Rent Shelley: Series 1 (1979)

Ace series - Shelley: Series 1 review by AW

This is a wonderful, very funny, clever series, from 1979 onwards, in 10 series. The dialogue zings. Brilliant writing by Peter Tilbury. Hywel Bennett plays James Shelley, with Belinda Sinclair a wonderful foil as his girlfriend then wife. To start out they're living in a bedsit rented from "Mrs. H" (the inimitable Josephine Tewson). Shelley's interactions with the Job Centre, the Tax and dole offices are cracking verbal exchanges. Shelley moves from fiance to husband to ex-husband in series 1-6, all the while cleverly resisting any type of real work wherever possible. It then moves on to The Return of Shelley from 1988 in Series 7-10, when apparently he's been away teaching language for 5 years in the Middle East and returns to find a new world of yuppiehood in the UK. He reluctantly rents from the posh couple nextdoor, snooty Carol (Caroline Langrishe) and Graham, a dim city trader. We even think he's reformed again when he applies for a job in the Foreign Office and to his astonishment gets it, but the exchange between him and the FO hotshot (the excellent Geoffrey Chater) behind a desk I found an absolute hoot.

I never knew about the original programme in the 70s-80s (being overseas myself) so it's a real treat finding this series and binge watching it via CP.

Give it a go yourself, it's totally worth it.