Sink or Swim: The Complete Series [DVD]

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No, I’m not talking about Only Fools and Horses. That series arrived on the BBC in September 1981. Instead, I’m talking about a sitcom that beat John Sullivan’s much-loved classic by almost a year, running for three series between 1980 and 1982. I’m talking about Sink or Swim, written by Alex Shearer of The Two of Us fame (which ironically starred Only Fools‘ Nicholas Lyndhust) and starring a pre- Doctor Who Peter Davison and, in his television debut, Robert Glenister, as the brothers Brian and Steve and Sara Corper as Brian’s girlfriend, Sonia. All three series of Sink or Swim were released as one DVD set by Network in 2016. Davison also continued to appear in sitcoms like Eric Chappell's Fiddler's Three and Roy Clarke's Ain't Misbehavin'. To date, his final sitcom role saw him star alongside his daughter Georgia Tennant in Michael Aitkens's 2007 comedy Fear, Stress And Anger. Glenister later found fame as fixer Ash Morgan in long-running crime drama Hustle, while Corper reunited with Jim Davidson for Up The Elephant And Round The Castle, as well as appearing in Roy Clarke's Mann's Best Friends and Norman Lovett's cult curio I, Lovett. Her last credit to date was playing Rab C Nesbitt's snob of a sister in law, Phoebe. That is just not acceptable! Christopher will be found immediately on 9-1-1 Season 3 Episode 3, and there is nothing else to say about it! 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? 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.

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.Brian eventually moves with Sonia to Newcastle to read computer science at university but Steve goes too (with his canary) and gets a job as a maintenance worker at the university.

Wes added of the ultimate challenge: “It’s not the distance I’m worried about, being out in the open sea, fingers crossed it will all be okay.” The show also boasts a theme tune from sitcom veteran Ronnie Hazlehurst, the man behind the iconic opening tunes to the likes of Last Of The Summer Wine, Yes Minister and Sorry!. For Sink Or Swim, he opted not to compose an original tune, but instead arranged an instrumental version of The Hollies' 1969 hit He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother.

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Meanwhile, the experts helping them out include Olympic silver medallist Keri-anne Payne and adventurer Ross Edgley (best known for being the first person in history to swim around Great Britain), with support from Paralympic champion Ellie Simmonds. Sink or Swim air date But doesn’t this development mean 10 will have to do the swimming of 11? If it is not too late, they should bring in a ringer, ideally the heroic teacher Sadie Davies, who just swam 15 miles from the Hartland Point in north Devon to Lundy, to raise money for the environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage. But that probably wouldn’t be fair. The most enjoyable thing about Sink Or Swim is the chemistry between Davison and Glenister. In his autobiography, Davison writes about how they got on famously and would frequently be unable to get through scenes due to uncontrollable laughter, citing one particular sequence in the Christmas special. Brian lives in a flat above a petrol station in London (in the last series he moved to Newcastle to attend university). He's trying hard to make his way in the world, thus far with limited success. His girlfriend, Sonia, is a very serious minded young woman who is passionate only about things like vegetarianism and ecology. When Brian's younger brother, Steve, arrives in London looking for somewhere to stay, his lazy, cynical, noisy "Northern lout" attitude disrupts Brian's already messy life.