The Royle Family - First Critical Responses

First Critical Responses

Aherne and her colleagues were bitterly disappointed with the initial attempt at filming a first episode, and it was quietly binned. A new producer and director (Mark Mylod and Glenn Wilhide) were called in to help them make a second attempt. This time the team were happy with the results. The first episode was broadcast on BBC Two on Monday 14 September, and at first it had critics bemused. "Anything goes on television these days" wrote Tony Purnell in The Daily Mirror the following day "Even passing wind passes for entertainment". Geoffrey Phillips in the Evening Standard was braver "Wind-breakingly funny" he called it. Joe Joseph in the Times said "So far this looks like one of those rare British sitcoms that doesn't make you yawn, or cringe with embarrassment." By the weekend, the tide was beginning to turn. Brian Viner wrote in the Mail on Sunday "The Royle Family (is) a six part comedy which dares to go further than any television series I can remember". John Dugdale in The Times called the show 'A priceless insight' and Nicholas Barber in the Independent wrote "What we have here is a genuinely original sitcom, and if the quality keeps up, it will be a happy and glorious one. The Royle Family rules." Stephen Pile agreed in The Telegraph on Saturday, 19 September, with '"This is a ground breaking sitcom of great originality". By 29 September, Nancy Banks-Smith was writing in The Guardian 'This rivetingly original slice of life...would have had Pinter on pins" and Karl French in the Financial Times on Monday 28 September wrote 'This is by some distance the bleakest and best new British sitcom of the year." BBC Two controller Mark Thompson announced the commissioning of a second series on 25 September and by 13 October, Tim Hulse was writing in The Express "It's as if Samuel Beckett had been commissioned to write a sitcom." The 6th and last episode in the first series gained 25% of the total television audience with 5 million viewers - something quite unheard of at the time for BBC Two. Caroline Aherne said of the producer Glenn Wilhide, with characteristic generosity "They should have brought him in to save the Titanic!"

In the second series Aherne and Cash were joined by Carmel Morgan, and finally the third series was written by Aherne and Cash alone.

The series reunited Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston who had previously played married couple Bobby and Sheila Grant in Brookside from 1982 until Tomlinson's departure in 1987 and Johnston's in 1990.

In a list of the 100 greatest British television programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000 and voted on by industry professionals, The Royle Family was placed 31st. In a 2004 poll to find Britain's best sitcom, The Royle Family was placed 19th out of 100 nominations. The series has also won several BAFTA awards.