Royle Family Return.

This is great news.

Its interesting you found it difficult to watch - I'm unsure where you are from but it is very "Northern" and a lot of people from "Down South" don't get it (even my Auntie who was born and brough up in Manchester - hse has cleared lived below Watford Gap for too long ;) ).

It is also very starkly minimal and apparently trivial. I'll own up to not getting it for a while either. The description of a psecific episode might just be "They watch Antiques Roadshow and Jim goes for a poo" and I am impressed by how they can come up with something so low key which works so well.

What won me over was borrowing my Dad's Season 1 DVD - when you watch them back-to-back (rather than dipping in and out and wonder what all the fuss was - which was what I was doing) you realise how beautifully drawn (and acted) the characters and how a lot of the humour arises from the subtle interactions between them and their either conforming to, or breaking out of, set patterns of behaviour. The best example being when Joe their neighbour, who has said a word an episode, suddenly breaks into song.

So my recommendation (for this and Early Doors which has a very similar stripped down, "non-event" plot but with an overarching story line too - although most of the actual humour still arises from the more subtle interactions of the characters) is to try and watch them in a biggish chunk - either from the DVD or from UK Gold which often has "marathons" where they show a series over a day or two *this weekend they just showed the entire last series of Dr Who for example). I can't guarantee that you'll get it (a taste for toilet humour helps too) but it is well worth giving it a shot - I know I don't putting the effort in for a moment ;)

Looking forward to seeing Geoffrey Hughes in it. I know Geoff
Yours Dave Talbot