AIBU to think that Birds of a Feather was a sitcom ahead of it's time?

[Allthingsprettyreturns]

Strong female characters in a prety unique situation (prioners wives)?

yanbu ,thought i was the only one watching it , its still funny the second time round .

ahead of it's time, it was made in the late 80s, was hardly back in the dark ages

Is it back on?

I used to like it. Now realised it's not very funny. I do like the fact is very female centric.

Its on Drama and their is a new series on soon

New series on ITV

I loved it. It will be interesting to see how they bring it up to date.

YANBU

Doreen is a fucking awesome character and Pauline Quirke is absolutely hilarious in it.

It may be unfashionable to like it but I did and I still do!

I met Doreen as a kid.

She broke my heart.

I loved her so much but when I went up to her she was really rude to me.

Never got over it

There not.their

Birds of a feather was brilliant. I always thought Tracey was mostly a bit rubbish but some of Sharon and Dorian insulting one liners to each other were hilarious, I loved it! It did get a it crap at the end though so not sure what a new series would be like.

Not really relevant but the person who plays Pauline Quirke's husband, Peter Polycarpou, was in the original cast of Les Miserables.

When is it on itv

Yes chris theodopolopodus was really posh in really life and quite the thespian I think!

I hated birds of a feather

loved butterflies though

It's Dorian not Doreen - makes a difference doesn't it!!

Peter Polycarpou was also in the stage show of Oklahoma with Hugh Jackman!

Took me bloody ages to place him.

I liked it. My boyfriend called it "Turds made of Leather".

Now I realise that I guess it would pass the Bechdel Test. That is, at least two female characters who spend time talking about something other than a man.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

I loved it as a kid. I'm watching it every now and then at the moment and it's alright, actually. Quite watchable at times!

I don't know about ahead of its time - I think it's more an indication of how we have moved backwards since then. In addition to Birds of a Feather in the 80s there was, for example and thinking off the top of my head, Roseanne which not only explored women's characters but was also about blue-collar workers, The Golden Girls which was not only about women but about women in the 'invisible' stage of their lives and also Cagney & Lacey which was about the relationship of women as colleagues. Since then we seem to have gone backwards with sitcom after sitcom about middle-class families where women are either wives or mothers but not much else.

Miranda... Neither wife nor mother. Though granted, very middle class. Nothing wrong with that though.

Yes, I had Miranda in my head as an honourable exception when I was writing that. I'm not really a class warrior (ok then I am!) but I do get a bit disengaged when I turn on the telly to see yet another family living in a naice house in London - it's like we really haven't moved on from Terry & June.

Hurrah!

I can't say I'd noticed the nice house skew, but the only sitcoms I've watched recently are Black Books and Miranda, so don't really fit that demographic