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GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART |
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Series Overview
Gary Sparrow - Nicholas Lyndhurst Yvonne Sparrow - Michelle Holmes Phoebe Bamford - Dervla Kirwan Ron Wheatcroft - Victor McGuire Reg Deadman - Christopher Ettridge 
OTHER GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 OTHER SCIENCE FICTION COMEDIES 3rd Rock From the Sun Red Dwarf Clone Hyperdrive Supernova no Heroics Quark OTHER TIME TRAVEL SHOWS Timecop Doctor Who Daybreak Journeyman 
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Series OverviewTime travelling Gary faces up to the challenges that life puts his way both in the present and back in wartime London. The Yanks have entered the war, Yvonne has found herself a new job with a foreign company and Phoebe is getting restless about her relationship with Gary. The third season of this limp sitcom changes relatively little from the first two. It's all centred on the unfaithful Gary's relationships with his wife and girlfriend and does little to explore or exploit the time travelling element of the concept beyond a single episode where a spy passing counterfeit money has to be challenged. The main character is a cheat, his friend an overweight arse, his wife a pushy cow and his girlfriend a moody cow. It's only thanks to the natural charm of the performances that there is anyone here at all to be empathised with. TopIt Ain't Necessarily SoGary and Yvonne arrive back from ski-ing and she wants to help out at the shop, making it difficult for Gary to get away to see Phoebe. When he does, he upsets his landlady who makes moves to get Phoebe conscripted and sent away to Grimsby. Gary, though, learns that his landlady has secrets of her own. It's lucky that Nicholas Lyndhurst has such an affable persona because his character in this episode is even more dislikeable than usual. The things that he says and does to his landlady are really quite cruel, but he gets away with it without looking like a complete arsehole. Other than that, it's business as usual which means amiable, but unmemorable comedy. TopOne O'Clock JumpYvonne is completely depressed at being unemployed, but Gary manages to get her an interview with an electronics company that turns out to be Japanse and incurs the wrath of his 1940s flavoured prejudices. He also finds a secret that will make PC Deadman's day. This episode is memorable for just one moment. When Reg Deadman learns he is a father only the dead of heart will find a lack of throat lumpage. This is a surprisingly moving moment made entirely out the performance from Christopher Ettridge and will probably be the stand out moment of the whole show, it certainly is the best moment to date. TopIt's a Sin to Tell a LieGary gets worried when he learns that counterfeit money has been detected in the area. It's not his counterfeit money and it points towards the presence of a spy. In order to help Yvonne with her coursework, he tells her a tale of a young man, a young woman and a police officer who risk all to capture a spy. The lead character of this show is really not such a nice bloke. This time around he is astonishingly ungrateful for his friend's counterfeiting skills (which have paid for his life in 1942 and provided a living in the present) and is even more astonishingly dismissive of the same friend's personal problems. Nicholas Lyndhurst manages to stave off this by being so likeable, but you can see why his wife might have reason to be irritated all the time. The spy plot is knockabout fun, although it is also predictable. But then that is something of the charm of this show for its regular audience - you know exactly what you're going to get. Top Change PartnersGary gives Ron marriage advice, thinking that his two relationships are both successful. He soon comes to learn that pride comes before the falls as both women point out just how little his presence adds to their happiness. Amongst all the other sins that Gary is involved in (theft, dishonesty, infidelity) this episode concentrates on the one of pride. He is shown to be arrogant and risks Ron's marriage as a result. The fact that Ron's marriage is clearly on the way out and the man would be better off without his wife is lost on both writers and characters alike. The character of Phoebe is going through more mood swings and if it wasn't for the fact that she gives Gary some of his own medicine and what he deserves the audience might start to wonder what the attraction is in her as well. TopGoodnight Children EverywhereIn the present, Ron comes to stay at Gary and Yvonne's after his wife kicks him out. That cramps Gary's style with his wife a bit. In the past, Phoebe's nephew and niece come to stay, cramping his style there as well. There are two stories that sort of complement each other, but neither really go anywhere interesting and the comedy isn't strong enough to make up for that. Gary sort of takes up school teaching in the past, but that sort of fizzles out. Much like this episode. TopTurned Out Nice AgainThe worst thing about Gary's life in the past is that everyone loves George Formby, so when the great man himself comes to visit to decide whether the Beatles song that Gary has pretended to write is something he can use, he has to resort to desperate measures to avoid changing history. If you have no idea who George Formby is then this episode will be completely lost on you. If you do know who George Formby is then the chances are that you will be too busy bemoaning the fact that the impersonation of the entertainere here is so bad that it looks nothing like the man and the story treats him as something of a crass, henpecked moron that you won't enjoy it at all. TopThere's Something About a SoldierPhoebe's husband Donald escapes his POW camp and comes home a hero, forcing Gary to make a decision about the future. Phoebe, however, has different views and nobody thought to consult Donald. GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART's ambitions to be a drama run roughshod over any attempt at comedy in this episode. There are barely any jokes at all, just a group of people being miserable. Fair enough in soap operas, maybe, but not what you expect from sitcoms. TopSomeone To Watch Over MeGary feigns illness to get over the fact that he didn't make it to the interview that wife Yvonne set up for him at the Korean company where she now works. At the same time, Phoebe is genuinely ill and Gary realises the limitations of the healthcare system means that he is likely to lose her. The laugh-free drama of There's Something About a Soldier, the show at least attempts to get back to being a situation comedy. The comedy is as sparse as ever, but at least there are funny lines there, even if they're not so funny and even if Yvonne's declaration of being tempted to have an affair takes it back into the realms of drama late in the day. TopThe Yanks Are ComingThe US forces have arrived, which means that Gary has a whole lot of american memorablilia he can access. This leads to Yvonne getting ideas above his station. In the past, he has to confront the spectre of racism in Phoebe's pub. GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART uses the arrival of the US in the war to tackle racism in a completely unsubtle manner. Still, there is enough comedy at least to take the edge off the civics lesson. Reg's new family links, for example, and the shadow of George Formby on the piano again. The show still hasn't decided what it wants to be, but at least it is trying to provide some laughs. TopLet's Get Away From It AllPhoebe gets a hankering to move away from the pub for something larger, a place for her and Gary to bring up their child. Just as Gary is trying to get his head around that one, Yvonne tells him that she no longer wants to move because she is also pregnant. It's season's end and so there need to be surprises to set up the potential for another series. As a result, the plot takes precedence over the comedy, but then the comedy never was particularly strong in this show. Top |
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