Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

The Eighties were something of a golden age for British sitcoms, and though not lasting as long as Only Fools and Horses or having the sheer painful hilarity of Fawlty Towers, there were few better than Ever Decreasing Circles. The plot centres around fusspot Martin (Richard Briers), his long-suffering wife Anne (Penelope Wilton) and new neighbour Paul (Peter Egan)l. The village they live in has more societies than any other in Britain – and Martin is chairman of all of them. Local fetes, football teams, cricket teams, fundraising – he chairs the lot of them. Moaning about it constantly, he wouldn’t have it any other way,

When we are first introduced to his character, he finds a new neighbour moved in and talking to Anne. His wife has taken an instant liking to Paul, who is very gregarious and has an engagingly daft sense of humour. Of course Martin can’t see any humour in him at all, instantly taking a dislike to him and predicting the downfall of the community. Despite her supportiveness, Anne is certainly not immune to Martin’s pomposity, prejudice and idiocy at times, though she does love him even so. The problem is, you see, that Martin is one of life’s great losers – and he knows it. Having Paul, who seems socially at ease in every situation, is successful in more or less everything he does and has a vast network of “mates” who help him out whenever he needs it, just reinforces his frustration and insecurity. Anne hates being patronised but she is subjected to her husband’s patronisation frequently; sometimes she snaps but usually remains a determined restraint.

In the first two or three episodes the show nearly self-destructs be making Martin simply too annoying to gain any sympathy for, but fortunately it’s not long before we come to see him as a genuinely good man – just a very flawed one. His competition with Paul also starts to get a little tedious by the end of the first season, but the plotlines are skilfully woven so that in seasons 2 and 3 he starts to occasionally like Paul (who seems to have liked him right from the start, even if he does like winding him up), and by season 4 (the final one) they seem almost to be very good friends – albeit Martin still has his moments of dislike and distrust. There is also a slowly evolving storyline about the attraction between Anne and Paul, which is undeniable from both sides, but how far it might get is always uncertain.

Briers is very good in the role of Martin, once the shaky first couple of episodes which make us want to strangle him are past. Wilton suits the role of Anne down to the ground – you can really feel for her having to put up with this man. Peter Egan as the smooth-talking Paul is perhaps the best of the three – very at ease without coming across as smarmy, though his pursuit (of uncertain seriousness) of a married woman helps us to avoid seeing him completely as a wonderful guy. He has various girlfriends throughout the series but nothing ever ends up being serious. He also has a past romantic life which somewhat haunts him despite his assured appearance. In fact there are some good flashes of background to all the characters – sometimes only hinted at or suggested rather than explored – which helps to make them feel more like real people.

The only other regular characters of particular note are Stanley Lebor (as Howard Hughes) and Geraldine Newman (Hilda, his wife). Both are brilliant, with Lebor in particular displaying comic genius at times. Stanley Lebor wasn’t a name I was familiar with, but looking him up I saw that he had a long TV acting career, as well as appearing in Flash Gordon! (Yes, the one with the Queen soundtrack.) Geraldine Newman, it appears, was never in anything else for TV or the big screen. Their characters are boring individuals, rather clueless at times, and scarily always wear matching sweaters... but they are characters of great integrity and bring some great moments of pure comedy to the series. Also they might look like they can be pushed around easily... but once they make their stand on something, there’s no moving them!

Ever Decreasing Circles was directed by Sydney Lotterby / Harold Snoad, and was written by sitcom veterans John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. The humour is rarely sophisticated and there is generous use of slapstick and plain silliness, but most of the humour comes from the dialogue and interaction between the characters. Because the show gives us interesting characters that we can care about, this works very nicely indeed. Apart from the first two (maybe three) episodes, which had their moments but were a bit weak, there isn’t a bad episode among the whole series. As mentioned the seasons weren’t long and there was a total of 27 episodes.

DVD Extras

The image and sound reproduction is fine; eighties TV wasn't the best quality but it's a good transfer. Unfortuantely you don't have the option to scene-skip the opening and closing credits, but the short title screens and short piano piece backing it up don't get annoying, so that's not really a problem.

On to the extras... well, there’s good and bad. There are two Terry Wogan interviews, one with most of the cast (which is pretty awful) and one with Peter Egan, which isn’t solely about his work in EDC but is quite interesting, especially when he talks about his early career. Apparently he was told to say yes to whatever he was asked if he could do; thus on taking his first job he was expected to swim, drive and other things, none of which he could do! I don’t think the director could have liked him much, what with having to call in the stunt double time and again, and raising his filming budget. They also talk about his new release (at that time), The Perfect Spy, which is certainly something I want to get hold of now. For some reason there’s also a very high-brow look at sitcoms in general and EDC in particular, which is notable only for Harold Snoad explaining why he would only allow live audience recordings and not canned laughter.

The biggest extra is the “Feature-Length Christmas Special”, which they had made some time after the last episode was aired. Now normally the words “Christmas Special” or “Feature-Length” in relation to British sitcoms (or any sitcoms usually, for that matter) is enough to send me screaming in the general direction of alcohol. I mean, seriously... some truly great comedy series, such as One Foot in the Grave, have been made as seasonal full-length films, and been alarmingly bad. Fortunately this is not the case with EDC – in fact, it is extremely well done, and this is good for two important reasons.

Firstly, it’s good that it’s good because... er... it’s good. What’s the point of having a longer version of something you enjoy and not enjoying it? Well, you know what I mean. This feature-length episode is very good – based around a village fete, Martin / Anne having a baby and deciding to move to a new area (well... “decided” is perhaps too strong a word!), and Martin eventually decides that he cannot chair the fete committee. Much to his chagrin, no-one weeps openly about this. Who’s to take charge of the fete now? Paul, of course. Old feelings of resentment stir up, and the stress is becoming too much for Martin...

The other reason why this is so good is that the last episode of season four just didn’t feel like a proper finale to the series, and here it gets one. The ending seemed very fitting and perhaps the only one that could have worked, and the Paul / Anne question is resolved very neatly indeed. This special episode actually added no end to the value of the series collection as a whole.

All in all, I think anyone who enjoys British comedy or sitcoms based on relationships will enjoy Ever Decreasing Circles very much. It’s poignant at times, often very funny, and has great characters – but despite some quite powerful emotional storylines at times never loses its ability to make you laugh, and never becomes sappy. Top notch, old chap.


Other British Sitcoms / Comedies

A Fine Romance - written by Bob Larbey, starring Judi Dench, Michael Williams, Richard Warwick and Susan Penhaligan. Nice and amusing enough, but never quite hits the heights.

Red Dwarf (Just the Shows, Volume I – Seasons 1-4) - the definitive space comedy at its best (i.e. before season 6!), starring Craig Charles, Danny John Jules, Chris Barrie, Norman Lovett & Hattie Haybridge; written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. Absolutely hilarious (unless you have no sense of humour.)



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD