Wondering if anyone remembers Game On. It was mostly bollocks but had some occasional funny stuff going on. In a way it was a bit like a precursorSpaced only a bit crap. Or maybe not.

i liked it.

I remember it. It was terrible but it had Ben Chaplin in it so I watched it sometimes. Actually, thinking back, it was awful but you're right, there were occasional funny bits. Wasn't there a Next Generation or something? With Jambo from Hollyoaks?

Yeah. It had a Dr Who style regeneration.

ps Is that Cities Of Gold

Yes, it is indeed.

Was Samantha Janus in it at some point? I'm getting my rubbish British sitcoms all muddled up in my head.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles...n_7772795.shtml

I remember it being terrible but it was a great guilty pleasure.

I think they repeat it all the tme on one of the Sky channels.

I was thinking about this the other day, and couldn't remember it's name. I remember it being quiet funny. I don't think I've heard of anyone who doesn't [Ed] appreciate the good bits - feel free to let yourself be heard.

my dad still wanders around calling people ginger tossers today. makes me cringe.

I think I have a video of it somewhere....

It was great when it still had Ben Chaplin in it. He made the character a disturbing tragic loser with probable mental problems.
The next guy was okay, but played it much more one dimensional.

I caught it a few times but it was poor. It's character's were under-developed and I remember thinking at the time that it was no match for Men Behaving Badly.

The vacuum cleaner though?

I always held that the point of it was that it was underdeveloped and simplistic. Certainly Men Behaving badly was better, but Game On wasn't that bad... "Shagging"?

No? Makes me laugh.

I just wasn't feeling it- watching it made me want to be somewhere else far, far away.

But Men Behaving Badly was just awful.

I didn't realise how dreadfully pants it was at the time, but I had the misfortune to catch a re-reun a few months back, and it was just dire. Granted, M.B.B. had some great moments, but it's *humour* really didn't age at all well, and certainly doesn't qualify now as worthy comedy in my book. Just the same old dreary, exaggerated blokey tosh. I really like Clunes, I think he's a terrific actor, but he is far better suited to the comedy/drama stuff he has been doing in recent years.

Caroline Quentin also went on to far better things... Kiss Me Kate was far funnier than than M.B.B. had ever been, not least because it starred the brilliant Chris Langham* as the wonderfully dopey Douglas, and in a couple of episodes there was a masterstroke of casting genius in the shape of Bill Nighy as Douglas' brother. One episode also boasted a cameo by one Mark Heap, as I recall. I remember Game On being much of a muchness, although admittedly Samantha Janus was the major attraction to be honest...

Sorry, went slightly off topic there.





edit - *Langham also co-wrote the series. Muchos kudos, Senor Funnyman.

I remember finding this show to be quite funny, but I would have been about 14 at the time so that's no quality seal of approval.
A school friend of mine was so influenced by this show he claimed to be agorophobic (sp?) just like the Ben Chaplin character. Idiot.
Also, it's nice to see the ginger guy from the show pop up recently in a Tango advert. Isn't he the office boss asking the Tango drinking woman why she has a crew chucking water at her?

This show was great, and you can pick up the complete 3 series boxset for around a tenner these days.

I thought Game On was great too. Shamefully enough, the reason I started watching it was Samantha Janus, who was the sexiest English woman on TV at the time, (hey, I was only 15), but it also happened to be very funny. It certainly changed when Ben Chaplin left - his character was very complicated, (sym)pathetic, and arrogant. There were real dark undertones to Matthew as well - hints at an abusive childhood that had led him to be introverted and angry.

His replacement Neil Stuke played Matthew much more for laughs - a figure of ridicule. If anything it became funnier when Stuke arrived, but also lost the pathos and dark humour derived from the characters neuroses as played by Chaplin.

I thought that too, I've even got a copy of her eurovision single. Game On used to be must see material at my school. I don't think it would have aged too well though.

The first series was excellent; I have it on DVD. Anything after the first series has been erased from my memory.

It's funny because someone's playing 'From Despair to Where?' in the office and that always reminds me of Matt.

His agoraphobia in the first series was funny and poignant - no mean feat.

The fact they conveniently forgot his parents had been killed in a car crash and put his crippling emotional problems down to repressed homosexuality in the second series was just plain insulting.

What happened to Ben Chaplin? - last I saw of him was in 'The Thin Red Line'.

Oh and 'Birthday Girl'.

*shudders*

Totally agree about MBB - Quentin, Morrissey & Ash are shit actors who have all achieved more than they should because they were in a ratings buster - the frist two are particularly annoying.

And Game On was worse.

Nah, Game On was alright - a guilty pleasure as someone else has already stated.
The book MBB was based on was quite good, from what I remember - the characters weren't quite the grotesque caricatures they were on the telly. And I quite liked the first few series - even the Harry Enfield one.

I quite liked it - picked up a favourite phrase from it, too - "Shagwit"!

Ben Chaplin was a lot better than the other guy!

It's the halfway point between Men behaving badly and 2 pints of piss and a bucket of cocknudgers on the 'is it any funny laughy' comedy scale. The missing link perhaps in the evolutionary scale.

Reverse evolution scale.

Reversolution scale.

Stop it Jeff, you're about to vanish up your own arse!

Agreed, and I also agree with JJJ that the original Matt was actually pretty dark in a way. It's a long time since I've seen it so I can't pass comment with mature retrospect, but I definitely loved it at the time - with Chaplin, that is, I lost interest when Stuke took over. It lost what it had of the aforementioned poignancy and potential darkness...plus Stuke's Matt never wore that t-shirt with the sunglasses on it. Man, that was a cool shirt.

Relax. Chill out. WAX YOUR BOARD.

Funny, and yet sad since you know he'll never use it.

Not again.

sighs

WHY does everyone love Ben Chaplin? Game On was never going to win any awards but it didn't become funny until he left.
TEA MARTIN!

Is it 'Game On' Simon and Jess are referring to? They did say shagging a lot.

"What is this, a shagging nunnery or something"?

"I wouldn't mind living in a shagging nunnery..."

"...I think it must be the idea of shagging the nuns that makes it seem so attractive".

Weren't they only allowed a certain quota of proper swearing back in the 90's?

Stuke - Good
Chaplin - Shit

Bollocks, the show went down the crapper after Chaplin left. His Matthew was a brilliant creation, hence why his day alone in the flat is by far the best episode - his performance of 'From Despair to Where?' with the lamp was the series' highlight.

"In the life of man there are times and there are seasons. There is a time to surf and there is a time to wax your board. And I'm not just talking about surfing".

The scripts were never great but Chaplin's performance lifted the character out of the show. When he left it was just another mediocre sitcom.

NO!

Did you fancy Ben Chaplin? DID YOU? Were you blinded against his unfunniness by the fact that he filled a wetsuit better than Neil Stuke? I usually find this to be the case.

Ben Chaplin is a good looking man and his DeNiro impression has the power to do funny things to a lady, but that's not why he's a far better performer than Stuke.

Chaplin's Matthew had tones and depth. He was sympathetic yet incredibly annoying. His agoraphobia was beautifully dealt with and contrasted wonderfully with Matthew's arrogance and tendency to bullying. He was pathetic and still cool, which is an impressive thing to carry off. You wanted to shag him, hug him and slap him all at the same time.

Stuke suffered from the scripts creating a different reason for Matthew not wanting to leave the flat (presumably because there are more gags in closeted homosexuality than in the death of one's parents), but that can't be entirely blamed for his over the top performance. Bigger isn't always better and in the case of Stuke's brash and slightly camp turn it certainly wasn't.

Matthew became a figure of ridicule, which crucially Chaplin managed to avoid. Despite how pitiable, pathetic and cruel Matt was Chaplin managed to retain our sympathies. Stuke's Matthew was just an irritating wanker.

Plus I never believed that Stuke could beat up Martin.

Thank you, Zoe. I never fancied Chaplin and still agree with you wholeheartedly.

I might have fancied him a bit...



Just a tiny bit...

If anything, Chaplin's handsome good-looks added to the tragedy of the original character. He must have been seriously damaged to not have any success with women and end up a lonely onanist.

Stuke, a gimpy, weedy little man left no curiousity regarding his inability to get laid.

I hated all the characters, the show generally and never found it even vaguely funny. I might have missed something but I saw bits of episodes on UK Gold at a later date and hated it as much if not more so I doubt it.

Aaaahhh, think that proves my point. Your thinly veiled lust dressed in faux critique.

My work here is done....I shall fade into the dry ice coughing.

Don't. rise. to. it.

Damn this is rising to it isn't it?

That can be used to describe most of Zoe's work.

My 'work' *tee hee hee*.

"Have you heard of Zoe?"

"I'm familiar with her work."

"Thinly veiled lust dressed in faux critique?"

"Mostly, yes."

I agree with Zoe - Chaplin was quite a believable Matt, whereas Stuke was just... shit.

but when stukes was in it he did get laid he had an sffiar with the bird from upstairs but noone would belive him

and yes i have the box set and i find it quite funny