90s BBC2 sitcom Game On

[Carlito]

Yay, or Nay?

Discuss.

Topic

[Carlito]

I consider the first series to be a forgotten and underrated classic. Then Neil Stuke replaced Ben Chaplin and…. ugh. Series 2 was still pretty good, but series 3 was just boring. Lacked the spark.

Funnily enough, the writing partnership dissolved after series 2 and one of them decided to go it alone for the last series, with less than satisfying results. Sound familiar? lol

[Andrew]

Is this just another discussion Carl is having with himself, or can other people join in?

[Carlito]

Why do people always make a fuss on here if I post more than once in a row? Nobody is ever bothered by it on any other forum I’ve ever been to, sometimes things just occur to you after posting (or call for an elaboration) and editing the post just throws everything out of sequence in case anyone has posted in the meanwhile. Is it really THAT disconcerting for everyone?

[Dave]

I liked it. I haven’t seen any of it in years and at the moment the only joke that sticks in my head now was about Wee Chlo.

Neil Stuke & Samantha Janus kept working, the other guy was in an advert recently but other than that, nothing. There’s no justice.

[Pete Part Three]

Yeah, leave Carl alone.

[Pete Part Three]

Agreed.

[Dave]

I tried to change the subject.

[Dave]

I failed.

[Carlito]

Matthew Cottle (the ginger tosser) was in EastEnders about two years ago. It occured to me a couple weeks back that he had been in it, and now Sam Janus is in it… and the very next day I caught a repeat of that very episode on Watch. He played some kind of door-to-door salesman who visited a depressed Jake Moon.

[ChrisM]

>Yay, or Nay?

Yay for me. Hilarious in places. Saucy. Lots to like. And great how they made a joke about the change of one of the actors.

[Carlito]

It was an amusing joke. Just a shame they so badly miscast the replacement.

In fact, scratch that. Game On would have been fine if they had cast Neil Stuke from day one (he was the second choice to play Matt, before the part went to Ben Chaplin). It would have been… just… fine.

But Ben Chaplin made the part his own to such a degree; gave him a realness, made Matt equally cool and flawed, an arrogant, vulnerable git. A guy cool enough you wanted to be him, yet sad enough to make you think again.

Neil Stuke made him an animated clown.

Chaplin’s Matt was intimidating enough you felt Martin was actually scared of him (which was quite vital to their dynamic). Contrastingly, the weedy Stuke was about 5 inches shorter than Matthew Cottle and not scary in the slightest.

If Stuke had been with Game On from the start, it would have been a different show, still okay, but not as brilliant as Series 1 promised it could be. As it turned out, he had big shoes to fill and the recasting changed the entire dynamic of the show and the character of Matt.

If they had picked Stuke from day one, it would have been fine, but as they went with Chaplin, the recast should have looked for somebody who could have pulled off playing ‘Matt Malone, as made famous by Ben Chaplin’, not go back to the drawing board completely.

[Carlito]

I’m still very much in the ‘Yay’ camp for Game On, however. Even series 3 had it’s moments. But if Chaplin had stuck with the show, I reckon it would have grown to be fondly remembered as an all-time classic today.

Yes, I’m double posting AGAIN, unless somebody beats me to the punch…

[ChrisM]

I thought they both did well, although I agree Ben Chaplin was the more intimidating of the two and the better version.

>Yes, I?m double posting AGAIN, unless somebody beats me to the punch?

Not quite speedy cat. ;)

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I always enjoyed the show, although series 3 really petered out. Stuke and Chaplin, well, I see the merits of both, but totally different takes on the character. WOuld have been very interesting to see Chaplin’s take on some of the insane rants Stuke had to bellow out…

“And I’m blind man! Blind and drowning in filthy black pus, aaaaaaarrrgghhhh!”

Within my family for a while there be deadpan shouts of “TEA”… that was quite fun.

There’s a lot of good stuff in that show looking back.

“Be cool. Wax your board.”

[si]

Never watched it.

So there.

[Carlito]

“There is a time to surf, and there is a time to wax your board.” That’s very true, good analogy of life.

The first series had a lot of literary references, which isn’t surprising considering it was co-written by Andrew Davies.

Best chat up line ever? “Excuse me, is that a turd on a string?”

[Turk Thrust]

I love the first series but can`t watch the other 2. Stuke`s character was just too different for me and it wasn`t the same show anymore.

[Steve Harris]

One of those shows I found very funny whilst watching it but forgotten soon after..

The ‘Ginger Tosser’ phrase had some mileage in our house though due to the gingerness of the wifes side of the family..

[Seb Patrick]

Terrible show.

[Nakrophile]

I remember it slightly, its now confused in my mind with Coupling.

[Carlito]

At least Coupling had the decency to change the characters name when they recast for series 4. Even if it was essentially the exact same personality.

[Andrew]

There are serious differences between Jeff and Oliver, though; not the same personalities at all. ‘Nervous around women’ isn’t their sole defining characteristic.

Oh, and Game On was decent fun. I don’t mind the recasting, though it inevitably leads to using the ‘B’ choice for the part. And I have a lot of time for any show that works to create its own language within the dialogue.

[Seb Patrick]

>I remember it slightly, its now confused in my mind with Coupling.

*slaps*

[Nakrophile]

One of the two had Samantha Janus in. That’s about all I can remember.

[Carlito]

> There are serious differences between Jeff and Oliver, though; not the same personalities at all. ?Nervous around women? isn?t their sole defining characteristic.

But it is a major component of their actions within the show. Jeff was a much better rounded character, but then he had three seasons to grow. They play the same role, one is slightly different to the other, but they are not by any stretch markedly different.

[Andrew]

> But it is a major component of their actions within the show.

Christopher Eccleston and and Ricky Tomlinson filled the same role within the format of Cracker, and both shared some ‘disliking Fitz’s methods’ which formed a key, recurring reaction. But those are genre tropes as much as anything. As is ‘prone to getting himself into trouble’ within a farce. They may fill the same gap in the story, but I don’t think that makes them ‘exactly’ the same.

[Seb Patrick]

>One of the two had Samantha Janus in. That?s about all I can remember.

One of them is brilliant, one of them is rubbish. Neither deserves to be compared with the other.

[Tanya Jones]

I hated Game On when I first saw it, then I saw it again a few years later and realised that it was actually rather good. I don’t have any great preferences between series, but ‘rubbish’ really isn’t fair.

[pfm]

> unless somebody beats me to the punch?

Surely they’d be more inclined to slap you?

I used to love Game On. I don’t think I watched the first series originally so I didn’t even realise there was a recasting for a long time, then seeing a repeat I was like ‘who the fuck is that??’ (well, I probably didn’t swear, but there’s nothing like a good embellishment of a remembered reaction). Neil Stuke is in the new Martin Clunes Reggie Perrin, which I’ve seen nothing of apart from the trail. Samantha Janus is in some programme where people get run over. The little ginger fucker crops up every now and then in shows. I always confuse him with that other ginger waste of time, he was the copper in that People Like Us episode and he was also the policeman in Ideal, and he was just in Moses Jones but perhaps most people here would know him from The Unicorn and The Wasp Who episode where he was the wasp *spoiler* reverend.

[Ben Paddon]

The theme to Game On makes an appearance in the film Dumb & Dumber.

FACT.

[Pete Part Three]

Or, to be more precise, “Where I Find My Heaven” by Gigolo Aunts was in Dumb and Dumber, and later became the theme tune of Game On.

[Last Caress]

Laugh-out-loud funny for two series, curiously flat (and vaguely depressing) for much of the third. Didn’t mind the changeover from Chaplin to Stuke, thought they were equally good (though admittedly v. different), and didn’t mind them breaking the fourth wall to acknowledge the changeover in S2E1 either.

[pfm]

> Or, to be more precise, ?Where I Find My Heaven? by Gigolo Aunts was in Dumb and Dumber

You can’t triple stamp a double stamp.

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

Tell her I have a rapist wit.

[Carlito]

Watched it last night on Comedy Central. Still great.

[Al]

Have to weigh in on this one – Game On was a truly excellent programme. Puerile and silly in places, but it wasnt meant to be high drama. That might also be a defence often used for things being utter shit (like Hardware) but in this case, as a reaction to all the PC bullshit of the 80’s Game On must’ve been a breath of fresh air, and I think it still stands the test of time.

The three (four) leads acted their roles well and their delivery of certain lines was just sublime.

“Are you…. ripping the piss… out of The Fury?”

[pfm]

The fact that Matthew is listening to the Manics’ Gold Against The Soul album in one episode automatically makes it a good show. That and Samantha Janus looking great.

[ChrisM]

Then there was the episode with the vacuum cleaner.

(I found it very funny though. But then for me puerile humour doesn’t equate to not funny. I hasten to add, I don’t JUST like that kind of humour though. Different things make me laugh.)

[Carlito]

Hmmm… the vacuum cleaner was series 3… best forgotten about.

[Author]

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