432 The Sun Trap

First  viewed : 25  April  1980

Here's  another  show  that's  fallen  through  the  cracks and  a  reminder  that  most  comic  writers have  something  that  didn't  quite  work  on  their  c.v.

The  Sun  Trap  was  the  next  series  written  by  David  Nobbs  after  The  Fall  and  Rise  of Reginald  Perrin.   It   concerned  a  group  of  middle-aged  British  expats  living   on  an  un-named Mediterranean  island  who  can  find  nothing  better  to  do  than  meet up  in  the  bar  to  grumble  about  the  state  of  things  back  home  and  their  unfulfilled  lives.

That,  I  think,  was  the  main  problem, expecting  the  viewers  to  find  any  warmth  towards  these  privileged  whingers  while  unemployment  crept  up  towards  three  million.  There  was  no  Everyman  figure  like   Reggie  with  whom  you  could  sympathise . The  only  similarity  with  Perrin   was  the  use  of  catchphrases  but  here  it  seemed  like  the  scripts  were  relying  on  them  alone  for  laughs. Despite  this  over-reliance  on  catchphrases,  the  only  one  I  can  actually  remember  was  appalling  bore  Robert   ( Derek  Waring )  regaling  all  and  sundry  with  how  he'd  blown  his  weather  forecasting  debut   - "forecast  deep  snowdrifts  in  the  Irish  Sea". Not  exactly  "I  didn't  get  where  I  am  today"  is  it ?"

There  was  a  decent  idea  for  a  Play  for  Today  in  the  situation  but  it  didn't  work  as  a  comedy.

The  show  was  universally  panned  and  taken  off  air  after  just  six  episodes. Nobbs  himself  took  the  criticism  on  the  chin  and  acknowledged  he'd  got  it  wrong.  The  Beeb  of  course  didn't  learn  their  lesson  and  a  dozen  years  later  brought  about  an  even  bigger  debacle  by  deciding  to  base  a  nightly  soap  in  a  similar  setting.