On Sunday October 3, 2010, PBS channel WLIW21 will begin broadcasting Fortysomething, starring Hugh Laurie.
Plot of Fortysomething
Paul Slippery (Hugh Laurie) is a respected doctor and family man, but with his wife returning to work and his three sons becoming sexually overactive teenagers, he is beginning to hear voices in his increasingly troubled head.
Cast of Fortysomething
Hugh Laurie, who also directs on this series, plays the main character of Fortysomething.
Estelle, the long suffering wife, is played by Anna Chancellor, who will be familiar to viewers from the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral and the television miniseries Pride and Prejudice.
The three Slippery sex-obsessed sons are played by Benedict Cumberbatch, Neil Henry, and Joe Van Moyland.
Shelia Hancock plays the lesbian boss of Estelle, and Stephen Fry, longtime comedy partner of Hugh Laurie, makes a guest appearance in the second episode of the series.
Hugh Laurie and Fortysomething
Before English-born Hugh Laurie became internationally famous as the complicated Dr. Gregory House, Laurie had already achieved career success by starring in a number of hit television series, such as Blackadder the Third, Blackadder Goes Forth,and Jeeves and Wooster
Sadly, Fortysomething was understandably not a hit when it aired, and only one season of six episodes was produced.
The series was based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Nigel Williams, who also wrote the scripts for the television comedy-drama series.
The series aired in the United Kingdom in 2003 on ITV. While the channel did broadcast all six episodes, mid-season the series was moved to a graveyard timeslot, but the poorly series was already dead and buried.
Reviewing Fortysomething
Even the most loyal fans of the multi-talented Hugh Laurie will most likely be disappointed by this lackluster series, and while even Laurie’s performance is missing something, the majority of the cast gives rather poor support.
The premise could have had potential, but the story soon becomes tedious and boring. The episodes consistently decline in quality and entertainment levels, but admittedly, the final episode is superior to the preceding episodes. However, no one will be watching by the sixth installment, and even the final episode is only acceptably enjoyable by comparison to the other episodes of the series.
The series may have been entertaining in the condensed format of a made for television movie, but as a television series, Fortysomething flops.
It will not make for pleasant Sunday evening viewing, and while WLIW21 is usually very wise in planning their program schedule, unlike other British comedy-drama series such as New Tricks, Kingdom, and Doc Martin, Fortysomething will probably not be warmly welcomed by viewers.
Elizabeth Fredericks - Elizabeth Fredericks is a graduate of Oxford University, and she has worked as a freelance writer since her first paid assignment as a ...
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