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Early Doors is a BBC sitcom written by Craig Cash and Phil Mealey. The setting is "The Grapes", a small pub in Manchester where daily life is bound up in the issues of love, loneliness, and blocked urinals.
The action centres 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). Ken's wife left him for his best friend.
The series reflects more than a little of the northern humour displayed The Royle Family (co-written by Cash). In a similar style to The Royle Family the location of the scenes is limited to The Grapes pub.
Regular characters
- Ken - the landord
- Joe and Duffy - the pub lads
- Eddie and Joan - the pub bore and his wife
- Tommy - the miserable old man
- Jean - Ken's gossipping mother
- Winnie - the cleaner
- Melanie - Ken's daughter
- Nige and Phil - the local policemen
The pub is able to maintain lock-ins thanks to corrupt local policemen Phil and Nige, who sell marijuana and enjoy listening to crime reports on their police radio in the comfort of Ken's back kitchen. They sold Ken fake £10 notes at "£100 for 12" in an episode from the second series. During the pub quiz Phil and Nige radioed their police colleagues for assistance and were rumbled when the other regulars overheard the radio - "The capital of Chile is definitely Santiago".
The show was placed at 91 in the 2003/4 BBS's Britain's Best Sitcom poll. A third series has been commissioned by the BBC and will be shown in 2006.
The 2006 Channel 4 documentary Who Killed the British Sitcom used the closing music from Early Doors over its own end credits, suggesting that, along with My Family, the series proves there is still hope for the genre.
Cast
- John Henshaw - Ken
- Craig Cash - Joe
- Phil Mealey - Duffy
- Mark Benton - Eddie
- Christine Bottomley - Melanie
- Lorraine Cheshire - Joan
- Susan Cookson - Tanya
- Rodney Litchfield - Tommy
- James McAvoy - Liam (Mel's boyfriend - Series 1)
- Rita May - Jean (Ken's lazy mother)
- James Quinn - Phil
- Peter Wight - Nige
- Lee Ingleby - Dean (Mel's boyfriend - Series 2)
- Lisa Millet - Debbie
- Sue McArdle - Nicola
Critical reception
- "such a slow-burning comedy that you only start to smile during the next programme." * - The Guardian
- " Early Doors, a comedy by Craig Cash averaged only 1.7 million viewers in its first outing, but scored particularly highly on the appreciation indices. Jane Root decided to commission a second series, partly because such a high proportion of viewers enjoyed it." * - The Guardian
External links
"Early Doors"