right location might be better than scant laughter from real people. I digress however.....the main problem with this 'comedy' is it's TIRED.....nothing fresh...no quirky character...sad sets...tired jokes....TERRIBLE acting by the 2 main characters who clearly didn't enjoy or relate to each other. NEVER have I seen a less inspired piece of acting and the flavourless watered-down music is perfectly fitted to this pointless and dreary comedy. Don't waste ANY time watching this.....in fact the only 'CURIOSITY' is how on earth it survived to a second series