Early Doors
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| Early Doors | |
|---|---|
 Duffy (Phil Mealey) and Joe (Craig Cash) |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Creator(s) | Craig Cash Phil Mealey |
| Starring | Craig Cash Phil Mealey John Henshaw |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 2003 – 2004 |
Early Doors is a BBC sitcom written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey. The setting is "The Grapes", a small pub in Manchester where daily life is bound up in the issues of love, loneliness, and blocked urinals.
The action centres around pub Landlord Ken (John Henshaw) and his preoccupation with his daughter Melanie (Christine Bottomley) who is preparing to meet her real dad, and his nervous relationship with barmaid Tanya (Susan Cookson). Ken's wife left him for his best friend.
The series reflects more than a little of the northern humour displayed The Royle Family (co-written by Cash). In a similar style to The Royle Family the location of the scenes is limited to The Grapes pub.
Contents |
[edit] Regular characters
- Ken - Long-suffering landlord of The Grapes, son of Jean, father of Melanie and potential partner for part-time barmaid Tanya
- Joe and Duffy - "The Boys" of the pub, best mates Joe and Duffy's friendship goes back into their childhood. They're both willing to cover for each other if they're in trouble with their respective wives.
- Eddie and Joan - Eddie knows every-thing about nothing, can tell you tones of information about the new temporary traffic lights, or the quickest route to York races but doesn't know when to shut up. Joan's got a heart of gold and worries about her mother, who can't manage the stairs in her house and is victimised by the local "yobs" for smelling bad.
- Tommy - Miserable old git who isn't happy unless he's sat in his chair and not being annoyed by people. Will never accept a drink off people in case he has to get a round in, though has been known to get the crisps in after a day out at the races.
- Tanya - Part-time barmaid and love interest of Ken, loves a bit of gossip with her best friend Debbie.
- Jean - Ken's gossiping mother, loves to go abroad and her favorite hobby is relaxing on her sofa with a Walnut Whip or some Maltesers and having a conversation with Winnie. Though she can be quite imposing on her son Ken, such as joining him on dates when he was younger, or searching through his bedside drawers, she does have his best interests at heart and took him and his ex-wife in and eventually gave him the pub.
- Winnie - Cleaner of the Grapes and the flat upstairs, seemingly only friend to Jean but is liked by most people (bar Phil and Nige) her husband can't work and her son is currently in prison. Can twist Jean round her little finger when she over-works her, and is a family friend and pub regular.
- Melanie - Ken's only daughter, doted on by her father in hopes she never leaves for her real dad Keith Braithwaite, who she searched for after learning she wasn't Ken's real daughter. Never the less she regards Ken as her real dad after Keith starts a fight with Eddie at her 21st and is carried out after Ken lamps him.
- Debbie - Regular to the pub and good friend to Tanya, has been known to leave the kids in the car while she goes in for half a cider (but getting them some Coke and Crisps) has cheated on her domineering husband (She mentions: "If it wasn't for here, work and putting the bin out, I'd never get out the house!") and has gone with Duffy rather than walking home.
- Nige and Phil - Local policemen who Ken is friendly with. They often come knocking on the back door for a bitter and coke, though are partial to the odd cigar or drop of malt. In the second series they lose any faith they had in their work after bungling a raid by falling asleep, so turn to drug dealing, while doing the odd bit of police work on the side. Eventually Phil becomes too dependent on the drugs and finally has a paranoia attack at Melanie's 21st, thinking there's people watching him from the curtains.
The show was placed at 91 in the 2003/4 BBS's Britain's Best Sitcom poll. A third series has been commissioned by the BBC and will be shown in 2007.
[edit] Theme Music
The theme music for the series is "Small World" by Roddy Frame from the 2002 album Surf.
The 2006 Channel 4 documentary Who Killed the British Sitcom used the closing music from Early Doors over its own end credits, suggesting that, along with My Family, the series proves there is still hope for the genre.
[edit] Cast
- John Henshaw - Ken
- Craig Cash - Joe
- Phil Mealey - Duffy
- Mark Benton - Eddie
- Christine Bottomley - Melanie
- Lorraine Cheshire - Joan
- Susan Cookson - Tanya
- Rodney Litchfield - Tommy
- James McAvoy - Liam (Mel's boyfriend - Series 1)
- Rita May - Jean (Ken's lazy mother)
- James Quinn - Phil
- Peter Wight - Nige
- Lee Ingleby - Dean (Mel's boyfriend - Series 2)
- Lisa Millet - Debbie
- Sue McArdle - Nicola
- Maxine Peake - Janice
[edit] Critical reception
- "such a slow-burning comedy that you only start to smile during the next programme." [1] - The Guardian
- " Early Doors, a comedy by Craig Cash averaged only 1.7 million viewers in its first outing, but scored particularly highly on the appreciation indices. Jane Root decided to commission a second series, partly because such a high proportion of viewers enjoyed it." [2] - The Guardian
