There are some shows out their that go on for so long that they get fans across many generations across many decades. With the show that i'm talking about today being one such show as this show lasted a whopping thirty one series with the show itself lasting around thirty to forty years well what not alot of people is that show spawned a feature length special and that's what i'm going to be talking about today and so then join me as I review the episode that sees three friends try to bring someone home with the episode in question being called simply just "Getting Sam Home" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when someone called Sam gets into trouble at his girlfriends house it's up three friends to get him home again before his wife finds out. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as it was a rather simple which is common place for this show with the plot also being really enjoyable as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Bill Owen as Compo , Wallace & Gromit star Peter Sallis as Clegg and Porridge star Brian Wilde as Foggy. Also starring in this episode is Lynda Baron as Lily Bless Her , Olive Pendleton as Sybil , Peter Russell as Sam , Muriel Rogers as Mamsy , Jim Marsh as Dadsy , John Comer as Sid , Jane Freeman as Ivy , Joe Gladwin as Wally Batty , Kathy Staff as Nora Batty , David Williams as Mr. Fairburn , Johnny Leeze as 'Our kid' Colin , Max Beesley Snr as Colin's Mate , Christine Cox as Cousin Olive , Ken Kitson as PC Cooper , Bill Croasdale as Police Sergeant and Tony Melody as The Voice Of Sid.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. Which for this show isn't all that new as this shows cast members is usually made up of a bunch of really talented and funny actors and actresses and it really does help that the script for this this episode is so good that all the cast have to do is just say the words as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
This episode started the trend of having ninety minuet or longer TV specials of British comedies as before this episode the longest any special episode of comedy would be is sixty minuets long. This is something that for alot of cases does work as it allows them all to tell much more epic stories then what they could usually do but at the same time tho it also means that alot of the episodes just end up with a ton of filler that add nothing to any of the episodes but as someone who is a die hard fan of Only Fools And Horses it was nice to see where this tradition started as it is something that Only Fools did for alot of their Christmas specials.
Believe it or not this episode or film or whatever it is that you want to call it is based of the novel of the exact same name. With both the book and every single episode of Last Of The Summer Wine being written by Roy Clarke while the book is very sadly hard to find a copy of nowadays thanks to a review on the books Amazon UK page the book does expand upon certain scenes from the episode with somethings being made alot more clearer in the book then they are in the TV version some of which adds to certain jokes whilst others make characters and their story in this episode seem alot more tragic then what they already are.
From what little information I can gather this episode was always meant to be a made for television production. With star Bill Owen taking a copy of the book to series director and producer Alan J. W. Bell and suggested that the novel would make for a great TV special and he's not wrong as the story is more fitting for an episode of the show then what it would be for a theatrically released film as it's a storyline that's more in line and in keeping with the shows more relaxing nature both of which make it a perfect special to be broadcast over the Christmas holidays with special not really having anything in it that will upset or even really offend anybody whatsoever.
To me it's oddly entertaining that alot of people in the village no of this affair including Sam's wife as well. This is something that would be a long running joke within the show itself as the show did have characters that were having affairs but everybody knew about it despite both of the people having the affair trying to keep it a secret heck the show would introduce three characters not long after this special where that was one of their only jokes and it's a joke that still works as the joke isn't them having an affair it's how the husband is going to get caught that makes the joke work with this episode showing what happens when the husband is on death's door and still having the affair that led him to his current and final predicament.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty seven minuets and forty seconds. Which is almost three times the length of an average episode of the show with the show having an average running time of around twenty seven minuets and to this episodes credit it does make the most of that running time but at the same time it doesn't really have alot their interms of plot to cover that large amount of running time with the episode basically repeating itself around the halfway mark all of which just makes me wish that this episode was a tad bit shorter but I will admit tho that this episode does have some pretty good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that means that I gave to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in his very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episode and the shows humor in general being very gentle and very family friendly with alot of the episodes jokes still managing to get a smile out of me but at the same time tho there are some jokes that really haven't all that well but those are very few and far between in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this wasn't a bad episode of this truly iconic sitcom and it's one that I think alot of British will love and that alot of Americans will feel very in different towards in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 9 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very review being the wonderful Google Images as since all of the images that are all currently up and of course featured / presented to us on the great Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.