In what was a wonderful rural drama set in a the countryside near a town/village in Devon things were moving along at a steady pace with great acting from all concerned right up until the start of this series. It's the sudden disappearance of the Brewer family that is the problem. Maybe Angela was giving birth when this latest series was filmed and maybe Ian had another commitment he couldn't get out of and the same for the actors that played their children and the gardener and their oldest child's best friend. That is large number of cast members to just vanish from the current series. Couldn't filming have been held back until EVERYONE was available to make this new set of episodes? If the worst came to the very worst couldn't Denise Welch's character or Ricky Tomlinson's have said a good sensible reason as to why the Brewer family went away. As it is, bad writing and bad directing has meant that the characters Tony Murphy and Jackie Murphy have gone from only just managing to run the pub (due to Tony's 'hair-brained' schemes for a quick pound all series long) to having enough money to buy the small-holding from where the Brewers disappeared without selling the pub to fund the purchase. So where did that sudden windfall come from? And there is no village feel as the same faces are not seen again and again. Who runs the shop(s) and the post office? Where is the friendly policeman/woman? In fact where are the people? The show has deteriorated to the point where it is now complete rubbish. All feel for the countryside has gone.
Review of Down to Earth
