I shall no doubt merit a number of 'not helpfuls' here when I state that I didn't like this series very much.
This is not a reflection on the stars, who have had terrific careers.
It was the characters they were called upon to play.
The originally planned spinoff from UD was to feature Hudson and Mrs Bridges (perhaps at last, married) running the seaside guest house they had purchased for their retirement. The final episode of UD explains that they took Ruby with them, taking pity on her apparent lack of intelligence: but Ruby shows she isn't quite the fool they take her for, being well aware that she may inherit the property when they are gone. No doubt other ex-cast from UD would have dropped in from time to time.
Sadly, Angela Baddeley's passing only a few months after UD concluded scuppered these plans.
I am not afraid to suggest that the envisaged spinoff would have been vastly more entertaining than this production proved to be.
Thomas and Sarah lacked the innate warmth and 'family' ethos of UD, which essentially featured the Bellamys and servants dealing with ongoing events in world affairs.
Both series featured a good presentation of Edwardian/Georgian England.
Sure, plotlines were occasionally contrived to provide an unlikely outcome: Lady Marjorie, First Class Grand Dame extraordinaire, somehow managing not to end up on a lifeboat off of the Titanic but suddenly rushing off to rescue the peons she had latterly disdained, like a Victorian Wonder Woman - perishing in the attempt and leaving Roberts with her jewels. Hazel dying melodramatically of Spanish Influenza on Armistice day. It seemed no major even proved unexplored for plot facility.
Yet, the scriptwriters managed to make you care for these UD characters, facing off as a group against a changing and occasionally dangerous world.
Thomas and Sarah did not fall into the 'lovable' set of UD characters. By turns morose, self-centred, conniving, hectoring, scheming, lying and stealing, they never seemed to fit in and I greatly disliked both characters. Their regular 'comebacks' (particularly Sarah) were always annoying to behold. In the end, Richard Bellamy had to pay them off £500 to be rid of them and I personally was glad to see them go.
I gather than even John Alderton - hitherto always portraying loveable if naive characters, didn't like his role as Thomas Watkins too much.
I wasn't therefore particularly happy to see these bad pennies turn up yet again in this series; this time unleavened by any more sympathetic characters but now centre stage.
I can only imagine that the creators of UD and T&S held the erroneous opinion that they were a pair of 'loveable rogues'.
This was a misconception.
They were, simply, rogues.
This is not a reflection on the stars, who have had terrific careers.
It was the characters they were called upon to play.
The originally planned spinoff from UD was to feature Hudson and Mrs Bridges (perhaps at last, married) running the seaside guest house they had purchased for their retirement. The final episode of UD explains that they took Ruby with them, taking pity on her apparent lack of intelligence: but Ruby shows she isn't quite the fool they take her for, being well aware that she may inherit the property when they are gone. No doubt other ex-cast from UD would have dropped in from time to time.
Sadly, Angela Baddeley's passing only a few months after UD concluded scuppered these plans.
I am not afraid to suggest that the envisaged spinoff would have been vastly more entertaining than this production proved to be.
Thomas and Sarah lacked the innate warmth and 'family' ethos of UD, which essentially featured the Bellamys and servants dealing with ongoing events in world affairs.
Both series featured a good presentation of Edwardian/Georgian England.
Sure, plotlines were occasionally contrived to provide an unlikely outcome: Lady Marjorie, First Class Grand Dame extraordinaire, somehow managing not to end up on a lifeboat off of the Titanic but suddenly rushing off to rescue the peons she had latterly disdained, like a Victorian Wonder Woman - perishing in the attempt and leaving Roberts with her jewels. Hazel dying melodramatically of Spanish Influenza on Armistice day. It seemed no major even proved unexplored for plot facility.
Yet, the scriptwriters managed to make you care for these UD characters, facing off as a group against a changing and occasionally dangerous world.
Thomas and Sarah did not fall into the 'lovable' set of UD characters. By turns morose, self-centred, conniving, hectoring, scheming, lying and stealing, they never seemed to fit in and I greatly disliked both characters. Their regular 'comebacks' (particularly Sarah) were always annoying to behold. In the end, Richard Bellamy had to pay them off £500 to be rid of them and I personally was glad to see them go.
I gather than even John Alderton - hitherto always portraying loveable if naive characters, didn't like his role as Thomas Watkins too much.
I wasn't therefore particularly happy to see these bad pennies turn up yet again in this series; this time unleavened by any more sympathetic characters but now centre stage.
I can only imagine that the creators of UD and T&S held the erroneous opinion that they were a pair of 'loveable rogues'.
This was a misconception.
They were, simply, rogues.