Dated or Delightful? 'A Fine Romance'
When it comes to British telly, I find myself watching a lot of current series -mostly gritty police dramas or edgy comedies- which I enormously appreciate and enjoy. But sometimes after a tension-filled binge session witnessing the heart wrenching things people endure living in the dead-end tower blocks, I need a bit of lighter fare to balance out the desperation.
Recently I’ve been trying out series from a kinder, gentler age; shows that before I might have passed by assuming them to be old-fashioned and irrelevant. Then I thought, why not make it an experiment out of it? While expanding my British TV repertoire, I could examine the entertainment value of these programs for myself and in the end declare them “dated” or “delightful”. Any excuse for watching telly, right?
My first attempt at this venture was the thirty-five-year-old ITV sitcom, A Fine Romance. Starring Michael Williams and Judi Dench, this series ran from 1981 to 1984. It chronicles the romantic relationship that develops between stubborn yet insecure foreign language translator Laura Dalton (Dench) and hapless but endearing landscape gardener Mike Selway (Williams).
