Mrs Merton and Malcolm
| Mrs Merton and Malcolm | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Black comedy, sitcom |
| Written by |
Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash, Henry Normal |
| Directed by | John Birkin |
| Starring |
Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash, Brian Murphy |
| Voices of | Steve Coogan |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Andy Harries, Bill Hilary |
| Producer(s) | Glenn Wilhide |
| Editor(s) | Geoff Hogg |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Granada Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Picture format | 16:9 |
| Original release | 22 February – 29 March 1999 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The Mrs Merton Show (1995-1998) |
| Related shows |
The Royle Family (1998-2012) Early Doors (2003) |
| External links | |
| Mrs Merton & Malcolm at the BBC Comedy Guide | |
Mrs Merton and Malcolm was a six-episode BBC One sitcom produced by Granada Television, and transmitted by BBC One in 1999.
The series was written by Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash and Henry Normal. Network DVD published the series on DVD in 2008.
The main characters were Mrs Merton (Caroline Aherne) and her son Malcolm (Craig Cash), who live together in Heaton Norris with the bedridden and almost invisible Mr Merton.
Each episode follows a very strict format, following the course of a single day. Mrs Merton and Malcolm have a conversation over the breakfast table at the start, and at the end she puts him to bed and then has an eerie one-way "conversation" with the silent Mr Merton. The events of the episode prove so exhausting or over-exciting for Malcolm that his mother always offers to ring work for him and get him the following day off.
The central event of each episode is the visit from friend of the family Arthur Capstick, played by UK sitcom veteran Brian Murphy, who mentions something to Mrs Merton (usually about the death of a neighbour) and then forgets he's said it. He has a cup of tea and is offered a snack, but dithers over which one to have, despite the fact that "they're all the same, Arthur". He then says he'll pop up to see Mr Merton, but forgets to go and has to be prompted. He takes with him some type of traditional sweet treat for Mr Merton, and sits beside the bed and entertains him somehow.
In episode 3, Mr Capstick goes upstairs to see Mr Merton before he has his cup of tea. After he has his tea, he says he'll go upstairs to see Mr Merton, so this radical diversion from the routine is too much for him in his senile state.
Steve Coogan is a constant presence, providing the voices for an unctuous disk jockey and Malcolm's motivational tapes, and also appearing in the last episode as the vicar. Mr Malik the chemist appears in several episode, played by Rashid Karapiet.
The show is characterised by a strange persistence of attitudes and fashions apparently preserved from decades earlier. Malcolm is 37 and has the personality and interests of a child, although not a contemporary one: he likes building model aeroplanes. The implication is that the characters have been trapped in a timewarp since the late 1960s, and that this is probably as a result of Mrs Merton's firm insistence that things should stay as they are, even if we must occasionally make an effort to stay in touch with the present: "People don't want trifle in the 90s", as she puts it.
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