Small Business Nightmare…(A Sign of our Times)
This welcome release to DVD of Thames TV eighties sitcom is timely and current of the times that we are living through.
Small businessman Fred Moffatt (Bill Maynard) ducks and dives, extracting money where he can and avoiding payment as a rule in recession-hit England.
As the boss of a small engineering firm Moffatt, bearded, wearing a crumpled suit and battered hat he uses every trick in the book to keep his business on track and creditors at bay.
Wiley as a fox he has opponents as cunning and tenacious as himself, but not everything goes according to plan.
In this third and final series, Maynard goes into local politics, eyeing opportunities everywhere.
Clever in scripting, Maynard gets a nice balance between guile and charm.
Russell Hunter, who plays a severe union shop steward is determined to part Moffatt from his money when he can.
This comedy dynamic keeps the series on track.
Local politics proves a dead end (when is it other?) and the series ends with our hero selling up and moving to Australia (always a solution).
Asked at the beginning of the first episode about his car’s performance he responds, “I don’t know how far she can go. I never get more than an hour out of her”.
There’s plenty of laughter mileage in this blast from the ever present past .
The Gaffer-The Complete Third Series Network Distributing Ltd
Star Rating 5/10