By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * *)
Pauline Collins and John Alderton are fondly remembered by those of A Certain Age as representing a gilt era in British TV: the off-screen husband-and-wife who played on-screen servants who knew their place in
Upstairs, Downstairs, a richly costumed soap of early 20th-century life.
In her
most memorable role, Collins played a different servant, a housewife who didn't know her place, Shirley Valentine.
Now Collins plays Thelma Caldicot, who has been dominated by her husband all their married life. When he dies, she finally rebels. She hacksaws the less-than-dearly departed's golf clubs and liveheads his prize chrysanthemums. Her son wants to get his hands on the estate so ships her off to the Twilight Years Rest Home.
Mrs Caldicot, several years younger than most of her fellow residents, is appalled by the treatment that her new pals are getting from the manager (Alderton) and his staff. They get endless cabbage dinners while he eats lobster and chases matron around the desk. She organises a revolution: The time is right for fighting on the bowling green ...
If you were around while Mum and Dad chortled over Man About the House or re-runs of Benny Hill, you've seen and heard it all before. Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War is a very English style of humour that you might have thought long-gone in this era of The Office and Harry Enfield, a 110-minute episode of a 70s sitcom or a 60s Carry On movie. Still, it will appeal to an audience from those glory days, now free to go to the matinee screenings at suburban cinemas. On the buses, perhaps.
DVD not available for review.
