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Absolutely Fantastic

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Pauline Quirke and the gorgeous Linda Robson first started working together on a regular basis in the '70's on 'You Must Be Joking' and Quirke's own weekly series 'Pauline's Quirkes' and then again in the early '80's when the two appeared in Laurence Marks & Maurice Gran's long running comedy drama 'Shine On Harvey Moon' for Central Television. In 1989, Marks & Gran pitched the pair together again in their next show - 'Birds Of A Feather' - a sitcom which had them as warring sisters Tracey Stubbs and Sharon Theodopolopodus. Tracey and Sharon are polar opposites to say the least. The glamorous, happily married Tracey lives in a swank house in Chigwell with her husband Darryl and their son Garth, who is studying at a private school to become a chef. The plain, downtrodden Sharon however lives in a grimy council flat in Edmonton with her sleazy, two-timing, criminal minded husband Chris ( who is of the Greek persuasion as is evident by his surname ).However's Tracey's idyllic lifestyle is soon turned upside down when Darryl along with Chris is arrested and sent to prison for armed robbery. Tracey is devastated at losing the man she loves however Sharon seems glad to see the back of her spineless husband. To help her sister get through her turmoil, Sharon moves out of her flat in Edmonton and in with Tracey. Living next door to Tracey is Dorien Green, a promiscuous middle aged Jewish woman whose amount of gold jewellery would put Mr. T from 'The A-Team' to shame. Despite her disdain for the sisters' lack of social standing, Dorien soon becomes Sharon and Tracey's closest friend. In the early episodes, Dorien is married to an accountant named Marcus but in later episodes he leaves her for a younger woman.The first series had a none too promising response from the public. The first episode, 'Nicked', caused the BBC switchboard to be jammed with complaints due to the inclusion of a scene where Sharon tries on a Basque ( over her clothes I must add in ) at an Ann Summers party taking place in Tracey's house. However, by the second series it became one of Britain's most popular sitcoms of the era, with stars such as Lionel Blair, Ray Winstone and even George Hamilton and George Wendt queueing up to appear on it. When it became established, other writers inherited the scripting duties such as Tony Millan, Mike Walling, Gary Lawson, John Phelps, Peter Tilbury, Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent. Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke had a good rapport together as the constantly fighting but devoted sisters. Robson, incidentally, was my first childhood crush and even now she still does it for me. Lesley Joseph was hilarious as Dorien, particularly in the episode in which she sang on stage Madonna's 'Like A Virgin'. Alun Lewis was excellent in those episodes he did as Darryl though I never took to Doug McFerran who replaced him. David Cardy played Chris initially though his placed was taken in series two by Peter Polycarpou up until 1997 when Cardy returned to the role. Cardy was not bad in the role though in my view Polycarpou was superior.'Birds Of A Feather', if not a classic, was an entertaining, gentle-paced sitcom which made sure it gave its viewers a good laugh each week. The BBC let it run for nine seasons, before it ended with a Christmas episode in which Tracey gave birth to her second son Travis. In 2014, 'Birds Of A Feather' made a welcome return to our screens, this time courtesy of ITV, attracting more than 8 million viewers. The success of the revival led to a further two series being commissioned, with the most recent one ending in February of this year. Whether another series makes the screen remains to be seen but let's hope that Marks & Gran & co don't bite off more than they can chew like Rob Grant & Doug Naylor did with 'Red Dwarf'.

This series is amongst the best ever written. I grew up with this show, and after just watching it again on tele, am about to run out and grab the DVD. It is even better than I remember it as a child.This is both hilarious and heart wrenching at times, I can't remember the last time I was funny myself silly and then getting wet around the eyes in such a short time. These women are amazing actresses, and you care deeply about their characters.I think we can all see parts of Tracey and Sharon in people we know, even ourselves, although at times Dorian is a little unrealistic. However, she is there to lighten the show and provides many opportunities to laugh out loud.There has been no series made this decade that could be classed in its league.

Don't ask me why I am writing a review of this but it was a part of my childhood/adolescence and I saw some repeats in the past few years which allowed me to re-evaluate the series. Despite the main characters being women it was a show anyone could watch, and it gave a glimpse of a suburb called "Chigwell" in a wealthy part of London. The setting was flexible enough to allow for a wide variety of story lines, with a central theme of two dependent women becoming increasingly independent as time goes by. But with a significant leg-up of having a large rent-free house in a good neighbourhood and two hundred grand hidden in a spare tyre. Their husbands play supporting characters and inject a slight amount of social commentary on adjusting to prison life.Birds of a Feather was easily one of the better British sitcoms from the 90's and offered painless, cringe-free watching (as opposed to eg. Keeping Up Appearances). Even if it became predictable as time went on the quality was fairly high overall (if memory serves correct) and it's a reminder of earlier, happier days for me.

Birds of a Feather has just began airing on cable in Australia, so we're getting to see the series right from the beginning again - and it's just as funny as the first time around!Pauline Quirke and Linda Robson are two wonderful actresses that do a great job with the series. They noticably get better as the series progresses as they get more comfortable with their roles. They do a great job as sisters, and actually come across as being sisters as well!However, a lot of the real laughs come from Lesley Josephs character, Dorian Green. Recently an episode aired where Sharon (Pauline Quirke) got into the finals of a karaoke contest and got too nervous to sing. Her sister Tracy (Linda Robson) wasn't going to be singing either.To their surprise, Dorian gets up on stage and sings. Now Dorian is a complete man-eater, and the song she sang was Like a Virgin. It was the funniest thing I've seen in years - especially the part when all you can see are her legs above the crowd!The husbands are really quite linear and are always doing the same thing - they're really only there to keep the plot moving along at times.One of the best sitcoms to come out of Britain - and I hope it's put on DVD sometime soon!