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| 2point4 Children | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Title card, used for Series 8. | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Andrew Marshall |
| Written by | Andrew Marshall |
| Directed by | Richard Boden(Series 1-5) Nick Wood(Series 6-7) Dewi Humphreys(Series 8) |
| Starring |
|
| Theme music composer | Howard Goodall[1] |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 56(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer | Richard Boden |
| Camera setup | Video;Multiple camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | BBC Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One |
| Release | 3 September 1991 (1991-09-03) – 30 December 1999 (1999-12-30) |
2point4 Children is aBBC Televisionsitcom that was created and written byAndrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porters, a seemingly average, working-class London family whose world is frequently turned upside-down by bad luck and bizarre occurrences.[2]
The show was originally broadcast onBBC One from 1991 to 1999, and ran for eight series, concluding on 30 December 1999 with the special episode "The Millennium Experience". The show is regularly repeated in the UK. In Australia showings are onUKTV. The name of the show comes from the stereotypical average size of a typicalnuclear family in the UK at the time of the writing of the first series.[3]
The show regularly picked up audiences of up to 14 million throughout the 1990s, with an average of between 6 and 9 million.[4] The final episode was viewed by 9.03 million people.[5]
Lead actorGary Olsen died in 2000, effectively ruling out a return of the show for any further series.[6]
The Porters are a working-class family who live inChiswick, London who at first seem normal enough. Bill is the sensible, level-headed mother who does the cooking and housework whilst working for a bakery with her highly sexed best friend Rona. Ben is the father, who is often just as immature as the children. He runs a heating repair business with his moody and sarcastic assistant Christine.
Jenny is the typical teenage daughter, keen on boys, music and vegetarianism, and David is the mischievous younger brother, who enjoys horror films, aliens and annoying his older sister.
However, the Porters' world is frequently upended by bizarre occurrences and bad luck. Whether it is dealing with flatulent dogs, a frozen body in a freezer in the front room, or even stumbling across a warehouse filled withShirley Bassey's cast-off ballgowns, anything seems possible in the Porters' world. Traditionally Christmas episodes would feature characters collectively performing a musical number.[7]
The show originally ran from 1991 to 1999. 56 episodes were made over eight series, including six Christmas specials in which the cast performed carols or original theme songs. Although the series was made over the course of eight years, the show's in-universe timeline appears to be much shorter, with Jenny Porter stated to be 14 in series one, yet only just starting university at age 18 in the final series.
Andrew Marshall wrote all of the episodes, except for three in series seven which were written byPaul Alexander, Simon Braithwaite andPaul Smith.
2point4 Children was met with mixed to positive reviews. In a 1994 article forThe Independent,Jim White is critical of Andrew Marshall's scriptwriting saying that Marshall "[...] appears to labour under the belief that by grafting a few stock comedy moments on to his parade of the ordinary he can pass the thing off as a fully integrated sitcom", and White calls the show "unrelentingly average."[8] A 1999 review from theGuardian is positive, writing that "it's odd but when people ask why the BBC doesn't make decent mainstream sitcoms anymore, Andrew Marshall's glorious saga of the hapless Porters rarely gets a mention. Going strong since 1991, the new series is as sharp as ever".[9]
In 2004, the series ranked #44 in the BBC television poll,Britain's Best Sitcom.[10]
BBC Enterprises released a video in 1993, comprising the first three episodes of the series, which are known as:Leader of the Pack,Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, andWhen the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping.
The first three series were released on Region 2 DVD by Eureka Video in 2005. A box set of the first three series was also made available in 2008, again through Eureka Video, with music changes within the episodes. Eureka Video stated that "sales were not good" and they released no further series. 2Entertain, part of BBC Worldwide, say they have tried many times to license the series for distribution by a third party but the high clearance costs for music and imagery used has been the main deterrent.
A Facebook campaign for a release of the whole series was started in 2009.
The series was added toBritbox on 16 December 2021[11] In March 2022, all 56 episodes were made available on theBBC iPlayer for one year, however as of 27 July 2024, all 8 series' are still available to watch on BBC iPlayer.[12]
| Title | Format | Release date | Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2point4 children – Leader of the Pack | VHS | 26 February 1996 |
|
| 2point4 children – The Complete Series One | DVD | 24 January 2005[13] |
|
| 2point4 children – The Complete Series Two | DVD | 25 April 2005 |
|
| 2point4 children – The Complete Series Three | DVD | 22 August 2005 |
|
| 2point4 children – Series One to Three | DVD | 22 September 2008 |
|
| Kees & Co | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Based on | 2point4 Children byAndrew Marshall |
| Written by |
|
| Directed by |
|
| Starring |
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| Composers |
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| Country of origin | Netherlands |
| Original language | Dutch |
| No. of seasons | 10 |
| No. of episodes | 111 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22-25 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | RTL 4 |
| Release | 20 September 1997 (1997-09-20) – 25 May 2006 (2006-05-25) |
| Release | 30 March 2019 (2019-03-30) – 4 April 2020 (2020-04-04) |
In 1997 a remake of the show debuted in theNetherlands:Kees & Co starringSimone Kleinsma.[14] The remake ran for eight series between 1997 and 2006. The first five series were adapted from the original English-language scripts, whilst the last three series featured original storylines and characters. In 2018 it was announced that the remake would return for a ninth series with Kleinsma reprising her role.[15]
