There’s a glaring gap in the 80s comedy DVD releases, and it’s Happy Families, by Ben Elton, starring Adrian Edmondson and Jennifer Saunders.
I was lucky enough to catch it on one of its rare repeat runs (sometime in the 90s I think), and haven’t seen it since. There was never a second series (by intent), and the budget that had been allocated for that second series was used for the first series of Red Dwarf instead.
Five years later, in 1990, Channel Four sort of emulated the format, with Set Of Six, this time with Roland Rivron (co-written by Ian Brown), playing different members of the same family. A few episodes were even directed by Gerald Scarfe.
Here’s a quick scene from Happy Families.
Saunders role was initially going to be taken by Emma Thompson, who ended up doing Me & My Girl instead. That is also something I would have liked to have seen.
