Simon
After watching AL Murray on An audience with i became this mans greatest fan. He is so big headed, rude, but to the point. This sitcom is the best. Its mainly a one set show but the jokes as so well timed, well worded and Political Correctness is nowhere to be seen (and in Britain these days it s a blessed relief).Lines like "never confused" "where would we be without rules?" (wont put the answer) are priceless and i even use them in everyday life. This man is a genius, give him another run of this sitcom and let it shine again.Hear it for the Beer. All hale to the Ale. and welcome the wine, for the ladies. Pint for the fella, glass of white wine, fruit based drink for the lady.
crawfrordboon
Al Murray's Pub Landlord, famous to most people in Britain now due to his stage shows and stand-up, starred in this hilarious Sky-One commissioned bar room comedy, in which he and his staff, regulars, and various other characters rattle through the same routine each week. The comedy is not in the jokes themselves, but the fact that you know what is coming and just wait to see how it all fits together.Meet the gang: GUV (the Landlord) is the bigoted, frustrated, desperate proprietor of an ancient pub, and a central focus for its collection of staff and regulars. Although he claims to have been 'never confused,' it seems the GUV underneath the bravado is something of a 'new man'! His main sparring partner is the vile TERRY (Phil Daniels), a chain-smoking, beer swilling, self-employed serial monogamist with a great line in chat-up lines! Behind the bar are STEVE (Jason Freeman), a thickheaded impressionable type, and JANET (Julia Sawalha), who got her job by dint of being an Australian, who according the GUV "are bred for bar work, its instinct!" The bane of the GUV's is VICKI JACKSON (Rebecca Front), the rep from the brewery who has to keep him in line but really just wants to be everyone's friend. She owes her position to the fact that her father owns the brewery, not any knowledge of the licensed pub trade! Also don't forget OLD MAN (Roy Heather) – nobody cares enough about him to ask for his name – and PROF (Andrew McKenzie), an intellectual type who is secretly a notorious flasher and murderer! Add into the mix the GUV'S former college peer and now landlord of the Queen of Hearts (They've got a thirty foot bar and a carvery!) GREG THOMPSON (Marc Bannerman) who loves to lord it over the GUV, but is secretly in love with the GUV'S newest recruit, CONNIE (Emma Pierson), a 'bloody student' who manages to get the GUV'S blood flowing in more ways that one!With that said, down to the routine. The entire show is usually based around the following instances, with plenty of mock-patriotic humour, fart jokes, sex jokes, and 'plot' mixed in: · GUV will proclaim: "rules is rules – pint for the gentleman, white wine or fruit-based drink for the lady!" · Terry is usually barred for one reason or another (often involving a misdemeanour with Gary, the pub dog), but is let off "just this once" · Terry will enter the pub asking: "got any lunch left?" · Vicki will try to impress everyone by singing a famous old song. Nobody will have heard of it however · Prof will usually make an un-noticed slip revealing his identity as the flasher · Everyone remembers fondly the day Prof won £2 on the Fact Hunt machine · Greg will appear, sporting two gorgeous young ladies on his arms! · Despite her being a student, Guv will be forced to suppress his carnal desires for Connie · Terry will see a woman and proclaim "that is the woman I'm going to marry!" · Usually Steve will utter a desire to be in another profession, often related to the plot e.g. postman, ploughman, work for Riley's. · Guv's uncle Barry will appear, along with his fellow landlords Mike and Dave · Said Barry will get covered in beer, vomit, or other liquid, causing his black hair rinse to wash all over his face · Janet will make a pass at Steve, who is uninterested/oblivious · Janet will make an inappropriate/ill-timed/unwarranted crack about a former boyfriend · The Postie with the face shaped like a bean will appear, and scream out in frustration: "damn my bean-shaped face!" · The Guv will use his mock sympathy catchphrase: "oh well, what a pity, never mind!" · He will also curse himself by asking: "why do they all leave???" · He will cover up repressed non-hetro desires by loudly proclaiming: "never confused!" · The Prof's resentment of his mother, including his desire to kill her, will surface. This is a very amusing satire on the 'Cliff' character from ''Cheers'' · Old Man will make some reference to his immense age and/or his wish to die. Nobody however is interested. · At the start of every episode, the sign on the front of the pub door is different every week, usually a humorous mis-quotation at the Guv's expense. · The strange silent couple, Lesley and Leslie, sit in the corner of the pub at every episode, a huge man in leather and a bandanna and a short, skinny woman; neither will utter a word, and just watch proceedings.Although it wasn't mainstream stuff, with strong language throughout, TGP was defiantly a riotously successful comedy, which developed a cult following. The idea of putting The Pub Landlord into a sitcom could have been mishandled but in the end it works rather well, with Murray and Daniels displaying tangible on-screen chemistry. Credit should also go to the co-writer (with Murray) and director Richard Herring, and the casting people who got such a great cast together, all of who were great for their roles. TGP managed something like 24 episodes, which is more than The Office, of which it was a lesser known, but no less funny, contemporary.
Robert Barrett
I have to say the best thing about Time Gentlemen Please is Julia Sawalha as Aussie barmaid Janet Wilson and the reason why is that i was a big fan of Julia as an actress ever since she played Lynda Day in Press Gang and enjoyed all her other roles throughout her career so far but i have never ever seen such a performance played so fantastic and funny on any actress in all my life.Julia Sawalha should have won an Oscar for playing Janet and i like the way she brought the famous Aussie humour that Australians have and i'm so glad that they gave Julia as her character(Janet)the opportunity to swear and be as foul mouthed as she liked and that was rare for television.Also there was only five actresses that i know of who could play realistic characters and be really really nice as themselves and that was Julia Sawalha,Danielle McCormack Who plays Mel Barker in My Parents Are Aliens,Australian actresses Taya Straton and Rebecca Dines and it wasn't fair in what happened to Taya Straton as she was the best actress Australia ever had and Sheridan Smith from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.I always always look forward to watching Julia Sawalha as Janet on Time Gentlemen Please every time they repeat it on the cable/satellite channels and for anybody who hated Julia's performance which i had to read about before i made a comment i couldn't care less what they said because i have seen Julia Sawalha in a lot of roles as an actress over the years and i think not only was she one of the most beautiful ladies i have ever seen in my life but she is an absolutely fantastic actress as far as i was concerned and Julia's performance on the show made Christmas on television again worth watching instead of watching reality rubbish like the X Factor,Pop Idol and various foreign rubbish that is no good whatsoever apart from English,Australian and sometimes Canadian stuff and even tonight's episode(Tuesday 5th January 2005)i wish that Time Gentlemen Please had made more episodes with Julia Sawalha because she was the best actress to play an Aussie considering she was from London,England and it was my favourite role Julia ever played and if Prisoner Cell Block H had still been made now i would have liked to have seen Julia on the show because she started reminding me of not only of how utterly brilliant most of the actresses from Prisoner was but Julia had put in her performance an Aussie sense of humour that was absolutely spot on to her character and turned in a 100 per cent performance every time and was really really funny and so was Al Murray as the landlord that bloke was priceless.I would like to request sky one in England to ask Julia,Al and the rest of the cast to make at least another series because at least it was better than Friends and Julia Sawalha was a better actress than the usual Hollywood star.A truly great performance from a truly fantastic actress.
Dante Hicks
This is without a doubt one of the funniest shows British television has produced in ages. Al Murray is superb as he translates perfectly his stand-up character, the landlord, into a sitcom star. His unusual and un-PC rantings almost always hit the spot and though his supporting characters are rarely given any material to work with who cares? He carries the show on his own with only Terry and, more recently, The Prof lending any comic support. Julia Sawalha is completely wasted. Steve is equally unfunny, and he's a stand-up comic apparently, but to be fair to them they haven't much to work with. The gags come fast and often and with most of them revolving around the pub trade (which has been meticulously copied, go to a real pub during the day and you'll see what I mean), the French and the landlord's own take on life, they're always good. A rare treat and I've become quite hooked, here's to a second series.
