» best comedy series
» best sitcoms
» best American sitcoms
» best British sitcoms
» worst sitcoms
» American sitcoms
» British sitcoms
» Australian sitcoms
» German sitcoms
» Polish sitcoms
After death of her husband Sheila Haddon has problems with paying off the mortgage of her house. Just as she almost gave up hope she came up with an idea not to lose the house - she decided to take lodgers.
After death of her husband Sheila Haddon is left with daughter Monica and beautiful house... that she can’t afford. Desperate to keep the place, where she spent her marriage she comes up with plan to take lodgers and thus gather money to pay the mortgage installments. Although she finds the lodgers, they are a bit short on cash themselves, so she has to count on her friend Richard Beamish, wealthy ex-navy officer, who clearly is in love with her. She also takes odd jobs to make the ends meet, but she is somehow unlucky and always gets in trouble.
In 1985 Richard Ommanney created BBC sitcom Three Up, Two Down about young couple expecting a baby and thus forced to find the lodgers to help with their financial situation. Year later he created All at No 20 for Thames Television, which is based on pretty much same prelude, although he replaced young couple with a widow. The idea that complete strangers end up in same house was often used in comedy, but All at No 20 is not the one that would end up on a poster for that sub-genre of comedy series. The Lipman’s performances were very similar to her Jane Lucas character in Agony - very uneven. She is lost, but she really isn’t, she is smart and independent, but she really depends on other people, she is cynical, but yet warm, etc. The lodgers are more or less forgettable characters (except Henry played by Martin Clunes, who actually got some distinctive personality). When in series 2 new writers took over the show the scripts were slightly better, but still the whole basic idea was flawed. Third series were planned, but since second series was panned by the critics the idea was finally dropped.
Overall All at No 20 is a proof that 1980s (with few glorious exceptions) were really poor era in British comedy - the show was uneven, superficial and rather forgettable.
Rating | 4.0 |
Funny | 3 / 10 |
Entertaining | 2 / 5 |
Characters | 2 / 5 |
Nonrepetitive | 3 / 5 |
1986 Series 1 |
1987 Series 2 |