The Distaff Side (1979) User Reviews (2)

The Distaff Side

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 August 2019]

Shelley gets his first pay packet with his new job in advertising. He is shocked to discover just how much is deducted in tax.

You would had thought he knew who had been funding his lifestyle on the dole until know.

Shelley goes straight down to the local Inland Revenue office and demand the thieves give his money back. The Tax Inspector tells him he might pay less tax if he was married and had a child.

Now he just needs Fran to agree to get married and this might mean he needs to tell his prospective father in law of his intentions and he really dislikes Shelley.

There are a lot of jokes about the taxman being a crook but it does sit oddly given that Shelley had been layabout for years claiming social security.

An episode of two halves with the phone call to the father in law being more successful. It now looks peculiar to see a coin operated phone .

"Are you the head robber?"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 28 January 2008]

Our hero has landed a cushy job writing copy for an advertising agency ( nice work if you can get it! ). He hates it but is looking forward to his first pay check. But when it arrives he is not happy - after tax deductions it is not much higher than the money he got on the Dole.

Furious, Shelley goes to the Tax Office to demand to know what they are playing at, and is pushed from pillar to post by a series of faceless clerks. On being told he can qualify for Mortgage Tax Relief, he tries to get one, but of course for that you need a bank account...

After the disappointing 'Gainfully Employed', its back to form with a cracking episode which sees Jim doing what he is best at - being rude to practitioners of bureaucracy. Shelley's dismay is perfectly understandable, encapsulating one of the reasons why some people prefer the Dole to work. You are no better off really. One of the clerks he encounters is played by the gorgeous Marsha Fitzalan, who went on to be the faithless 'Sarah B'Stard' in 'The New Statesman'. I once saw her do a commercial for chocolate, and she managed to make Munchies incredibly sexy.

The rest of the episode is taken up with Shelley's phone call to his prospective father-in-law. We do not hear what Mr.Smith is saying, but from Shelley's responses it sounds profane.

In the four weeks it had been on air, 'Shelley' achieved excellent ratings and reviews. Margaret Forwood, television critic of 'The Sun', even started a campaign among readers to 'Keep 'Shelley' At The Top Of The Ratings'.

Then, disaster struck. Following the transmission of this episode, I.T.V. was blacked out by a strike that lasted approximately ten weeks. Viewers had to wait eight months for the remaining three episodes of Season 1, when they were appended to the beginning to Season 2. Had 'Shelley' not been a hit, its likely they would never have been shown.

Funniest moment - Shelley teasing Mrs.Hawkins by telling her that he and Fran plan on a nude wedding. "What's the matter?", he asks the shocked landlady, "Worried at having nowhere to put your carnation?"