Sink or Swim: The Complete Series [DVD]

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In a nutshell, Sink or Swim has no real plot to speak of at all. It is, like Seinfeld would become years later, a show about nothing. It threatens to pursue a plot at various stages throughout all three series; the search for their estranged mother in series one, Steve dating the daughter of a work colleague in series two (a pre- EastEnders Gillian Taylforth playing TV legend Ron Pember’s daughter) and Brian’s pursuit of knowledge at university in series three, but on the whole this is a series which gets by on the charm of its three leads and Shearer’s gently comic writing. And the key players really are charming, with a good mix of chemistry that is a delight to watch on screen. Holding The Fort and Sink Or Swim both started in 1980, and for the last two series of the latter he was filming concurrently with his opening series of Doctor Who. Sink Or Swim ( BBC One) followed the misadventures of brothers Brian and Steve, as played by Davison and Robert Glenister. The show was Glenister's television debut in a leading role. The brothers buy a leaky and decidedly un-canal-worthy narrowboat and struggle to make it habitable.

The ultimate goal for the group is a relay swim across the channel between England and France in the final episode. Sink or Swim celebrities Joining the previously announced Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie and Coronation Street star Sair Khan will be The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker, TOWIE stars James ‘Arg’ Argent and Georgia Kousoulou, Blue singer Simon Webbe, Love Island’s Wes Nelson, Hollyoaks actress Rachel Adedeji, television presenter Diane Louise Jordan and Linford Christie’s fellow Olympic gold medallists , Tessa Sanderson and Greg Rutherford. Sink or Swim (4 x 60’) attempts to erase the stigma of being a non-swimmer and follows the progress of our cast some complete non-swimmers, some who just need to polish up their skills as well as those with a fear of open water or those who have been taught to swim as children but now struggle to do so for health reasons – as they are pushed to their absolute limits. Steven Handley, Commissioning Editor for Entertainment at Channel 4 says: “ Sink or Swim promises to be one of the most perilous Stand Up To Cancer Celebrity Challenges we have ever attempted. It will push the boundaries of what Celebrities will endure and overcome to raise money and awareness for charity and we are delighted to be working with TwoFour on this ambitious project. I’m thrilled to announce such an incredible and diverse cast for the series. They all have truly captivating stories behind why they find swimming terrifying and I cannot wait to see them embark upon this epic challenge.”Like many BBC sitcoms from this golden era, Sink or Swim is blessed with a theme tune and score by the illustrious composer, Ronnie Hazlehurst– the man behind the themes for Are You Being Served? Last of the Summer Wine, Just Good Friends, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Yes Minister, Sorry! and, yes, even the first series of Only Fools and Horses. Like his memorable theme tune for Carla Lane’s Butterflies (an arrangement of the Dolly Parton 1974 hit, Love is Like a Butterfly) Sink or Swim was not an original composition. Instead, for this show about the fractious, chalk and cheese relationship of siblings, Hazlehurst was asked to arrange an instrumental version of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother –a 1969 hit for The Hollies. Like Only Fools and Horses, Sink or Swim was filmed in Bristol doubling for London. Shearer later wrote the Nicholas Lyndhurst sitcom The Two of Us for LWT. Production of the sitcom overlapped the first two years of Davison also starring as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who, which imposed constraints on the recording schedules. [1] As a Northerner myself, I especially liked her belief that Brian and Steve’s father must be a miner as, in her mind, all Northern men work down the pit. When Brian corrects her, she comes to question whether he really is Northern after all! The character of Sonia also gets the prize that many a sitcom desires in an effort to establish the show in the public’s mind; the catchphrase. Seemingly every other earnest diatribe or long-winded monologue she delivers in an attempt to educate either Brian or Steve ends with “You know?”, delivered in an inimitable manner by Corper. Costume-wise, she’s often kitted out in dungarees, which was of course the shorthand for militant women at the time.

In the lead role, Peter Davison is at his well-meaning, slightly wet best as Brain Webber, a bespectacled prototype of the ’80s ‘New Man’ who is mostly wholly enamoured by the beliefs of his girlfriend Sonia, but whose more pragmatic Northern roots occasionally rise to the surface thanks, in the main, to Steve’s influence. In Steve, Robert Glenister delivers a fine comic performance which ought to be congratulated far more, given that this was his first TV role. A vintage BBC sitcom about two brothers. The older brother is ambitious, eager to grasp what the world has to offer. The younger brother is scruffy and hopeless, forever tempering the enthusiasm of his older sibling and raining on the parade of his aspirations. The setting is London at the dawn of the ’80s – Thatcher’s Britain – though in reality location filming in Bristol stands in for the capital. The producer/director is Gareth Gwenlan. They’re joined by The Last Leg’s Alex Brooker, TOWIE stars James ‘Arg’ Argent and Georgia Kousoulou, Blue singer Simon Webbe, Love Island’s Wes Nelson and Hollyoaks actress Rachel Adedeji.The celebrities taking part in the show include Olympic gold medallist Linford Christie and Coronation Street star Sair Khan. The biggest question of all concerns another Towie star, Georgia Kousoulou. Payne tells her there isn’t enough time left for her to get into shape to battle the cruel sea, so Kousoulou leaves the show – even though, ironically, she is a swimwear designer. “When you really think about it,” she had said earlier, “why would I want to swim?” Quite right. Why would anyone?