The Royle Family - Series 2

Starring: Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash Director: Steve Bendelack Original UK Premiere: 1998 Dvd Release: 6th November, 2000 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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The Royle Family was a popular BBC television situation comedy that ran for three series between 1998 & 2000. It concerned the lives of a cash strapped working class Manchester family, the Royles. The series was remarkable for its simple production & realistic portrayal of family life at the turn of the Millennium. The scripts contain often banal conversations but each series focuses on events around a major family occaision. The marriage of the familys daughter Denise, the birth of her first child & the childs christening. All the episodes take place in the rather cramped family home. The show was written by Caroline Aherne & Craig Cash who also acted in it. It was produced by Granada Television for the BBC. In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 & voted on by industry professionals, The Royle Family was placed 31st. The show is a comic & poignant, satire of family life in Manchester or perhaps Britain as a whole. The family rarely do anything other than watch TV, banter & occasionally eat, smoke & drink.

On paper, The Royle Family doesnt sound that promising: a working-class family from Manchester sit in their cluttered living room, watch the telly & argue over domestic details . But from such small everyday incidents, Royle Family creators Caroline Aherne & Dave Best have crafted one of the most successful shows on British television: a comedy about the joys & frustrations of family life thats warm, honest & very, very funny, Britains answer to The Simpsons, whose success the show rivalled when it started broadcasting on BBC2 .

The Royle Family marked an on-screen reunion for Brookside-actors Ricky Tomlinson & Sue Johnston as his wife Barbara, the driving force behind the Royle household. It is smart casting because The Royle Family is as much a soap opera as a situation comedy. Now in its third series, The Royle Family has seen its characters develop like real folk. Denise & Dave got married & now have a little sprog; Barbara starts menopause & Denises kid brother Anthony shakes off his surly adolescence when he turned 18 in series two. Unlike Oasis, who provide the shows theme song Halfway Round the World, this programme just keeps getting better.

But no soap, not even Brookside in its dafter moments, has one-liners as brilliantly crafted as The Royle Family. Slouched in his armchair, Jims dour running commentary on the TV shows that are on at the time are particularly priceless: Changing Rooms, for instance, boils down to a Cockney knocking nails into plywood... Is this what its come to? Not quite: because as long as the Royle Family are around, there is something worthwhile to watch.

Caroline Aherne is a British comedienne. As a result of her marriage to musician Peter Hook, she was known for a time as Caroline Hook, but reverted to her maiden name when the marriage broke up. Having appeared in comedy shows such as Shooting Stars & The Fast Show, she rose to prominence as the character Mrs Merton on the mock talk show, the Mrs Merton Show & the comedy programme Mrs Merton & Malcolm. This show was based in her native Heaton Norris, Stockport. Following this she suffered from depression & spent a period of time out of the limelight. She returned to her role as Denise in the hit BBC comedy The Royle Family, which she also co-wrote with Craig Cash. The show began its run in 1998. However, she again suffered from depression & after a documentary with writing partner Craig Cash called Back Passage to India in May 2000, Aherne announced that The Royle Family would end in December 2000 after a Christmas special & that she would not appear on television again, although she would continue to write.

Editors Choice: The Royle Family, The Very Best Of The Royle Family, Victoria Wood, View DVDology

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