The Wackers

1970s British tv sitcom

The Clarksons is typical Liverpool family - they live in small house of red bricks, where there isn’t much space for anyone. Billy Clarkson, father and husband, just returns after 2 years spent on a merchant ship... Well, almost - he spent last 2 years in prison.

Vince Powell created 11 different sitcoms in his rich career, but the one thing that can be said about them is that they were never subtle and often are now considered offensive (deservedly or not is completely different matter). George and the Dragon, Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width, Love Thy Neighbour, Odd Man Out, Mind Your Language or Never the Twain - all had their fair share of criticism during original run and often were more or less banned from TV in modern times due to raging political correctness warriors. He often written scripts that were using elements of religion, race or descent as basis for comedy, but very rarely they were in bad taste or were going too far.

And The Wackers in another example of such treatment of his work - a typical sitcom presenting a bit cartoonish family from Liverpool - Billy Clarkson, head of the family and devoted Liverpool fan, just got out of the jail and starts his life fresh while his wife took care of their kids when he was absent. After 2 years inside Billy has to adapt to things that changed in his neighbourhood - his kids have grown up, the local pub have changed the owner to Everton supporter, he has to get a job and start to support his family.

There are reasons to call The Wackers a one of the forgettable sitcoms from 1970s - the premise wasn’t that good, the characters were far too simple, the scripts not very challenging, but since the premiere the sitcom was mostly criticised for the crude dialogues and lack of political correctness, which is hardly a case if you compare it to some of the modern time comedy series, like Peep Show. The premise was similar to Going Straight (starring Ronnie Barker), the overtones were similar to other shows, but in general The Wackers was just average sitcom of its times (and even slightly below average).

Rating	4.0
Funny	4 / 10
Entertaining	2 / 5
Characters	2 / 5
Nonrepetitive	2 / 5