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No Place Like Home

BELOW-PAR BONHOMIE that looked and felt like it should have been on the light channel. A bored-looking WILLIAM GAUNT traipsed around a two-up two-down with a hilariously large and wacky extended family in tow causing untold havoc. MARTIN CLUNES was one of them. Used to pop into the greenhouse with neighbour (ginger Dave Allen sidekick bloke, MICHAEL SHARVELL-MARTIN) for a crafty sherry. Titles were an embroidery hung on the wall, which fell off to comedy piano and big laughs. Every fucking time.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Glenn A

    June 25, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    Didn’t they live in the type of home beloved of BBC and Thames sitcom scriptwriters, a thirties semi in the London suburbs with a Cortina in the drive? These sitcoms with Tory voting Middle England parents and very slightly rebelllious teeenage offspring seemed to be very big in those days. Most were awful, though, but No Place Like Home wasn’t that bad AIRC.

  2. Richard16378

    June 25, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    My Dad like this, & washes it would be repeated again as he could get the irony of having children move in & out a few times in their early adulthood.

    I know it’s on DVD now, but if BBC2 have another mid afternoon repeat season it would be perfect.

  3. Droogie

    June 27, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    My main memory of watching this back then was the ginger bloke ( Stephen Watson) who played Martin Clunes’ brother in this tragically dying in a car crash in Spain at the age of 26 before the last season he’d recorded was screened, which added a morbid tone to watching the show. There seemed to be a lot of watching tragically expired people in the last thing they ever recorded back then – Gary Horton in Auf Weidenshen Pet and that teenage kid on Blockbusters who won all 5 Gold Runs as a double team who died in a cycling accident before the shows went out come to mind.

    • THX 1139

      June 29, 2017 at 12:59 pm

      I remember the 5 Gold Run kid, he and his friend were a great team – wasn’t he called Owen something? Then right after they had won their fifth, the continuity announcer told us he was dead, and it was really shocking. They were so delighted when they won the holiday.

      • Droogie

        June 29, 2017 at 2:33 pm

        I seem to recall learning he’d died early on into his appearances. It made for really sad viewing – especially hearing him say unfortunate things like ” I’m dying of nerves here” and “the tension is killing me” during the show. I also remember Bob Holness recording a special announcement after the lad’s final show offering condolences to his family and friends. Another sad thing was they’d always flash up a photo of the previous gold run winners wearing the Blockbuster t-shirt each contestant could win, so you saw the poor soul and his friend smiling away happily for weeks after he passed away.

  4. Droogie

    June 27, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    *Gary Holton of course, not Horton

  5. Richard16378

    June 28, 2017 at 6:59 pm

    Joan Sanderson died between the making & screening of the last series of After Henry.

    I read that someone in The Tripods died not long after it was made, though not playing one of the main characters.

    • Andrew Barton

      October 11, 2021 at 10:08 pm

      Clearly the budget had been cut on the last series of After Henry, because a new production team was brought in, and the theme tune was replaced by a cheesy version.

      It was the last series before Thames lost their franchise.

      Someone from Home and Away was in it – it wasn’t Cornelia Frances though, who would have suited After Henry.

  6. Glenn A

    July 4, 2017 at 11:30 am

    The main loss to me was Roger Delgado being killed in the summer of 1973( he was THE Master for me). It badly affected John Pertwee, who was close to Delgado, and contributed to him leaving Doctor Who the following year. Anthony Ainley, The Master in the last Tom Baker season, tried too hard to be like Delgado for me and for all I think John Sim is good as the current Master, The Master should really be played by an older actor with dark hair.

  7. Richardpd

    July 22, 2021 at 2:33 pm

    Now on Forces TV.

    It’s the first time I’ve seen it in over 30 years & seems OK, though as it was the first episode things haven’t settled down yet, with not much of Arthur & Trevor hiding out in the greenhouse drinking cheap sherry.

    • Glenn Aylett

      July 22, 2021 at 6:08 pm

      I suppose these sitcoms will have a comforting, warm glow around that modern sitcoms mostly lack( not there are many left these days). You know that for all the kids might be a little bit naughty, sly glass of sherry, heavy metal album on the music centre, ” alternative” partner, you know they’re not going to do something seriously wrong like hide class A drugs in the sideboard. Also the parents come round to the partner or laugh off the minor misdemeanours and the credits roll, with everyone smiling and a happy theme tune playing.

    • WHS

      October 19, 2022 at 1:19 pm

      How do you hide in a greenhouse?

      • Richardpd

        October 19, 2022 at 10:45 pm

        Wasn’t it at the bottom of the garden full of gardening stuff?

        • Glenn Aylett

          October 20, 2022 at 5:07 pm

          The sort of mildly rebellious but ultimately good natured fun these sitcoms thrived on. I suppose had No Place Like Home been made on the early Channel 4, then the two sons would have disowned their bourgeois parents, joined the SWP and been banged up for attacking the police on a demo. No, having a sly glass of sherry was as far as rebellion went on No Place Like Home on BBC One in 1984.

  8. Andrew Barton

    October 11, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Patricia Garwood, who played Beryl, has since passed away too.

  9. Tom Ronson

    October 24, 2022 at 4:02 am

    Discordant piano plonk, tapestry falls off the wall, cue a startled ‘WHOOP!’ from the sherry-stoked women’s institute members in the audience. Dave Allen’s mate in the shed. Did anything else happen, ever?

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