A vehicle for highly marketable comedy star Richard Briers which also made household names of Peter Egan and Penelope Wilton.
Ever Decreasing Circles (EDC) is a middle-aged comedy of manners set in everyman suburbia.
Briers plays Martin Bryce. Martin is married to Ann (Penelope Wilton).
They live in a rather nice modern detached house in a close of similarly constructed houses. Martin is a fussy, opinionated man who - as is often pointed out- has obsessive-compulsive tendencies (insisting the phone receiver is the right way round, an insistence upon punctilious procedural points administratively.) though this often seems over-emphasised. Martin doesn't like change.
The people initially living in the close all appear to be Mr and Mrs Average (at least in 1980s Britain) - He is a middle manager, of no particular remarkability, making a decent living and She is a Housewife. No undue risks, make a decent living and have a quiet home life.
Martin Bryce is all these, turned up to Eleven. But Martin is a Good Man. He is a very Good Man. He slaves away on innumerable committees for local benefit, be it sports or communal. He helps sports clubs. He helps the elderly and infirm. He hasn't, it seems, a bad bone in his body.
Until Paul. Ryman (Peter Egan) moves in next door.
Paul is the polar opposite of Martin. A divorcee, adventurous, handsome (Martin isn't unattractive though.), charismatic, flexible. Ex-army officer, a Cambridge Cricket Blue, a natural entrepreneur, Paul appears to emanate from a more privileged background with the confidence to match.
His effect on Martin is effectively that of an extreme irritant, causing a a form of 'allergic reaction' in Martin.
It is intimated that when still at school, Martin had a 'gang' which he led in the playground (there is nothing nasty intimated in this 'gang'. It's more like Richmal Crompton's William Brown and his 'outlaws'). It seems that a new boy arrived at the school and displaced Martin so that he was excluded from his 'gang' - and inwardly he fears it happening again- through Paul. It's basically an inferiority complex.
It has to be said that Paul is also a Good Man. Although at first his winning smile and charisma, his endless array of friends who can 'do him a favour' seem too good to be true, But in fact Paul never really tries to do Martin down through all the series, despite Martin's provocations and he helps Martin and others in myriad ways. However Paul has one major drawback; he reacts to success with a desire to find new fields to conquer, so his world is always in flux.
Martin does a lot of good but appears to require the voiced gratitude of those he benefits to sustain his own - usually flagging - ego. Martin sees himself as down on his luck, one of life's victims - unlike privileged Paul. Martin's spare-time hobbies of running all these societies, though detrimental to his married life, recompense him for what appears to be a stalled and uninspiring career.
On the other hand, Paul doesn't psychologically require any form of 'payback' for his good deeds - his self-confidence seems always to be sky-high. However, as the series progresses, although Paul's strengths are manifest, he occasionally is also shown to have feet of clay.
Ann is an interesting personality. She's pretty and vivacious and interesting company with a good and independent mind of her own. She's bright but not so much to be a mismatch for Martin. Paul is plainly drawn to her and she to him, but Ann never crosses the line. It seems that Martin helped her through a very difficult time in her earlier life and her loyalty to Martin holds true, even if tested at times. Further, Martin's innate and inbuilt stability offers security of a contrasting form to Paul's meteric brilliance and evanescence.
Ann seems often to complain that Martin isn't there to take her out when she wants, but when Martin (temporarily) loses his position running all his organisations, opining that this means he'll have more time for Ann, she is soon displeased with having him constantly under her feet. Perhaps the problem is that Ann herself doesn't know what she really wants from life, so setting up the triangular tension between herself and the polar opposites, Martin and Paul.
Having analysed all this, I fail to bring over the intense comedic cleverness of the script and the measured and perfect playing by the actors of the characters they are representing. This is much funnier than Good Life with lots of amusing insights on the relationships between the main trio.
There is also Howard (Stanley Lebor) and Hilda (Geraldine Newman) . A loving and ever-complimentary couple wearing matching clothes, Howard and Hilda are inherently funny in themselves (Howard's laugh is marvellous by itself). They also play an important role in buffering and moderating the relationships between the main trio, providing lots of comedy relief and preventing situations turning too serious. Howard and Hilda also provide strong moral parameters in the plots, often standing up for what is right to prevent behaviour falling out of line. When a rather unpleasant work colleague plays a nasty trick on Martin (and Ann), it is Howard who provides the retribution he deserves.
Beautifully played and written and a pleasure to remember and watch again, this comedy shows what can be done without recourse to the crudities which more modern shows seem often to require.
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