The British sitcom Bob Odenkirk compared to a “beautiful piece of art”
We British people don’t often experience too many sources of pleasure, what with inclement weather, the astronomical cost of pints and the existence of Mrs Brown’s Boys.
However, one thing we can take some modicum of enjoyment from is when famous Americans decide that they like our little country. I’m talking about anglophiles; those fine people who feel like there’s something intangibly great about Great Britain that they enjoy, sometimes even more than their very own America. Examples of famous anglophiles include Madonna, Katy Perry, Johnny Depp, and now we can add Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk to the list.
The reason is his love for the classic 1990s sitcom The Royle Family, which ran for four seasons on BBC One and wove its way into the culture of the nation. The show, created by friends Caroline Aherne, Henry Normal and Craig Cash, perfectly summed up the very British experience of binging on cups of tea while mindlessly staring at the television, dispersed with a complicated family dynamic and a patriarch’s blooming flatulence.
The show is considered by many as one of the finest examples of British comedy writing, with catchphrases that have made their way into everyday lexicon and are still used in homes across the country. It won countless awards over its lifetime and also featured a theme tune sung by fellow Manchester royalty Noel Gallagher, who donated Oasis’ ‘Half the World Away’ to this cultural phenomenon.
Unlike most British sitcoms of the time, the show was recorded without a laugh track; a move that proved influential, with programmes like The Office shortly following suit. It also paved the way for reality TV like Gogglebox, which similarly captured the mundanity of several people in a living room, talking at the television. Tragically, given the success of the show, Aherne struggled to cope with the fame, and her personal life suffered terribly before she sadly died of lung cancer in 2012.
Writing in Variety about the show, Odenkirk said: “This is a beautiful piece of art, as complex as a film like Ordinary People or The Graduate. It’s an examination of a family dynamic that is horribly broken and awful and yet protective and, somehow, loving.”
The cast of the Royle Family have spoken very warmly about their experience while involved in the hit comedy, noting that in between filming, they would often stay on set to chat almost in character rather than retreating to their dressing rooms. And many revealed that plot lines would so closely mirror their own experiences that emotions and tears on set were sometimes entirely real.
In this vein, Odenkirk added, “TV provides comfort, and usually in an artificial, forced way. People are happy to take any kind of comfort they can, and I don’t blame them. But The Royle Family is more challenging. There’s real feeling here. There are rare moments where Jim gives comfort to somebody, but even that gesture is complex—it’s not easy for him to allow feeling to come out.”
The actor will shortly be seen in Nobody 2, the sequel to the surprise smash hit vigilante movie from 2021 that featured an everyday family man taking matters into his own hands, and he has recently discussed his hopes for the movie becoming a franchise in the vein of John Wick. Nobody 2 features gratuitous violence in an almost comic book style, and the first trailer shows that Odenkirk’s character will continue to stop at nothing to mete out justice.
