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Home to Roost

Reece and John discuss adding a second room to their pretend house GOLD STANDARD mid-evening goofery with none-more-80s “sit” involving a grumpy JOHN THAW having to put up with layabout son REECE DINSDALE singularly failing to find his own place and regularly succeeding in thwarting his old man’s quest for a nice bit of peace and quiet. Stellar opening sequence saw big on-screen title letters “flying” over London city-scape a la WOGAN to a nifty electro-fied version of ‘Consider Yourself’ (all slap bass and wah wah brass). Instant cut to the cheapest, dirtiest and sparsest of all ITV sitcom sets confirmed suspicion that all the money had been spent on the titles, but no matter. Every episode revolved around John getting irked by Reece bringing home a) a new girlfriend b) a new hairstyle c) a new obsession such as learning to drive or acting; followed John getting to really rather appreciate the merits of a), b) and c) so long as they’re not too loud and don’t spoil his bergonias; followed by Reece taking umbrage and storming out; followed by John feeling guilty and confiding in busybody cleaner Enid; followed by one or other holding some kind of party/gathering in the house to which the other isn’t invited but shows up anyway; followed by the pair sitting at opposite ends of the sofa at the end of the night trading coy insults; followed by John pulling a will-he-never-learn face and going to bed. Repetition was the key, making for endlessly reassuring, dependable suburbacom.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. gman

    April 17, 2010 at 9:49 pm

    Possibly the last decent sitcom on ITV (certainly in the traditional studio audience based type), Henry Willows was just Jack Regan without the swearing and fags to me, and Reece Dinsdale was a tad annoying, but it was good fun nonetheless

  2. Richardpd

    July 22, 2023 at 12:17 pm

    Possibly the second best show from Eric Chappell, I can remember Channel 4 repeating it in the mid 1990s.

    Interestingly it managed to get an American version made, You Again? with Jack Klugman.

  3. David Smith

    July 22, 2023 at 10:50 pm

    I lived in Switzerland on a year out from university, and remember watching it dubbed u to Italian. Weirdly they also showed You’re Only Young Twice, and ALF.

  4. Glenn Aylett

    July 23, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    Could You’re Only Young Twice be one of the worst of a generally dismal set of ITV sitcoms in the late seventies, It lasted four series for some obscure reason as almost everyone seemed to hate it. Perhaps being set in an old people’s home might have given it an audience among those close to the end of their lives, but not to anyone else.
    Home To Roost, though, quite good for ITV in those days, great parping theme tune and John Thaw being a grumpy middle aged man, like he always was then. Repeated a few years ago on ITV 3 and 40 years later still raised a few laughs.

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