The Green Green Grass

2005

Seasons & Episodes

  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0

6.6| 0h30m| en
Synopsis

Sitcom spin-off from Only Fools and Horses, featuring the characters of Boycie and Marlene adapting to life in rural Shropshire. Starring John Challis and Sue Holderness

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Aaron Hassard Okay, this show is alright, funny in bits, story's are abit stupid sometimes (Farm Idol? what next) but overall a decent show, but it will never match the quality of Only Fools And Horses has (To Hull And Back, Strangers On The Shore, quality episodes), but i wonder if T.G.G.G will do 60,90 minute Christmas specials O.F.A.H had in the past.I'm hoping to get Series 1 on DVD for Christmas this year and am looking forward to seeing the pilot episode (never seen it before) in which Boycie And Marline sneak of to the country away from the Driscoll Brothers!I would recommend this show to fans of OFAH or people just interested in comedy!7/10
ShadeGrenade Whenever a hit sitcom appears, there will always be a spin-off. Sometimes more than one. Few manage to replicate the popularity of the original. Everyone has heard of 'M*A*S*H', but who remembers 'Trapper John'? Those who fondly remember 'Friends' do not feel as affectionate about 'Joey'. 'Going Straight' was funny, but no 'Porridge'. With 'The Green, Green Grass', John Sullivan tried to construct a semi-sequel to the much-loved, long running 'Only Fools & Horses'. A colossal task, whichever way you look at it.The premise is this; vicious gangsters Danny and Tony Driscoll ( Roy Marsden and Christopher Ryan ) are out of jail, and want revenge on the man whose evidence put them away - Boycie ( John Challis ). The terrified car dealer sells his business, and with wife Marlene ( sexy Sue Holderness ) and teenage son Tyler ( Jack Doolan ), abandons London, fleeing to the countryside to begin a new life. Of course being city folk they find it tough going. 'Green' is a 'fish out of water' show, a premise used before in countless shows, such as 'Two In Clover', and the U.S. shows 'The Beverly Hillbillies' and 'Green Acres'. Many 'O.F.A.H.' fans were unimpressed. The first season was patchy ( though the episode where Tyler tries to chat up a school girl only to discover she is his teacher was hilarious! ), but later ones showed signs of improvement. New writers were brought in, yet it still felt like Sullivan's baby. The supporting characters are stereotypes - the yokel farmhands, the idle housekeeper, the tight-fisted Welsh farmer - but it doesn't really matter. Sitcoms are traditionally full of stereotypes. Even new ones. Take a look at Miranda Hart's much-praised show and you'll see what I mean!Challis and Holderness are as good as ever, and David Ross hilarious as sly farmhand 'Elgin'. There was a change in format mid-way through the run as the Driscoll Brothers found Boycie ( with some help from Marlene's big mouthed sister, played by Paula Wilcox ). They forgave him, providing he stored a box of their money on his land.Whatever its faults, it did not warrant the juvenile hate-filled rants it attracted, and gave this reviewer at least one good laugh a week, which is more than most modern sitcoms can do now in a whole series. Four were made before the B.B.C. elected to close down Boycie's farm. I was sorry when this happened. The show had the potential to be special, but never quite made it.
Stephen Bailey I haven't felt so ashamed to be English since last Wednesday when Northern Ireland beat us at football. This show is AWFUL. I thought it would be bad but even my very worst expectations were surpassed, and then some. John Sullivan wrote the utterly brilliant Only Fools & Horses which - for more than 2 decades - was Britain's best loved sitcom and then he comes up with this trash. Boycie & Marlene, 2 of the characters from OF&H leave Peckham for a new life in the country and to avoid the infamous Driscoll brothers. Boycie's evidence "sent them down" but now they're out on a technicality and looking for revenge, apparently. I only hope they find the Boyce family, AND SOON. John Challis & Sue Holderness were both hilarious in the fabulous show which made them famous but this pathetic drivel doesn't even get off the starting blocks. They both seem to be struggling to remember their Boycie & Marlene characters and their son "Tyler" is played by a young actor who has about as much charisma as a whelk, and he looks like one too. There's no "soul" to this horrible show and it simply isn't funny. The only time I've even "smiled" so far has been when Boycie makes references to his mates the Trotters and that by the way is incredibly cheap of Mr Sullivan. Only Fools & Horses was SO successful because the audience didn't just care about Del & Rodney & Uncle Albert, we LOVED them and you just can't have Boycie & Marleen WITHOUT "the trotters" and their Reliant 3-wheeler. I'm prepared to bet anyone out there £100 that this show does not complete it's first series and then vanishes without trace. It should never have been made. 1 out of 10.
Tom For those who have BBC Three , they will be surprised to see Simon Day's "Grass" being well and truly ripped off by John Sullivan in this Only Fools and Horses spin off . In "Grass" Simon Day's character Billy Bleach "grassed" on a local London gangster and through the witness protection act was relocated to the sticks of Norfolk. The underrated six part comedy tackled the ideas of country meets city and a fish being out of a water. Replace Billy Bleach with Boycie and add Marlene and son Tyler and you have the plot for the "Green Green Grass" staring you in the face . The basic idea of the show is taking Sullivan's well loved east end (of London) humour from Only Fools And Horses and setting it in a completely different background , the opportunities for humour being how will a cockney con man interact with manure kicking yokels instead of the likes of his own ? Coming on BBC 1 on a Friday at 830 vastly limits and waters down the potential for border line humour and leaves the audience with the sort of harmless weak humour that has done "My Family" and "My Hero" no favours and also being an Only Fools And Horses spin off within the early moments the jokes feel very tired because we've had twenty years of it in Sullivan's first sit-com , for instance there is a scene at the beginning where Boycie finds that his satellite navigation system is not up to scratch and guess who sold it to him ?? This joke sets the tone for tired Only...jokes to be repeated again and again , I can imagine Boycie meeting country high society types in the next few episodes and making "hilarious" faux pas , which could be funny if Del Boy hadn't of done it for two decades of Only... . This show will ultimately fail because of the writer and because it is on 8.30 on BBC 1 , devoid and humour and ideas , the strings in your heart it will try to tug are better served by watching old episodes of Only on DVD.