Anthology set in a village hall, used by various groups of people. All but four episodes had different writers so there is no connection except the hall. In reality one would expect some of the more gregarious characters to appear in more than one setting. The large combined cast rather suggests one of those towns that snobbishly calls itself a village. They are of variable quality, probably not untypically I preferred those where the subject is of some interest to me. My favourites:
Mr Ellis Versus the People. Cynical, world weary Mr Ellis (Ron Moody) is the presiding officer the day the hall becomes a polling station. He is assisted by a young eager beaver who does everything by the book, and invariably irritates. It develops into an extended lampoon of aggressive, inebriated, but mostly dim witted and indecisive voters. It's a shame the women tellers from the main parties had virtually nothing to do, a missed opportunity for verbal jousting.
Battleground. Colonel Dean (Cyril Luckham) is the driving force behind an annual battalion reunion. The tradition is under threat from rising costs, encroaching mortality, and a distinct lack of enthusiasm from some of his comrades. Prominent is Ian Hendry as the loud, overbearing Wally, and Basil Henson playing a patrician gentleman reminiscent of the psychiatrist he did in Fawlty Towers. He delivers a well deserved comeuppance to Wally at the end.
Distant Islands. Norma (Pat Heywood) and husband Cedric (Richard Vernon) show photo slides of their sightseeing holidays. Norma is an attractive fortysomething while Cedric looks a doddery old man, though in fact Vernon was only 49 at the time. Handyman Jack (Edward Judd) plus his wife have been roped in to set things up and help out. Norma and Jack were briefly engaged some twenty years ago, but she broke it off just because he had dirty fingernails. This is their first meeting since then, Jack is still fit and very much a ladies man, and Norma is obviously smitten again. But of course it's too late, she's stuck with a decent but dull man she doesn't really love. This is the only episode that's really sad, in the original meaning of the word.
I must also admit to liking The Rough and the Smooth, for the less than highbrow reason that it stars Linda Heyden.
