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TCCounsell
Reviews
Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974)
Trite, obvious "comedy" aimed at a morally depraved society
I have to disagree with Emma Burridge, except for her statement that it is on a par with On the Buses as an example of 1970's comedy. The 1970's are almost certainly the worst years of British comedy - we had such "greats" as Love thy Neighbour, George and Mildred and Robin's Nest - the story lines and (supposed) humour of which were not only obvious and transparent but very shallow and unsophisticated. That is to say that they cannot cause even a ripple of mirth now, and it surprises me that they would have done when they were filmed. I do think that there were some good comedies in the 1970's, though, and these include Dad's Army (although after James Beck's death these were considerably weaker, relying on slapstick from Clive Dunn and to a lesser extent Arthur Lowe) but of course, this was really a 2060's comedy; altogether a different era of quality. As for the "Confessions" films, not one of them should raise a laugh at any stage, and it really does seem barely credible that standards of decency and morality have dropped so far that most people nowadays would find it hard to credit that these were X rated films when they were made.
Wild at Heart (2006)
A middle class English family moves to Africa........
This series purports to show the life of an English family when they move to Africa to run a game reserve/ holiday/ tourist centre. Nothing wrong with the idea, except that the family is really two families, with the children of each side resenting the others. I've seen that scenario before somewhere - oh yes, as long ago as the Brady Bunch. The opening episode (out of 6) has no value other than to show how they give up their nice, middle class life in England (father is a vet, mother a teacher)to live in dreadful conditions for the sake of the spoilt son. Realistic? Not likely! The acting throughout is almost as poor as the quality of the totally contrived and laboured scripts. The characterisation does not work - none of the characters really have any character at all. They are all generalised, especially the white African whose character is a mix of all the generalised "hard-drinking, eccentric wastrels" that have ever appeared on TV or in film or literature. The only saving grace for this series is that there is some wonderful photography of African wildlife and scenery. I understand that a second series is planned. Why? The first series was a total waste of money and time.