Majorthebys Charming and brutal

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

O2D I enjoy this show but it's very average. It's just him trying to make conservatives look as bad as possible and it's not always funny. The first season has some weird transvestite character that seems to have no reason to be there but it ends up being the funniest character. Having Charles Gray in two episodes really helped, they should have kept him in the show.

RaspberryLucozade This, in my opinion, is satirical comedy at its very finest. It was a vehicle created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran to showcase the talents of Rik Mayall ( who had become a household name with viewers in the early '80's with 'The Young Ones' and 'The Comic Strip Presents' ) which came about after Mayall, who was impressed by their earlier hit 'Shine On Harvey Moon', had approached Marks and Gran to pen a show for him. The result was 'The New Statesman', made by Yorkshire Television in 1987.Here Rik played Alan Beresford B'Stard, a Tory MP for Haltemprice who has the largest majority of votes in The House Of Commons. B'Stard is a corrupt, sleazy, loathsome backbencher who only obtains his seat by default after plotting a fatal car crash between the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates. His wife is Sarah, a devious bisexual who despises Alan but stays married to him for his money. Alan too only remains married to Sarah because her father, Roland Gidleigh Park ( played by the late Charles Gray ), controls the local Conservative party. In parliament, Alan shares an office with Piers Fletcher Dervish, a well meaning but extremely dim-witted MP who often finds himself involved in Alan's schemes and scams.In the first episode, Alan cleared a law which allowed the police to carry firearms, however the guns he supplied for them were defective an in another he engineered the liquidation of a company in which his wife has shares in. In a sketch created for 'Comic Relief' in 1988, we even saw Alan attempt to shut down the BBC.As the evil B'Stard, the late Rik Mayall was outstanding to say the least. He certainly was not recognisable as the goofy Rick from 'The Young Ones'. Marks and Gran's scripts cleverly combined visual slapstick comedy with satire. One of the most memorable recurring jokes in the series is Alan's inability to make sex last any longer than half a minute ( which he believes is a sign of virility ). Also excellent in the cast were the stunningly beautiful Marsha Fitzalan as Sarah and Michael Troughton as the dippy Piers. Rowena Cooper appeared in the first series as Alan's financial adviser Norman Borman, who is undergoing a sex change in order to elude a prison sentence.After series three, Alan deported from Westminster to Brussels to become an M.E.P and in the final episode, 'The Irressistible Rise Of Alan B'Stard', he became Prime Minister of Great Britain. It seemed by this point that the show had run out of ideas. In 1994, a special episode entitled 'A. B'Stard Exposed' was made for BBC Television in which Alan was interviewed by Brian Walden to reveal his vision of 21st Century Britain. This was indeed the last viewers saw of B'Stard.Like 'Spitting Image' and the later 'Drop The Dead Donkey', many of the topical references used in 'The New Statesman' have resulted in it looking dated. Nonetheless, it is one of the greatest sitcoms to emerge from the 1980's and proved that Mayall was capable of so much more than farting and hitting people with frying pans.

ShadeGrenade By the mid-80's, Rik Mayall was firmly established as one of the biggest comedy stars on British television, thanks to 'A Kick Up The '80's' in which he had played the idiotic Kevin Turvey, and of course 'The Young Ones'. Lawrence Marks and Maurice Gran had created the brilliant 'Shine On Harvey Moon' which Mayall admired, so it seemed only natural to combine their talents.The title 'The New Statesman' had been used three years earlier for a now-forgotten Windsor Davies B.B.C. sitcom. Marks and Gran's series centred around Alan Beresford B'Stard, Machiavellian Tory M.P. for Haltemprice, a man so corrupt and evil as to defy description. He only wins his seat by default after arranging for the other candidates to perish in a car crash. He is married to the lovely Sarah, who plays the devoted wife in public but is in reality a promiscuous bisexual. Alan shares an office at The House Of Commons with Piers Fletcher-Dervish, with whom he has a 'Blackadder/Baldrick' style relationship. A running gag in the first series had Alan's financial adviser Norman Bormann trying to escape a prison sentence by undergoing a sex change. Credited as 'R.R. Cooper', the character was in fact portrayed by Rowena Cooper.I remember watching this back in 1987 and finding it hard to believe it was a Yorkshire Television production. 'Statesman' had the gloss of a London Weekend Television series. Each episode had Alan embarking on some new 'get-rich-quick' project; in the first he gets the law changed to enable policemen to carry guns. Guess who supplies the weapons? In another, Alan stores nuclear waste under a school. In the series' best episode, Alan was apparently assassinated, but as we later found out, it was another cunning ploy on his part.Mayall was simply superb as the scheming 'B'Stard', a character a world away from 'Rick' of 'The Young Ones', and he was ably supported by sexy Marsha Fitzalan as 'Sarah' and Michael Troughton as the imbecilic 'Piers'.The final series took Alan away from Westminister and to Brussels, where he became an M.E.P. Though it had its moments, it wasn't as funny as before. At the very end of the final episode, Alan becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain. Despite the topical references to Thatcher and Reagan, 'Statesman' has dated far less badly than, say, 'Spitting Image'.Mayall recently revived B'Stard in a West End stage show, which I haven't seen, but I think Marks and Gran made a blunder in having him defect to New Labour. B'Stard has Tory written through him like Blackpool rock. They should have waited for the Tories to regain power before bringing back B'Stard.If nothing else, the show proved there was more to Rik Mayall than nose picking and farting. Here he proved that he could do satirical farce, and do it extremely well.

Chew-7 When I first sat down to view my first helping of "The new statesman" I was of course expecting a programme with a fantastic mix of Rik Mayall's wonderful wit and charm, his comic acting genius and the creative talent of Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks. I'll be honest... I was not disappointed! It had all of these along with bag fulls of beautiful political corruption thrown in at every opportunity. A treat from beginning to end, while Rik's character, (suitably named "Alan B'stard) managed week in week out to be the most cruel, obnoxious and all round disturbingly corrupt um, "B'stard" on TV, yet still came away with the audience loving him. The only warning that I will give is that if you're looking for another "Bottom" then this is not the place! In fact the ideal viewer for this show would be a half-crazed political mess who adores Rik Mayall's wiley wit and charm... Oh, and it would help if you're a bit left wing, and if you're right wing... Have a laugh at yourself!