Sara Corper

Sink or Swim is a BBC TV sitcom starring Peter Davison as Brian Webber, who lives in a flat above a London petrol station, and trying to make his way in the world, thus far with limited success. His girlfriend, Sonia, is a very practical young woman who is passionate only about things like vegetarianism and ecology. When Brian's younger brother, Steve, arrives seeking a place to stay, his lazy, cynical, noisy "Northern lout" attitude disrupts Brian's already messy life. Like Only Fools and Horses, Sink or Swim was filmed in Bristol doubling for London. It ran for three series between 4 December 1980 and 14 October 1982, and was written by Alex Shearer, who later wrote the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom 'The Two of Us' (1986-90, LWT). The first two years of production overlapped as Davison was also starring as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, which imposed constraints on recording schedules.

Norman Lovett stars as an eccentric artist in this alternative comedy from the mid 90s. Norman plays a character, named for himself, that lives in an imaginary world where his companion is a talking dog. In this alternate reality, inanimate objects often speak to him.

Young lovable rogue Jim London becomes a man of property when a relative dies, leaving him a run-down Victorian property at 17 Railway Terrace in the Elephant and Castle area of south London. He gets into various problems with the police and spends most of his time getting drunk and chasing women.

When Henry Mann inherits The Laurels he also inherits its assorted resident oddballs, who include ill-tempered alcoholic Duncan, blonde temptress Dolly Delights and several Chinese waiters. Then comes the arrival of retired Water Board official Hamish James Ordway, a nosey parker and colossal fusspot with a flair for what he euphemistically calls 'organisation' and Mann offers him free accommodation at The Laurels in return for straightening out the chaos prevailing within...