zzzzzzzzzzzzzzx This show has Rowan Atkinson (Inspector Raymond "Feely" Fowler) at his very best, funnier than either Mr. Bean or Black Adder. He shares the screen with a delightful array of competent actors who all know how to deliver a funny line without squashing it, although sometimes I find David Haig's delivery of Detective Inspector Grimm's rants to be just a little too much.I don't find much of what Ben Elton has written to be that funny, but this show has me laughing out loud time and again. Almost every episode in the two seasons available is well paced and loaded with double entendres. If only American sitcoms could match or come close to this!

jan This is Ben Elton's homage to Croft & Perry's 'Dad's Army'. the very first episode shows Inspector Fowler coming out of a shop called Mainwaring's, looking very similar to Hodges in his ARP helmet. As the series progresses and the characters develop, you can see the similarities to the characters of Captain Mainwaring (Fowler) Pikey (goody) and Jonesey (Gladsone). Ben Elton makes a cameo appearance as a new age traveller in the first series. Although there are bound to be comparisons made with Blackadder, these are unfair as they are both in differrent classes. However, there are obvious similarities in the topical satire and digs at modern establishment. Fowler is not incompetent, nor do his staff make him appear to be so. in fact, they very rarely get it wrong in the pursuit of justice. (except when they arrested the wrong carol singers). The episode on Sir Paul Condon's press release, racism and asylum seekers ( Ism Ism Ism) was particularly relevant to the times, not to mention hilarious (Fowler pretending to be an asylum seeking martian)

TheNegotiator Sorry to be contrary, but this one is a stinker, Atkinson.It's one of those frustrating things. You know when a supermodel picks you up in a bar and drags you back to her lush 10 million pound apartment, mixes you the best rum and coke you can imagine and then, as she kicks her shoes off, you note that she has 8inch long toenails and hairy feet like a hobbit..? Yeah? This should have been SOOOOOO good. Atkinson is a comedy genius. Though I do not like Bean, I recognise it is very well done. I love Blackadder and he makes that. The supporting cast are also exemplary. David Haid as Grim is as excellent as the script allows him to be.Mina Anwar and James Dreyfus were newcomers at the time and you could see that they were going to make it. Dreyfus has to a degree with Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. It mystifies me why Anwar hasn't yet hit big, probably not getting the roles that would allow her to.Maybe it's me. I just don't like mild comedies like this and Last of the Summer Wine.

richard.fuller1 Can't add anything else to what anyone else has said. The show is hilarious. None of the cast fail.The only flaw that I can see is when Mark Addy replaced Kray. I liked Kray better. I had seen so many of these episodes over and over, but clearly there was one or two that I had missed."The Green Eyed Monster" was clearly one of them. I finally managed to see it and I have given myself a headache laughing at Fowler's proposal and Grim's concept of marriage. I have never heard anything like either one of these in American television. Atkinson has been funny before in other episodes, but Haig has been an absolute riot here. I've got a headache from laughing so much. It may be regarded as the lowest of Atkinson's comedies (Blackadder, Bean and Thin Blue Line) but truthfully, I love listening to him deliver his dialogue and he does it more here than he does in the other two, and he displays a grand sense of seriousness at times on this show as well, playing the straight man to the other characters. I suppose Atkinson did that with those two cohorts in Blackadder, but he has to interact with these characters more than he did with those in Blackadder, who were just completely brainless.