Happy Families

Happy Families was a rural comedy drama written by Ben Elton which appeared on the BBC in 1985 and told the story of the dysfunctional Fuddle family. It starred Jennifer Saunders as Granny Fuddle, Dawn French as the Cook and Adrian Edmondson (Saunders' real-life husband) as her imbecilic grandson Guy. The plot centred around Guy's attempts to find his four sisters - also played by Saunders - for a family reunion. The most innovative thing about the series was the "style" of film in which each sister's story was shot; for example, Cassie's story was shot on 16mm to make it appear to be a U.S. soap opera, Madelaine's story was shot in soft focus to make it appear to be a French film, Roxeanne was filmed as though appearing in a gritty BBC...