Terrific Tuesday

The BBC hit a big homerun in 1990 when it debuted the situation comedy Waiting For God. Set in a retirement village in Bournemouth, England, the series was an attempt to cast a humorous look on the problems that the elderly face as they wend their way through the golden years of their lives. It was a major success and ran for five series.

Starring the devilishly funny Stephanie Cole as Diana Trent and the late Graham Crowden as Tom Ballard, these feisty oldsters amused themselves by creating as much havoc as they could for the management of Bayview, as well as for their own families. Tom’s half wit son and drunken daughter-in-law were always on hand to provide a foil for Tom and Diana, as was Harvey “the idiot” Baines, as Diana called him, the CEO of Bayview, and his assistant, the love struck Jane. Often recruiting their peers into their escapades, Tom and Diana never tired of proving that just because they were getting on they were in no way slowing down.

Now a hit on PBS stations across the US, as well as in many other countries to boot, Waiting For God finds new fans all the time. It is simply a delicious selection on the international menu of fun, as is readily apparent in this clip of Tom and Diana setting out to sabotage Baines’ latest plot to turn Bayview into a business rather than their playground.