First viewed : September 1980
I may only have seen one episode of this shortlived sitcom about an incompetent building team.
Roy Kinnear played Mr Jones the nervy owner who "maintained" a skeleton crew of cynical plumber Richard Geyser ( Colin Welland ) , drunken Irish painter Wobbly Ron ( David Kelly ) and thick as two short planks driver Eric ( James Wardroper ) who could all be relied upon to leave a property in a worse state than when they started. In the first series Jones's secretary was played by ubiquitous busty blonde Debbie Linden; in the second, they went to the opposite extreme and her replacement was played by Janine Duvitski.
Besides playing on middle class nightmares of botch jobs the series' premise gave plenty of opportunities for Some Mothers Do Ave Em - style slapstick which weren't missed. A house fell down rather impressively in the first episode. Colin Welland got most of the best lines.
The episode I remember is the second one "Perks" where the lads are helping themselves to things from a hotel they're renovating such as the copper wiring. Ron gets startled while on the roof and ends up hanging from the guttering. Eric tells him to lift himself up then chides him for not moving. Ron's reply is "Neither would you with half a ton of lead in your pockets !"
There were two seasons comprising thirteen episodes in total. Kinnear, Welland and Kelly all moved on but the series was the end of the line for Wardroper as an actor. Ironically he became a painter and moved to France. He does have the consolation that he and Duvitski are the only surviving members of the cast.
"If a job's worth doin' it's worth doin' wrong with a nail too short an' a screw too long"
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