Sorry pressed “post” too soon.
I love Mr. Morris. The episodes with him in are the best ones. When he gives Jackie the photo of himself as a younger man... gets me every time. The way he is so incredulous about no one appreciating how much he had looked like “a real Beau Brummell” is brilliant. And when he comes around for dinner and Jackie asks him what he would like to drink.... the phrase “I think I’ll have.... Champagne!” has entered the lexicon in our house. As have “Little Legs”, “Beanstalk”, “Tiny Tim”, “Skyscraper” and the asking of how many of something there is.... [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VfW5bMoMwTA
“Do you know how many heart attacks I’ve had?”]] ... “Oh no, not none! I’ve had some! Why does everyone guess so low in this house?!” Genuinely, there isn’t a line from Mr. Morris that isn’t quotable. His hatred of Rutherfords, the fact that he’s never been slandered, his driving skills... the best one-off character and I wish there had been more of him.
We- both me and my husband and our 8 and 6 year old- also sing Jim’s wooing song a lot:
This frog he would a-wooing ride
With sword and buckler by his side
With a harem-scarem-diddle-um-dare-um
Whipsee-diddle-dee-dan-dee-dee!
Robert Popper, the writer of the show, did an episode of the podcast Griefcast where he talked about his nanna, who was the inspiration for the two grandmothers in the show. It’s well worth a listen, it’s properly laugh out loud funny. One of his grans was (I think) Ukrainian and he does an impression of her that is just amazing. You really get to understand how his own, clearly pretty eccentric family, were the blueprint for the Goodman clan. FWIW, for those yet to be introduced, Griefcast in general is just brilliant. “Comedians talking about death” isn’t the most inspiring tag line, but it really works. The format means that the guests really open up and they’re often naturally very funny people, so their telling of family anecdotes flow very naturally between profound and hilarious. David Baddiel, Robert Webb and Kayleigh Llewelyn are three that immediately spring to mind as being great episodes. There’s also a few compilation episodes which are a good jumping-off point.