Is It Legal - The Complete First Series [DVD]

I saw this series when it was originally televised and I taped most of the episodes and kept them. I just can't understand why it has taken so long for it to be released on DVD. Perhaps it wasn't all that well known. When I received the DVD, I sat and watched all seven episodes in one go on the same day and there were places where I just couldn't stop laughing. Definitely one of the funniest shows ever on TV and all the parts are played brilliantly. Many times over the last few years I have eagerly searched for this comedy series in vain, and when it suddenly appeared on Amazon I pre-ordered it. Anyone who likes the Brittas Empire will certainly enjoy this. There is an excellent mix of characters who are all funny in their own way. I can't single any one of them out. They are all brilliant. To make such a funny comedy out of something as dull as a solicitors office takes a bit of doing, but all the people who produced this programme succeeded spectacularly. Anyone who watches it will not see solicitors in the same light again. I'll probably be watching these episodes many times over. Anyone with a sense of humour will not be disappointed. My only criticism would be that it's a pity there weren't subtitles for people like me whose hearing isn't as good as it was. I hope the second series comes out soon. I can't wait.

Patrick Barlow is a grossly under-rated comic genius, who sadly seems rarely to be given the material he deserves. You have only to watch Mighty Moments from World History (why never released on DVD?), or anything else by the National Theatre of Brent, to see his poignant, beautifully timed and unique skills at work. At last we now have some 'Is it Legal', in which he is least given something decent to work with - I hope the rest follows soon.

Although Imelda Staunton has said that she was never very comfortable acting in it, this sitcom set in a solicitor's office is, for my money, something of a neglected gem. Written by Simon Nye, more famous for the zeitgeist-catching Men Behaving Badly, Is It Legal? never became a huge success, although it ran for two series on ITV, transferring to Channel 4 for one last push. Please note that this review is really an overview of all three series; there wasn't much change in the quality or consistency of the writing through the three series, although one actor (Jeremy Clyde) left after the second series and when there was a move to Channel 4 for the final series we saw a little more of the characters' lives outside of the work environment.
Even though it never found a large audience there is much to enjoy, especially with leads like Imelda Staunton, Patrick Barlow, Jeremy Clyde, Richard Lumsden and others. Staunton is Stella, one of the only two half-competent workers, held back by her own diffidence; Barlow's divorcee, the other person who keeps the company afloat, has a hopeless yearning for the girl who works in the local sandwich shop, Mr Bappy, and Richard Lumsden plays the son of one of the company's founders whose boyish enthusiasm for legal matters is only matched by his naivety and incompetence. Lumsden is a useful addition as it gives Barlow's character someone to feel superior to. Witnessing Lumsden give way to a bout of uncharacteristic and ineffectual anger, he remarks: "It's like seeing Winnie the Pooh trying to trash a hotel room."

The comedy is often broad - there's a fair amount of business - but I like it a great deal because, as with Men Behaving Badly, you still buy that it's character-led. You could say that the Imelda Staunton character is more three-dimensional than the rest, but you also accept that she is unable to leave the firm: partly (as in one episode) because she's manipulated by the wily Jeremy Clyde (whose contacts made in his club and on the golf course provide the clients) and partly because she is, like the others, terrified, in her way, of the outside - or maybe some part of her knows that she is in a place where she is desperately needed, as the rest would crumble without her. (There is also the hint of a romance with Bob which eventually flowers.) Jeremy Clyde's character may be able to get the clients but he has long ago forgotten how to practise the law with any degree of skill himself, as shown in one episode where he actually has to go into court.

But the main point about this sitcom is that most of the central characters are well-meaning innocents, and the comedy revolves around their characters rather than being imposed on them. Highly recommended.