Rank: Super forum user 
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Anybody bother watching on BBC 1 this first sample? I don't know who was the saddest.... me for watching or those acting in the programme attempting to make us laugh. Couldn't take anymore after 12 minutes of this garbage & 'canned laughter'.
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You lasted longer than me, I turned off after about 5 minutes.
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I watched it all the way through. It's a very eighties sit com and you could spot most of the jokes well before they were delivered.
I did laugh at his mission statement 'Our job is to identify risk, even where no such risk exists'
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I'm ashamed to admit I laughed at most of this last night
David Haig basically played the same character in that police station sit com
I like the way he rants on
The marmite bit & the dishwasher bit were very funny IMHO
As was the till sequence in the knicker shop
I agree some bits were very poor and ought to have ended on the cutting floor
My wife was giving me dirty looks all the way through, so she is obviously with Bob & Victor on this one.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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It's no joke having butter in your marmite jar.
Sadly I like the tap sequence, I have been there a few times trying to get my hands under the tap before the water stops.
The main part about closing the m25 as a need from altering a speed bump on a minor road I didn't find funny. The idea was there, but not funny.
I agree it did seem a bit 80's in style.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I reckon the Risk Reduction - LxS thread should be sent to Ben Elton - that'll give him something to build on & laugh about ;-)
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Very interesting article in the Mail today about how Ben Elton would have hated this type of formulaic, cliche ridden, typically English sitcom. He has come a long way since the Young Ones and Blackadder, mostly backwards it seems.
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Rank: Super forum user
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pl53 wrote:Very interesting article in the Mail today about how Ben Elton would have hated this type of formulaic, cliche ridden, typically English sitcom. He has come a long way since the Young Ones and Blackadder, mostly backwards it seems.
Maybe he needed the money.
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Rank: Forum user
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Didn't catch it myself but it's worth bearing in mind that some of the best comedies had ropey starts. Fawlty Towers, Men Behaving Badly, The Black Adder, Only Fools and Horses... none were held with a particularly high regard until they'd got a few episodes at least under their belt.
It may just be a case of it needing to find it's stride.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Unfortunately, I had to sit through the first 15 minutes of this. The only thing missing was Mr. Bean: now that would have really given it more credibility (and perhaps a few more laughs). I had hoped that this puerile style of "comedy" had died out with the "Thin Blue Line".
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Rank: Super forum user
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Ben Elton seems to have become the Hamer Radshaw of comedy, all fire and passion waving his metaphorical sabre at the comedy establishment only to sell out and join that same establishment when fame is achieved.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I missed it, altho from all the comments on here and another forum I think I shall carry on 'missing' it
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Rank: Super forum user
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I stayed well clear of it.
I didn't like 'The thin blue line'. I thought it was some of the worst 'comedy' I have ever clapped eyes on.
I remember when I put my arm through a glass door when I was a kid- I knew that if I looked it would be bad, but I had to do it. I think this is the same- I am going to have to watch it. Just to see HOW bad it really is.
Andy
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Rank: Forum user
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pl53 wrote:Very interesting article in the Mail today about how Ben Elton would have hated this type of formulaic, cliche ridden, typically English sitcom. He has come a long way since the Young Ones and Blackadder, mostly backwards it seems.
Could not agree more with the above quote.
Should sell well to the Americans - lots of canned laughter and nothing actually funny.
Full speed reverse Ben.
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Rank: Forum user 
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It was just awful! I did watch it all the way through, I just kept thinking it would get better, but it didn't. There were one or two moments where the corners of my mouth turned up slightly but that was it. I don't know which was more annoying, the canned laughter, the poor 'jokes' or the fact that I wasted half an hour of my life
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Motorhead wrote:
I didn't like 'The thin blue line'. I thought it was some of the worst 'comedy' I have ever clapped eyes on.
You are quite right. I had forgotten that Ben Elton had written that drivel too. This is a dead-ringer and even has the same OTT pantomime actor in the lead role
I have carried out a risk assessment and there's absolutely no danger I will waste any more time watching another episode
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I only laughed once; when he phoned from within he shop to get to the front of the queue. All a bit predictable. Sometimes it is good to see the joke coming (think Lee Mack / Not Going Out) but this was painful!
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Rank: Super forum user
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Well I'm looking forward to tomorrow's second installment - can it get worst ???
Evidently it's about banning conkers - nice to see Ben is bang up to date with a topical issue
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Rank: Super forum user
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I caught the repeat of the first episode, and it was pretty dire, as most British sitcoms are these days. David Haig seemed to be doing his best with a puerile script and irritating characters.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Since my name is Wright, and I'm a safety consultant, I have kept well away from this series :o)) I haven't even checked when it's on.
Anyone at the local IOSH who has one of my cards..... yes, along the bottom it says: "Health & Safety - the WRIGHT way" !!!! I have my son to thank for that slogan (from back in 2007)
So far none of my customers have mentioned the TV series :8o
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I know 99% will say I need to grow a sense of humour (I do have one, honestly!), I just don't think this sort of thing helps our profession. I am a fan of David Haig (I liked the Yes, Prime Minister remake), but he made it clear during an interview that H & S generally gets on peoples' nerves.
At a time when we all get moans and groans for what H & S 'doesn't allow us to do', this just re-enforces the stereotype.
For that reason, I'm not watching it.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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JohnW...I share your predicament....
Whilst the series is supposed to be based on a London Borough, the building they fleetingly show is actually Stockport Town Hall!
Zyggy - recently ex-Head of H&S at Stockport Council.....!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Relax. Calm down. Take a chill pill. There is no criticism, no disapproval or disapprobation, no slight is intended.
It's not your fault. Ever! How old it be?
You're only there to advise, mistakes are somebody else's responsibility
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Rank: Super forum user
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For what it's worth, I quite enjoyed last nights episode - better than the 1st one....
Anyway, on a frivilous note, I wonder where I can get a Basilricky Town Council clip board?
Jim
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Rank: Super forum user
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Saw the trailer for this last night..... looked awful!
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zyggy wrote:JohnW...I share your predicament....
Whilst the series is supposed to be based on a London Borough, the building they fleetingly show is actually Stockport Town Hall!
Zyggy - recently ex-Head of H&S at Stockport Council.....!
My mental image of you has changed forever
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switched off after 10mins and went to bed when they started messing with mannequins
never mind try again next week may improve
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I was looking forward to some cleaver satire with a multi dimensional approach that pleased a range of audiences (including us safety bods)
Boy was I disappointed :)
What's worse is I made my wife watch it...
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Rank: Super forum user
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teh_boy wrote:I was looking forward to some cleaver satire with a multi dimensional approach that pleased a range of audiences (including us safety bods)
If that's a typo, it's the best one I've seen all week - made me chuckle!
As an aside, my weirdest sight this week has to be that of a Morris dancer riding a tricycle whilst wearing full paraphernalia!
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NickH wrote:teh_boy wrote:I was looking forward to some cleaver satire with a multi dimensional approach that pleased a range of audiences (including us safety bods)
If that's a typo, it's the best one I've seen all week - made me chuckle!
As an aside, my weirdest sight this week has to be that of a Morris dancer riding a tricycle whilst wearing full paraphernalia!
:) - oops
My weirdest sight - was outside my house on a new build construction site.
A ground-worker had the rear door of his van open, inside amongst tools, was a goose in a cage!!!! (it wasn't riding a tricycle though so I think you win!)
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Rank: Super forum user
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I thought it was great fun. It put it all into focus. They could make a script up from some of the stuff printed here :-)
If we cannot have a giggle at the mirror we may as well pack it all in.
No worse than 'Rising Damp' etc. A little dated but come on, it's only people taking the whatsit out of us and rightly so on times.
Have a smile :-) and use the off switch. This a H&S site not a a tv show (or is it?)
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Rank: Super forum user
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I managed to watch about 5 minutes of the show.
As I suspected- it was terrible.
Not the subject matter- comedy can be found almost anywhere by a good writer- but the writing, and acting, in this show was the problem. It was like watching 'the thin blue line' in a different setting. Dreadful.
Just my opinion.
Andy
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Rank: Super forum user
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I spotted this elsewhere:
"it's badder than a bad sitcom that has been written by a graduate of the Mr Bad School of Painfully Cliched Sitcom Writing."
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Rank: New forum user
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Watched three of the four episodes just to see if it would get any better and it somehow managed to keep getting worse. Absolutely horrendous.
A google search for "Ben Elton terrible" fills the first results page up with articles about the Wright Way...says it all really.
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Well......I don't often watch the telly but prompted by all these comments I decided to find out what all the fuss was about - courtesy of the iplayer.
And....after having spent two hours of my life watching all four episodes.....I concluded that it was rather good. Mrs Al came through to find out what all the noise was - it was me laughing. Yes it was brash, yes some of the acting was a bit wooden and most of the jokes were so obvious that you could see them coming - but wasn't that the point of it? It was intended to caricature members of the profession by exaggerating their excesses and I had a good laugh at those whose character traits I recognised. Of course it was not a caricature of me or any of those who inhabit this board. We are all too self aware for that and of course we are consummate professionals. It was a caricature of those who in their approach to the management of safety are a bit wooden and predictable, those whose "passion" about health and safety is greater than their common sense, those who feel that they have a right to be heard because they feel they inhabit the moral high ground, those who are tolerated by their colleagues because the law requires us to have "a health and safety bod".
Mrs Al decided to pull up a chair and watch an episode while having her Horlicks. At the end she said: "he's a bit like you Al".
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
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I like a bit of poetry :-)
Rob
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I too watched on iplayer then watched last night on TV, there have been a few funny moments but starting to get a bit silly and repetative now. Thought the first couple of acronyms were ok but by the time we got to 'UTTER CRAP' last night it was losing the humour.
Worrying thing for me is my 14 yr old daughter said I have 1. moaned at her for not loading dishwasher correctly 2. Complained about overloading bin 3.Ranted on about one sheet of paper left on loo roll. Dont think I have had a rant about shirt pins yet maybe its due to cheaper shirts I buy.
Time to stop watching or seek a change in career me thinks
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Rank: Super forum user
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zimmy wrote:Have a smile :-) and use the off switch. This a H&S site not a tv show (or is it?)
How can you be sure. I'm a firm believer that The Truman Show was a real life documentary of a show within a show, to keep the troublemakers in line. ;o)
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Rank: Forum user
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Awful....not funny. Ben Elton has never been funny anyway. I caught 5 mins the other day which was enough. I did notice however, they had an incomplete H&S poster on the wall :-)
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