Early Doors

Early Doors is a BBC sitcom which has received huge critical acclaim. Written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey (who star in the series as Joe and Duffy), Early Doors is set in The Grapes, a small pub in Manchester where daily life is bound up in the issues of love, loneliness, and blocked urinals.

Related Topics:
BBC - Sitcom - Craig Cash - Phil Mealey - Manchester - Love - Urinal

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The series reflects more than a little of the northern humour displayed in Cash's other phenomenal success, The Royle Family, combined with a host of likable characters familiar to any British Pub. The result has been hailed as a touching, funny, sometimes bleak show, doing for pub life what The Royle Family did for sofas.

Related Topics:
The Royle Family - British - Pub - Sofa

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Just as the Royles never left the house, nor does the action in Early Doors ever leave the pub in which it is set. The fact that the series is set in a pub gives the writers more characters to work with, as opposed to The Royle Familys five or six characters.

Related Topics:
House - Pub

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The action centers around pub Landlord Ken (John Henshaw) and his preoccupation with his adopted daughter Melanie (Christine Bottomley) who is preparing to meet her real dad, and his nervous relationship with barmaid Tanya (Susan Cookson).

Related Topics:
John Henshaw - Christine Bottomley - Barmaid - Susan Cookson

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Regulars include Joe and Duffy (Cash and Mealey), the pub lads who command centre table and most of the conversation, the dopey pub bore Eddie (Mark Benton) - who seems to have an obsession with local traffic diversions - and his equally bizzare wife Joan (Lorraine Cheshire) and local miserable old git Tommy (Rodney Litchfield).

Related Topics:
Mark Benton - Lorraine Cheshire - Rodney Litchfield

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The pub is able to maintain its early doors and lock-ins thanks to corrupt local policemen Nige and Phil, who sell marijuana and enjoy listening to crime reports on their police radio in the comfort of Ken's back kitchen.

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The show has received mass critical acclaim, as was underlined when it appeared in Britain's Best Sitcom poll at a respectable 91, despite only having run for one series and received little publicity. The fact that the series has received very little publicity and has yet to achieve particularly fantastic viewing figures has only helped to underline the quaint atmosphere in the pub.

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