Series six and we're almost at the end of The
Larkins. Alf and Ada are now running a cafe, sensibly creating a new seam
of situations and stories to mine at a point where a lot of long-running
programmes start to run out of steam.
Indeed, a lot of what's most engaging about this episode is purely dramatic rather than funny. Almost nothing that amounts to a joke in the first five minutes, which establish that the cafe is experiencing a serious shortfall and no customers. What one obituary described as Peggy Mount's "unsentimental style of sternly boisterous acting" carries the viewer through these dispiriting circumstances, without realising that we aren't laughing much. She's also slicing a cucumber and then mixing a salad during the scene, adding a sense of general verisimiltude and her character's practicality.
ATV's designers do a grand job in establishing a contrast in the reveal of why trade has dropped off so alarmingly, switching from the Larkins' gleaming, empty cafe to a grotty, packed rival establishment, Joe's Snack Bar, located in a dustbin-filled alley strewn with junk. The unappealing character of Joe rather unfortunately combines two Scottish/ Glaswegian stereotypes for the price of one in being both mean and aggressive, but his snack bar's new custom-winning asset is Jennie, a waitress who has followed him south.
Some thought has gone into how Jennie is introduced, with her appearance preceded by a reaction shot from an immediately smitten David Kossoff, soundtracked by the non-diagetic noise of a boinging spring. The effect of such a build-up leads the viewer to momentarily expect someone like Diana Rigg or Julie Christie in the next shot, but provokes unintentional bathos when she turns out to be an unremarkably ordinary looking woman on first glance. The actress playing Jeannie, Toni Gilpin, goes on to get some decent opportunities to show the character as a personable and sympathetic character whom men would warm to, but it does seem unlikely that she would create such a mass reaction.
Indeed, a lot of what's most engaging about this episode is purely dramatic rather than funny. Almost nothing that amounts to a joke in the first five minutes, which establish that the cafe is experiencing a serious shortfall and no customers. What one obituary described as Peggy Mount's "unsentimental style of sternly boisterous acting" carries the viewer through these dispiriting circumstances, without realising that we aren't laughing much. She's also slicing a cucumber and then mixing a salad during the scene, adding a sense of general verisimiltude and her character's practicality.
ATV's designers do a grand job in establishing a contrast in the reveal of why trade has dropped off so alarmingly, switching from the Larkins' gleaming, empty cafe to a grotty, packed rival establishment, Joe's Snack Bar, located in a dustbin-filled alley strewn with junk. The unappealing character of Joe rather unfortunately combines two Scottish/ Glaswegian stereotypes for the price of one in being both mean and aggressive, but his snack bar's new custom-winning asset is Jennie, a waitress who has followed him south.
Some thought has gone into how Jennie is introduced, with her appearance preceded by a reaction shot from an immediately smitten David Kossoff, soundtracked by the non-diagetic noise of a boinging spring. The effect of such a build-up leads the viewer to momentarily expect someone like Diana Rigg or Julie Christie in the next shot, but provokes unintentional bathos when she turns out to be an unremarkably ordinary looking woman on first glance. The actress playing Jeannie, Toni Gilpin, goes on to get some decent opportunities to show the character as a personable and sympathetic character whom men would warm to, but it does seem unlikely that she would create such a mass reaction.
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