It may well be just over a week ago that series two of the BBC1 sit-com Boomers ended, but I still just had to tell you all how much I unexpectedly grew to love it!

I can remember seeing the trailers a few years ago for the first series of Boomers and not really fancying it.  It looked a bit corny was my initial impression. Why would I as a man in my late thirties, want to watch a comedy about three couples who were in their retirement years acting all silly and daft I thought??? Nope, I decided watching that would feel too much like hard work so I never bothered with it.

When the second series commenced this year I once again decided that I would give a wide berth. I can actually remember slightly grimacing when I saw it was on the TV schedules again .  This prejudice of mine being based on an unappealing trailer that I saw, as well as there definitely being a feeling out there in TV land that Boomers is not seen a so-called ‘modern’ or ‘trendy’ comedy unlike some others that are.  For instance, Boomers has not got as much cultural clout with the critics or the younger generation as say the Peep Show and The IT Crowd have.

I am not sure how it happened but I found myself finally relenting and watching the second episode of the second series one night.  To my somewhat surprise I rather enjoyed my first experience of these OAP folk from the fictitious seaside resort of Thurnemouth.  It was the one where they went round to a house warming party hosted by Alan and Joyce’s new neighbours, who just happened to be two gay men(big thing for oldies).  I never got to the stage where I was close to being reduced to tears of laughter whilst watching it, nevertheless I did find myself chuckling throughout.  It was a slightly old fashion comedy I concluded, but old fashioned in a good way and one that was definitely worthy of watching the week afterwards.

As the weeks went by I watched the remaining four episodes and really enjoyed them.  No, none of them made me get hysterical with laughter like say as your Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers have done in past, however at the same time every episode had cheered me up by the time the closing credits were rolling.  There is a warmness to this show that is very appealing.  Regarding the characters and couples featured, they reminded me of family friends and relatives that I have known in my life.  Characters John and Maureen are ‘the brash couple’, Trevor and Carol the ‘eccentric couple’ and Alan and Joyce are the ‘beleaguered pairing’.  They all offer something different(comedy wise) to the show and compliment each other really well. I definitely know a real life John and Maureen and so the more I watched them then the more this recognition amused me.

If you are in your late thirties like I am then Russ Abbott who plays John, will have been a big part of your childhood life growing up. For those of you who are much younger than this then comedian Russ Abbott was this big comedy star back in the day with his own prime time telly shows.  Les Dennis appeared on his shows together with a whole host of other comics.  Russ even had a hit single called ‘Atmosphere’, the catchy chorus is still stuck in my head even now after all these years.  Given all this I was therefore intrigued to see how well he could act in a sit-com.  To my great relief my fond childhood memories of him are still intact because I thought he played the role of John effortlessly well. He came across very natural and probably due to his former life as a comedian, I thought his comic timing was great too.  I guess I am biased due to nostalgia but Russ was the best thing in this sit-com for me.

Do not get me wrong here though, after this glowing review Boomers is far from being the best thing that I have ever seen as far as sit-coms go.  It was not a laugh a minute but at the same time nothing tremendously irked me about it either. I liked it because it did not try too hard to be funny compared to some other shows that infuriatingly do.  It was devoid of swearing and was hardly ever vulgar but even when it was I found it amusing. To me, lame comedy is when the comedian or script resorts to swearing or ‘sex jokes’ all of the time(yep, I’m not a Keith Lemon or a Celebrity Juice fan I’m afraid). I was initially put off watching this sit-com because it was about three retirement couples, yet after watching it this was one of the main reasons why I grew to like it so much, i.e bit different. I was wrong to be snobby about Boomers…….here’s hoping then that the BBC BOOM US A THIRD SERIES OF BOOMERS THIS TIME NEXT YEAR. 3.5/5.