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2point4 Children

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2point4 Children
File:2point4 Children 1999.png
Title sequence, Series 8
Created byAndrew Marshall
Written byAndrew Marshall
StarringBelinda Lang
Gary Olsen
Julia Hills
Clare Buckfield
John Pickard
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes56
Production
Running time30 min per average episode
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release3 September 1991 –
30 December 1999

2point4 children is a British sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porter family; a normal family faced with abnormal situations.

The show was originally broadcast on BBC1 from 1991 to 1999, and ran for eight series, ending in a special Millennium edition that would be the last owing to the untimely death of Gary Olsen. It is now repeated on G.O.L.D. and UKTV.

The title of the show refers to the once average size of a UK family, although Andrew Marshall has indicated that father Ben could be considered almost another child, hence "point four".

Although set in Chiswick, Greater London, most of the exterior scenes of the house and street were filmed in Meon Road, Acton; and earlier on, Duke Road in Chiswick.

The first three series have been released on DVD by Eureka Video, but after insufficient sales the publisher does not intend to release any more.[citation needed] Despite poor DVD sales, the programme (which owes something of a debt to the US sitcom Roseanne) is felt to have paved the way for the later BBC sitcom My Family, which focuses around the same family unit.

Cast

Plot summary

Main article: List of 2point4 Children Characters

The Porter family who live at 142, Chepstow Road in Chiswick at first seem normal enough. Bill is the sensible level-headed mother who does the cooking and housework, along with running a catering business with man-eating friend Rona (series 1). Ben is the gentle-hearted but childish father, who runs a heating repair business (telephone: 081-567-4538, on his van) with Gerry for the first series only. The loud and sarcastic Christine joins him in the second series. Jenny is a typical teenage daughter --keen on boys, music and vegetarianism and not having her mum embarrass her-- and David is the mischievous and slightly weird younger brother, who enjoys horror films, video games, football, and annoying his older sister.

Nevertheless whether it's dealing with the flatulent dog next door, having men in freezers in the front room, having Count Dracula as a neighbour or stumbling across Shirley Bassey’s warehouse, the Porters frequently find themselves in abnormal --or unfortunate-- situations that turns their world upside-down.

Episodes

Main article: List of 2point4 children episodes

The show's original run was from 1991-1999. A total of 56 episodes were made over eight series, including six Christmas specials. Each special saw the cast perform a Christmas or special theme song.

Andrew Marshall wrote most episodes, however a few of the episodes in series seven were written by: Paul Alexander, Simon Braithwaite and Paul Smith.

Critical reception

Critics hailed it as "one of the greatest British sitcoms of all time[2] , yet few critics made the connection between Marshall and former writing partner David Renwick, whose sitcom One Foot in the Grave features a variety of domestic surrealism, similar to 2point4 children.

Eureka Video has also commented on the show ontheir website, saying:

sitcom-wise, the shape of the series itself is different from the norm because, from the earliest episodes, it has centred not on the husband, Ben, but on his wife Bill. Even with the focus on Bill, the series still avoids the traditional woman-as-wife-and-mother theme of other series, instead portraying her as a fully-rounded person in her own right, unconfined by her family.[citation needed]

DVD & VHS releases

Eureka Video released series 1-3 on Region 2 DVD, however they stated "sales were not good", and decided not to release further episodes. The show was produced and is still owned by BBC Worldwide, who release several of their programmes through 2Entertain(which is part owned by BBC Worldwide). 2Entertain have said that several clearance issues, including one that would have meant an edit in series 7 that would interfere with the programme and the high costs of clearance would mean that it was not financially viable to release any further episodes.

Additionally, BBC worldwide released a video in 1996, comprising the first three episodes of the series, which are known as: Leader of the Pack, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping.

Title Release date
2point4 children - Complete Series 1 (DVD) Jan 24 2005
2point4 children - Complete Series 2 (DVD) Apr 25 2005
2point4 children - Complete Series 3 (DVD) Aug 22 2005
2point4 children - Series 1-3 Boxset (DVD) 22 Sep 2008
2point4 children - Leader Of The Pack (VHS) 26 Feb 1996

[3]

Theme music

The programme features an instrumental theme tune with unusual rhythm by Howard Goodall, which remained unchanged throughout the run of the programme, although it was significantly shortened for the final series. The closing theme is an extension of that used for the introduction.

Opening/Closing credit sequence

The programme starts with a distinctive blue 2point4children logo overlaid on an exterior shot of the Porters' terraced house, whilst writer and principal actor credits appear over the succeeding footage. Series one and two features clips from Series one. Series three uses clips taken from more recent episodes, so did Series four. Series five saw a slight change to the format with the footage now taken from all previous four series, as opposed to the unseen episodes of series five. A new look was unveiled for series six with a reworking of the logo (now in 3D colourful letters) which fell randomly from the top of the frame and landed in the correct order at the bottom. The cast were shown dancing against a white backdrop with Belinda Lang taking centre stage literally. Cast and writer credits (featuring Clare Buckfield and John Pickard's names which weren't previously shown until the closing credits) were shown either side of Bill dancing, this new look continued into Series seven. The final eighth series in 1999 saw a modification to this style, with the same principle of the falling colourful letters landing against a white backdrop but now featuring a line drawing of the Porter house with its colourful front door. These titles are shorter than previous series and featured no cast members. The principal actor credits were shown at the beginning of each scene of the episode and appeared in the Futura typeface, as opposed to the former Roman-style serif font that debuted in episode one. The move to filming in digital widescreen for series eight was one reason that necessitated the change in titles.

For the closing credits, series one-five the credits either flashed up on screen over a freeze frame of the final scene which gradually faded to black or scrolled along the bottom third of the frame from right to left (the latter usually reserved for Christmas specials). Series six-eight utilised a plain white background with the new colourful logo situated at the top of the frame and the credit list scrolling up the centre.

References

  1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101032/board/thread/118337570?d=119706809&p=1#119706809
  2. ^ Absoluteastronomy.com http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/2point4_children. Retrieved 2009-10-08. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ www.xtwenga.co.uk
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