The Old Guys
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''The Old Guys'' is a
British sitcom A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television. Most British sitcoms are recorded on studio sets, while some have an element of location filming. A handful are made almost exclusively on location ...
that revolves around two ageing housemates: Tom Finnan (
Roger Lloyd-Pack Roger Anthony Lloyd-Pack (8 February 1944 – 16 January 2014) was an English actor. He is best known for playing Trigger in ''Only Fools and Horses'' from 1981 to 2003, and Owen Newitt in '' The Vicar of Dibley'' from 1994 to 2007. He later st ...
) and Roy Bowden (
Clive Swift Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for h ...
). The pair live across the street from Sally (
Jane Asher Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...
), whom they both find attractive. Tom moved in with Roy after Roy's wife Penny deserted him.
Baby boomer Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. ...
Tom has little in life but his daughter Amber ( Katherine Parkinson), who is dating Sally's son Steve (Justin Edwards). Roy is a suburban
pensioner A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...
who believes that he is one of the country's leading intellectuals. It premiered on 31 January 2009 on
BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
, and aired on Saturday evenings. The show concluded its second series on 13 August 2010. The series has been repeated on
Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
.


Production

The sitcom is produced by BBC Scotland, and is written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell and Sam Bain. The show was commissioned by Lucy Lumsden,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Controller of Comedy Commissioning in 2008. It is recorded at BBC Pacific Quay in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
. In 2005, while in the early stages of development, a script for ''The Old Guys'' was used for a
BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...
competition, ''The Last Laugh'', aimed at encouraging young writers. Along with seven other scripts for potential sitcoms, the first 13 scenes were published, and entrants invited to write the remainder.


Characters

*
Roger Lloyd-Pack Roger Anthony Lloyd-Pack (8 February 1944 – 16 January 2014) was an English actor. He is best known for playing Trigger in ''Only Fools and Horses'' from 1981 to 2003, and Owen Newitt in '' The Vicar of Dibley'' from 1994 to 2007. He later st ...
as Tom *
Clive Swift Clive Walter Swift (9 February 1936 – 1 February 2019) was an English actor and songwriter. A classically trained actor, his stage work included performances with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he was best known to television viewers for h ...
as Roy *
Jane Asher Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...
as Sally * Katherine Parkinson as Amber * Vincent Ebrahim as Rajan * Justin Edwards as Steve


Title music

For its theme tune the series has used
Ivor Cutler Ivor Cutler (born Isadore Cutler, 15 January 1923 – 3 March 2006) was a Scottish poet, singer, musician, songwriter, artist and humorist. He became known for his regular performances on BBC radio, and in particular his numerous sessions record ...
's distinctive song "I'm Happy", which can be found on his 1967 '' Ludo'' album. The theme song heard during the end credits is "Barabadabada" from his 1976 '' Jammy Smears'' album. Series 1 used the original recording of "I'm Happy", whilst Series 2 used a version performed by Lloyd-Pack and Swift.


Episodes

''The Old Guys'' ran for twelve episodes over two series. All episodes are thirty minutes. The first series aired at around 9:30 pm every Saturday. The first episode gained 4.95 million viewers, an audience share of 22.5%. The second episode slumped slightly with 3.75 million (17.2%) viewers. The second series began on 9 July 2010 and ended on 13 August 2010. Both series of the show are occasionally repeated on
Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...
as part of their late-night broadcasting schedules.


Reception

''The Old Guys'' received mixed reviews. David Chater in ''The Times'' stated, "There is nothing wrong with the comic performances, but such an unashamedly old-fashioned format is strangely at odds with its subject matter. ''Peep Show'' this isn't." The ''
Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...
'' commented, "Moved to a new home on Friday nights, where it's much-needed, the second series of ''The Old Guys'' feels as comfortable as a pair of slippers."


International distribution

In Australia the show originally aired on ABC1. In the US the first series is currently available on some
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
stations.


Home media

The first series of ''The Old Guys'' was released on Region 2
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
on 28 June 2010. Both series are also available to buy on iTunes, despite the second one not being released on DVD.


References


External links

* * *
Review in the ''Leicester Mercury''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Guys, The 2009 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings 2000s British sitcoms 2010s British sitcoms BBC high definition shows BBC television sitcoms English-language television shows