Marion & Geoff - Series 2 [DVD] [2000]

Series two is packaged differently. Instead of the 10 minutes at a time in Keith's taxi, we now have 30-minute episodes. Keith has grown in the intervening few years. He still lives a pretty solitary life, but at least he's been promoted to chauffeuring duties for a film director's wife. But he still misses his little smashers. That Alun and Rhys are growing up without their dad, and in Geoff's house, is a painful fact that continually pushes at Keith, and perhaps even more so at the viewer. Despite his cheery optimism, you can taste the scurf of defeat.

But it is impossible to ignore how funny a lot of this is. The second series, perhaps even more than the first, is sad and poignant, but it is also able to make you laugh out loud, over and over. Keith's innocent relationship with the lady of the house he drives around is played comedically at first, but you begin to sense a bond between them growing. There is a joyful, touching sense of possibility in Keith's new life. He even has a substitute son, the film's director's, whom he drives to school. The boy clearly adores him, and it helps to remind you how good a dad Keith must be. Geoff can never be the man Keith is, despite his easy success in life.

It is still in Brydon's telling of a story that the fun comes. What is left unspoken is almost tangible, giving you more metres of background than a whole film. He does this in just a few words. It is a marvel of acting and a lesson in how to tell a tale. You feel as if you know everything about Keith. The bonus episode that comes on disc two of this DVD is a good demonstration of this storytelling feat. Using a full cast, and outside the car, it plays out the day that Marion ran off with Geoff. That entire hour of TV was contained in one 10-minute episode of the first series, told by Keith direct to camera. And the shorter version is infinitely more evocative than the full-cast retelling. You don't need guest appearances from Steve Coogan when you can make a person laugh, cry, cringe and smile just with the faintest movement of an eyebrow. Brydon can do this, and it is spectacular.

It wasn't.

However, it is noticeably different.

Due to the extended length of each episode, the stress is firmly placed in telling the story, as opposed to try to slot in jokes in Keith's monologue. And the story is one well worth telling. Keith can no longer be described as simply 'unlucky' as in this series, he represents an oasis of decency surrounded by those who are selfish, self-centred and shallow. It is fair to say that the hardships on display here are graver than before, and yet the severity of these set-backs seems to be always lessened by Keith's unswerving optimism in the 'best in people'. Only towards the very end of this series do we see his rosy view on the world fade.
My only criticisms are that the entire story is some 3 1/2 hours in length, and whilst it is more engaging if the episodes are watched back to back this can be somewhat of a large mouthful to swallow whole. There are also some elements of the story that I feel are superflous and redundant to the narrative e.g. Mr Trapaulin becoming an insurance salesman.
However, forgetting these small imperfections, this is a moving tale, told with great sensitivity and a fine acuity of human emotions. If you are interested in laughing at rubber chickens or the word 'cock' I wouldn't recommend this. However for anyone else this is a must-purchase. This restores my faith in TV programming and the future of comedy.

Buy it and you will not be disappointed.

P.S. I challenge anyone to not shed a tear at the end.