Whether you love or loathe Ricky Gervais, one favour he did do for us is kill off the godawful middle-class sitcoms that proliferated in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
For me, this one is a cut above, for a few reasons. Firstly, it's shot mainly on location (hooray, no laugh track!), secondly, the performances are mostly excellent, and thirdly, it feels like an affectionate poke at that most wonderfully eccentric of middle-class eccentricities, village cricket, and for those of us with experience of it, the deranged seriousness with which some otherwise normal people take it - as an example, I once had a 55 year old salary man who worked in banking, not speak to me for a day after I dropped an easy catch off his bowling, because I was distracted smoking a cigarette at the time.
I hadn't seen this programme since the 90s, I re-watched most of the episodes, as well as the original play from the early 80s, with a different cast of actors. Aside from Paul Eddington, who I think is exactly the right mix of gentle stalwart Brit with a dash of psychosis, and Prunella Scales who is always lovely to see, I think the 90s cast was an improvement, particularly Josie Lawrence and Timothy Spall, who bring a genuine warmth to the characters, even when confronted with lazy plotting about 'serious issues' that sitcoms in those days felt compelled to include for some reason.
Then there's Brenda Blethyn, who pretty much steals the whole show as the much downtrodden and ignored Mim. Robert Daws just confused me a bit in the role of team captain Roger, as he seems to be doing an impersonation of Rik Mayall (not that there's anything wrong with that), even his hairdo is the same.
Overall, I can't say I regret re-watching it, it's a nice gentle bit of 'forever England' (even if you live in Ireland, Wales or Scotland).
