The Rotters Club is a dramatisation of Jonathan Coe's novel (which I haven't read) adapted by old favourites, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Set against a mid-seventies backdrop, we follow Ben Trotter, his family, friends and others in a largish ensemble cast. I missed this on Wednesday, but BBC2 are running same week repeats (no BBC4 repeats this time around), so all is well.
This is a superb series, with a terrificly accurate portrayal of the strikes and industrial relations of the time. I was only four in 1974 when this series starts, but I practically learnt to speak by hearing union leaders on the radio.
One small thing that does suprise. For some reason, this production was shot on the Isle of Man. Why was that? Was it because they have some superb examples of late sixties/early seventies architecture? Was it the fact that Douglas is the spitting image of Birmingham? Or is it because they offer enormous financial incentives if you shoot your production there?
That would also explain why the school featured in The Rotters Club looks amazingly similar to the school featured in the recent ITV adaption of Tom Brown's Schooldays. It's the same school - King William's College (this is the same school that sets the impossibly hard quiz every Christmas published in The Guardian - answers here).
While I'm sure that this all does no end of good to the island's economy, I can't help feeling that this probably doesn't help us in the UK all that much. And in some strange way, that seems relevant given the subject matter of this series.
Posted by adambowie at January 30, 2005 12:01 AM