Behaving Badly (British TV)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: B
While American TV fiddled with the awful idea of the
“Dramedy” that combined drama with the sitcom length and never worked, British
TV did much better when they came up with the mini-series Behaving Badly
in 1988. Though each show runs about an
hour, it looks like a situation comedy and the set up could have easily been
so, but the taped drama is very much a drama without any soap opera antics or
melodrama. Instead, Mark (Ronald
Pickup) suddenly tells his wife Bridget (Judi Dench) that he is having an
affair and that they might as well admit their marriage is over.
Feeling free all of the sudden, Bridget feels a great
sense of sudden freedom, but decides to annoy him and his new love Rebecca
(Frances Barber) before deciding what to do next. The four shows are entitled:
1) The Tale
Of The Turbot
2) Home
Fries
3) Seize
The Day
4) The
Horse May Talk
That does not give anyone a clue as to what is going on,
but that is a good thing, as the show has plenty of surprises and Joely
Richardson even has a supporting role.
In some ways, this actually reminded me of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,
yet director David Tucker manages to come up with something unique. This is not stuffy British TV as we know it,
but Catherine Heath’s book is well translated into teleplay form by Heath and
Moira Williams. Usually when Miss Dench
is on a box of British anything, the expectations are high. This set delivers as well as any, living up
to those expectations. If only it ran
longer that 203 minutes.
The 1.33 X 1 videotaped image was shot in the analog PAL
format and looks good for its age.
Channel Four obviously took care of the video masters. The Dolby Digital 2.0 are in stereo and may
have been early stereo TV from the sound of them. The music by Stephen Oliver is very good and appropriate for the
storylines. Extras are all text,
including a Dench bio, seven cast filmographies and piece on the original book
author. Behaving Badly is smart
TV drama at its best, but it is also something more. We recommend it highly.
- Nicholas Sheffo
