Happy Families (TV series)
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: This article is about the 1985 comedy series written by Ben Elton. Happy Families is also a series of children's storybooks by Allan Ahlberg, which were also converted into a television programme.
Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family.
It starred Jennifer Saunders as Granny Fuddle and Adrian Edmondson (Saunders' real-life husband) as her imbecilic grandson Guy. The plot centred around Guy's attempts to find his four sisters for a family reunion.
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[edit] Plot
After an introductory episode, further editions centred on Guy's global searches for each sister and his attempts to persaude them to return home to the family village of Fuddlewich. It was not an easy task - Cassie had become a superstar in a Dynasty-style soap opera in the US, Madelaine had joined a commune in France, Roxeanne was in prison in HMP Strangeways in Manchester, England (re-named 'Long Mangley' in the series) and Joyce, who had become a (very ineffectual) nun.
Each of the four sisters were also played by Saunders, showing to great effect her uncanny ability to change herself physically from character to character.
The series culminated in the final episode where all the sisters were reunited with their grandmother (meaning that Saunders was playing five characters at once and the film editors had to work hard) only for Granny Fuddle to announce her real motives for sending Guy to find them - she was suffering from an illness which required four separate transplantations from close family members of the same gender, for which she begrudgingly offered contracts for an advance on their inheritance as payment.
It turned out she had been misdiagnosed by her doctor (played by Stephen Fry) who had mixed up Granny Fuddle's urine sample with that of her cook, played by Dawn French. It turned out that Cook was suffering from the disease (from which she died, at which point the error was realised) and Granny Fuddle was, in fact, (and with some implausibility synonymous with Elton scribblings) pregnant. She subsequently gave birth to a son but her granddaughters still took their inheritances, leaving her penniless.
The other main character in the programme was the sweet and thick maid Flossie, played by Helen Lederer who was hopelessly in love with Guy, despite the fact that he always treated her with contempt.
[edit] Visual style
The most innovative thing about the series was the "style" of film in which each sister's story was shot; for example, Cassie's story was shot on 16mm to make it appear to be a U.S. soap opera, Madelaine's story was shot in soft focus to make it appear to be a French film, Roxeanne was filmed as though to be appearing in a gritty BBC documentary, etc.
[edit] Critical reception
The programme was a cult hit though not an enormous ratings winner and strayed away from bonafide sitcom by being shot entirely on location and without a live audience. Critics didn't know what to make of it on its first broadcast - was it a comedy or a comedy drama...?
It also made Elton the youngest lone BBC scriptwriter on a mainstream programme at the age of 26. He had shot to prominence three years earlier as the chief writer on The Young Ones. Despite the fact that it was not a critical success, Elton still considers it to be one of the best things he has ever written.
[edit] Trivia
- A budget was allocated for a second series, which was never commissioned. As a result, the money was used to produce the first series of Red Dwarf.
