When I sit down to watch a repeat of My Family, I know I’m in for half an hour of laughter. Sometimes the tears running down my face sort, it’s so funny, like the episode where Susan Harper gets her OBE - think broken heel, torn jacket and chocolate fountain. So why do I find that comedy so funny whilst others, like ‘Warren’, BBC’s new sit com, leave me completely unmoved?
There are similarities with the main character. Warren and Ben Harper are both miserable old gits who’s schemes usually come a cropper, but The wife and kids in My Family are part of the hilarity, whilst they seemed to be just characters to be bullied and exploited in Warren.
Warren was, at times, uncomfortable viewing, because the family did not fight back. Nick Harper was forever the Bain of his dad’s life with his outrageous schemes, and the comedy was in dad’s futile attempts to outmanoeuvre him. But the boys in Warren seemed to just be stooges for their nasty step-dad, one who had no redeeming features in my eyes. The show simply wasn’t funny.
There are plenty of comedies in the same line.
Martin Clunes is a great comedy actor, but something seems very amiss with his new role. Perhaps next week it will improve and there will be a little more warmth and humour in the show to give us some laughs
