This is a terrible effort from the writers of On the Buses. John Inman had become famous for his character of Mr Humphreys in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served?, which was coming towards the end of its run and this feeble effort to give him his own starring sitcom on rival network.
The simple concept was to take a simple concept of a male boss and female secretary and reverse the roles with the boss being female (played by dramatic actress Rula Lenska) and have Inman as the male secretary. Sound hilarious? Of course it isn't. Despite Inman trying his best, the scripts are truly awful and this should never have got past the pilot stage. But Southern Television thought that there was enough there to commission six episodes. Unsurprisingly it never made it to a second series.
So what is wrong with it? Where do I begin. How about the horrible theme music for one. It's supposed to be futuristic sounding synth sounding but it just grates and dates it horribly. Then there's the cheesy introduction. John Inman walks into the office halfway through someone's conversation and the audience clap his appearance like it's some awful American sitcom from the 1970s. Then there's the dreadful film set of '8 Star', the company where he works. It makes the set of Grace Brothers look positively epic in comparison. And then the show limps along until the commercial break with some feeble plot point.
That this show has been forgotten about for 40 years until TPTV started reshowing it speaks volumes. Remember that this was showing in the same year as Only Fools and Horses made it's TV debut, a show superior to it in every way possible. And the following year we would have the Young Ones, a sitcom that was designed to rebel against shows like this. But even in 1981 this show must have looked pretty awful as much better sitcoms like The Good Life had already come and gone.
John Inman was a one trick pony in some ways but he deserved a better star vehicle than this load of rubbish. Worth watching just to see how NOT to make a comedy show.
The simple concept was to take a simple concept of a male boss and female secretary and reverse the roles with the boss being female (played by dramatic actress Rula Lenska) and have Inman as the male secretary. Sound hilarious? Of course it isn't. Despite Inman trying his best, the scripts are truly awful and this should never have got past the pilot stage. But Southern Television thought that there was enough there to commission six episodes. Unsurprisingly it never made it to a second series.
So what is wrong with it? Where do I begin. How about the horrible theme music for one. It's supposed to be futuristic sounding synth sounding but it just grates and dates it horribly. Then there's the cheesy introduction. John Inman walks into the office halfway through someone's conversation and the audience clap his appearance like it's some awful American sitcom from the 1970s. Then there's the dreadful film set of '8 Star', the company where he works. It makes the set of Grace Brothers look positively epic in comparison. And then the show limps along until the commercial break with some feeble plot point.
That this show has been forgotten about for 40 years until TPTV started reshowing it speaks volumes. Remember that this was showing in the same year as Only Fools and Horses made it's TV debut, a show superior to it in every way possible. And the following year we would have the Young Ones, a sitcom that was designed to rebel against shows like this. But even in 1981 this show must have looked pretty awful as much better sitcoms like The Good Life had already come and gone.
John Inman was a one trick pony in some ways but he deserved a better star vehicle than this load of rubbish. Worth watching just to see how NOT to make a comedy show.
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