Denise Best: Caroline Aherne
Dave Best: Craig Cash
Barbara Royle: Sue Johnston
Jim Royle: Ricky Tomlinson
Anthony Royle: Ralf Little
Norma Speakman: Liz Smith
Mary Carroll: Doreen Keogh
Joe Carroll: Peter Martin
Cheryl Carroll: Jessica Stevenson
Twiggy: Geoffrey Hughes
Emma: Sheridan Smith
Darren: Andrew Whyment
When the Royle Family entered its second series,
I was wondering if it would run out of steam, but thankfully it never did and
is just as funny as the first.
Again, all the action, so to speak, mainly takes place in the front room in
the presence of the goggle box. The observational comedy is, again, enough
to bring tears of laughter to the eyes.
None of the episodes have ever been filmed in widescreen, but...
Jim: "It's just the same shit, but WIDER!"
The head of the household is Jim Royle (Ricky Tomlinson), frequently
commenting negatively with "My arse!" and his ex-Brookside screen
wife Sue Johnston as chain-smoking Barbara Royle. Caroline Aherne
takes the role of their lazy wife-to-be daughter Denise, engaged to dippy
mobile disco DJ Dave Best (Craig Cash).
Runt of the litter is teenage son Anthony (Ralf Little), always being
forced to answer the door or make a brew, while the eldest is Nana, aka
Norma Speakman (Liz Smith), always a favourite of Jim's (NOT!) as she's
his mother-in-law.
Their next-door neighbours are the Carrolls, Mary (Doreen Keogh),
Joe (Peter Martin) and their overweight daughter Cheryl (Jessica
Stevenson, recently seen in Channel 4's Spaced). Finally,
ex-Coronation Street actor Geoffrey Hughes appears as wheeler-dealer
Twiggy, always with a bargain knock-off to hand and there's also the
local slapper Beverly Macca who we never see but hear plenty about.
Barbara: "Emma can't eat that. She's a vegetarian." Nana (looking worried): "Oh, I am sorry for you."
For the second series,
Nana has her cataracts removed and might stay with the Royles for some
time, Denise is expecting her baby son, Barbara's "on the change" according
to Jim, Denise finally cooks a meal (well, 'Dairylea on toast'), the women
gang up on the men ("Cor-rect, Dave!"), Denise complains that she never
goes round to see Dave's parents because all they do all night is sit about
and watch TV all night "and that's boring!", they spend half of the
fifth episode watching and commenting on "Who Wants to Be A
Millionaire", which incidentally is going head-to-head in the ratings war
with the third series of our Royles.
Also, the last two episodes swapped round so it went out with a high during
Anthony's 18th birthday party in which we meet his girlfriend Emma (Sheridan
Smith) for the first time and see another appearance for Anthony's
jailbird best friend Darren (Andrew Whyment), who's rather slow on the
uptake.
Exclusive to the DVD is the Xmas 1999 episode, ending with Denise being rushed
off to the hospital as her waters break, preceeded by a tender moment between
her and Jim, in the bathroom of all places.
When Barbara asks Denise if she'll breastfeed, Jim states:
"I wouldn't. That's why the springs have gone on your mother's".
Barbara: "Jim! I haven't got bad boobs for a woman of my age." Jim: "Behave, Barb, they're like bloody Spaniel's ears!"
Shot in 4:3 fullscreen, for this series only the first two episodes have
much in the way of grain, while the rest escape it. There's always a slightly
gritty look to it, but that's down to the way it was filmed.
The average bitrate is approximately 4.6Mb/s for most episodes, while others
rate a bit higher.
There's no change with the sound. Again, dialogue is clear, with the TV
blaring away in the background. Oasis's Half the World Away
tops and tails each episode.
When Barbara walks out because she's "on the change",
Denise: "She might walk out in the road and get run over by a lorry" Jim: "Well, we can always put a claim in (!)"
Extras :
There are no extras again to speak of, although the Xmas episode is exclusive
to the DVD. Chapters are again limited to one per episode.
There are no subtitles and the menus are static, although there are a few
seconds of the Oasis track playing acoustically over the top.
Darren's comment after Joe's song ends in episode 6:
"I can still smell shit in 'ere!"
After the first series release, you'll know exactly what to expect here,
but it's still a must-buy.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
