A Bit of a Do (1989) User Reviews

great entertainment

[tlloydesq · 8/10 · 14 April 2014]

This is a magnificent programme which falls into the comedy/drama genre, there is plenty of comedy and some of the drama tends toward the serious.

Each episode begins with a cast member on the phone to a friend..."Sorry I can't make it, got a bit of a do on". Then ta-da-da-da-da-da-da George Melly leads us through the opening credits.

To set the scene: the daughter of Mrs Posh (Nicola Pagett) is marrying the son of Mr Common (David Jason). Never mind the class difference, both sets of parents are concerned that their offspring have grown up to be be wet liberals (perish the thought).

Ultimately, all that is irrelevant. The selling points of the series are Pagett and Jason but as the shows progress David Nobbs does a fine job of gradually inserting the rest of the cast into the plot. Relationships are forged, relationships fall apart, there are births, deaths and marriages. All leading to a "do".

I can't fault the first series which is close to perfect. I think Nobbs tries to do a bit much to start the second series with some questionable scenarios but it recovers. All the other characters blossom to make this a true ensemble piece.

Acquired taste

[atrickyone · 8/10 · 15 June 2022]

I know that the writer, David Nobbs, was earlier in his career a prolific creator of jokes and sketches for some of the most popular comedy shows on British tv. Yet his brand of situation comedy - I'm thinking of his Reginald Perrin series - and dark comedy, like A Bit of a Do, are off the beaten track of traditional comic fare. Not necessarily the worse for that, of course.

Although the nominal stars are David Jason and his inamorata Nicola Pagett, neither of them shines in their role. Jason struggles with a convincing Yorkshire accent, and loses the battle. His range of both speech and facial gesture are sorely limited. I realize that he won a major award but can't understand how. Pagett, meanwhile, lacks comedic talent. She's a good dramatic actress but isn't funny and can't deliver a comic line. Her laugh is excruciatingly amateurish.

The show is sustained by its supporting cast, which (the annoyingly whiny Gwen Taylor as Jason's wife aside) is almost uniformly excellent. Paul Chapman is brilliant as the rejected husband. David Thewlis brought a certain star quality to a role that didn't give him much to work with. But for me the absolute standout was Stephanie Cole as family friend Betty. Almost invariably teetering on the brink of inebriation she brings acute forensic skills to what she observes and isn't reluctant to let everyone know. Her equally susceptible husband played by Tim Wylton, chicken producer extraordinaire, is almost as terrific.

I have to admit that I didn't much care for Reggie Perrin despite the genius of Leonard Rossiter. But 'Do' has a better script, is more imaginative and boasts fine performances from many participants. Eight out of ten.

''Can do, no problem, tickety boo!''

[Rabical-91 · 8/10 · 3 May 2018]

Following the end of the dire 'Dogfood Dan & The Carmarthen Cowboy', David Nobbs got himself back on track when he conceived this fine little comedy serial for Yorkshire Television which charters the exploits of two families - the snooty Rodenhursts and the down-to-earth Simcocks - who whenever they meet at various functions seem to attract trouble.

The undoubted star of the show was David Jason, who by this period was a well respected name thanks to 'Open All Hours' and 'Only Fools & Horses'. Jason was Ted Simcock, founder of a toasting fork firm. He is married to the mousy Rita, played by Gwen Taylor, who was known at this time for 'Duty Free'. In the first episode, Ted is having a fling with Liz Rodenhurst ( Nicola Pagett ), the mother of his daughter in law Jenny ( Sarah Jane Holm ) at her to wedding to Ted's scruffy son Paul ( David Thelwis ). Eventually, Liz falls pregnant with Ted's baby, which results in the off-screen suicide of her husband Laurence ( Paul Chapman ).

Other characters include boring ex-lawyer Neville Badger ( Michael Jayston ), Liz and Laurence's pompous estate agent son Simon ( Nigel Hastings ), Ted and Rita's older son Elvis ( Wayne Foskett ), who regards himself as something of a philosopher, gay barman Eric ( Michael Hebden ) who is always talking about his brother-in-law from Falkirk and, my favourite characters, Rodney and Betty Silletoe, founders of the Cock-A-Doodle-Chickens firm, the only couple who are faithful to each other but at functions alternatively get steaming drunk and make fools of themselves.

David Jason and Gwen Taylor had a wonderful chemistry together and rumour has it that it was Jason's portrayal here that won him the role of Pop Larkin in another Yorkshire Television show, the wonderful 'The Darling Buds Of May' but as I earlier said, Tim Wylton and Stephanie Cole, were best of the lot in the cast. Nobbs was right to limit the show to two seasons. A third I feel would have been a kiss of death as everything has all been tied up in the final episode.

Great drama, funny with it

[lucy-19 · 9/10 · 12 October 2006]

I have just caught up with this and it is as brilliant as people said it was at the time. But nearly 20 years have passed, and some things now jar. Nothing is as distant as the recent past. Paul and Jenny as the right-on, ideologically sound, politically correct couple are great, especially the way Jenny is boring and humourless and manipulates everybody by constantly bursting into tears and rushing from the room. People like that certainly were around back in those days. But they were hard to send up – possibly because they were so earnest and smug they could never see a joke, let alone one against themselves. I like the way Liz begs Jenny to stop the "progressive preaching". But there's something wrong about Jenny. Her clothes and hairdo are too conservative (though they're dull and unsexy because fashion is a capitalist plot, and being sexy is pandering to patriarchy...). Maybe they thought the audience wouldn't get it if she spoke like that, or wore the kind of clothes a feminist eco-protester would have worn. Her constant sermons seem to be a way of explicating her far-out ideas to an audience who may never have heard them before. Another false note is struck by Rita's conversion from downtrodden, shy, unconfident wife and mother to liberated single woman (with big, big hair and a ghastly shiny outfit) – just by having her husband leave her for another woman. She too starts spouting political sermons and reveals that she met her new boyfriend at a CND rally. She is a heroine for the late 80s and we're not meant to laugh at her as we laugh at Paul and Jenny.

I'd forgotten that way back then ideas that are now being embraced by the Conservative Party genuinely divided people. Conventional people had conservative ideas; if you wanted to go vegetarian or campaign against nuclear weapons you became a weirdo, a lefty, an unconventional person. Your original social group would look at you askance or possibly eject you. You might have to join another.

These are flaws that time has revealed. The rest stands up as great drama, acting and observation. Looking forward to catching up with the second series.

"Oh dear! I shouldn't have said that - not today!"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 18 September 2006]

Following 'The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin', David Nobbs's next few series were deemed - rightly or wrongly - to be disappointments. 'The Sun Trap' was about expatriates living in Spain and, despite a great cast, failed to catch on. Ditto 'The Hello Goodbye Man' starring Ian Lavender and 'The Glamour Girls' in which Brigit Forsyth and Sally Watts played a female promotions team ( with Duggie Brown as their boss 'Ernest Garstang' ). 'Dogfood Dan & The Carmarthen Cowboy' ( starring Peter Blake and Malcolm Storry ) was regarded as a dog's breakfast. .

In 1989, Nobbs struck gold with 'A Bit Of A Do', a comedy drama about two families, the middle-class Rodenhursts, and the common-as-muck Simcocks, who keep meeting up at various social gatherings - a white wedding, a dentists' dinner dance, a beauty contest etc. - and each time there's trouble. Toasting fork tycoon Ted ( David Jason ) sleeps with his daughter-in-law's mother Liz ( Nicola Pagett ) at his son Paul's ( David Thewlis ) wedding to Jenny ( Sarah-Jane Holm ), leading to Liz's pregnancy, and the break-up of his marriage to Rita ( Gwen Taylor ). As her parents - Percy and Clarrie Spragg ( Keith Marsh and Maggie Jones ) also perish around this time, Rita could easily fall apart but instead takes the opportunity to learn how to be independent. There was a touch of 'La Ronde' to the series; each time we see the characters they are sleeping with other people. The only couple loyal to one another are the much derided Rodney ( Tim Wylton ) and Betty ( Stephanie Cole ) Sillitoe, owners of 'Cock-A-Doodle Chickens', who regularly take it in turns to get paralytic.

As you'd expect from a David Nobbs series, the writing is first-class, and the cast mouth-watering. For Pagett, this was a welcome return to television after years in the theatre following 'Upstairs, Downstairs'. Her seduction of 'Ted' in the opening episode attracted much press interest. Michael Jayston was also great as boring solicitor Neville Badger ( of "Badger, Badger, Fox and Badger!" ), forever droning on about his late wife Jane. Paul Chapman's 'Laurence Rodenhurst' was a perfectly judged performance; his off screen suicide gave the series a slightly dark edge. Diana Weston cropped up in Series 2 as devious confidence trickster 'Corinna Price-Rodgerson'. Malcolm Hebden - currently in 'Coronation Street' as 'Norris' - appeared from time to time as gay barman 'Eric'.

Wonderful stuff. Worth watching over and over again.