Summary, read:
Good point, though his cluelessness presents its own comedic opportunities.
To the larger issue of the couple’s chemistry, the “problem” is actually Charlotte
Ritchie. Mike and Allison are supposed to be lower class; it fits that he’s a bit of a doofus. CR is so
innately… classy? genteel?.. that no amount of charity shop clothes and unkempt hair can hide i
Absolutely no offense to Ms. Ritchie; kind of a left handed compliment, I guess.
When the house was going to be featured in a TV documentary, the husband had promotional t-shirts made up with the name of the place:
Button
House
But because of the way the type wrapped on the shirts, it looked like the wife’s shirt said:
Butt
Ho
except that obviously she is connected to the gentry somewhere down the line, perhaps “to the manor born” to a certain extent. (as a previous sitcom would have it)
True, but she went through her life up to that point not knowing about it her high falutin lineage. To me it doesn’t feel like it’s Alison’s blue blood that’s showing, but rather Charlotte’s. If that makes sense.
Being upper class isn’t a genetically inherited trait. Besides she’s apparently not even biologically related to the Buttons. In the first episode she says something like “So she’s my step-great aunt” and the solicitor says “There’s no term for what you are but you’re the only one left.”
I believe in the US version it’s more direct. Sam is a Woodstone but a distant relative.
According to Wikipedia, Hetty Woodstone (The uptight Victorian ghost) is Sam’s great-great-great-great-aunt.
I’m from the UK and I’m not unfamiliar with posh people. Alison doesn’t come across as intrinsically posh to me. She just seems like a perfectly normal person of non-specific poshness.
Well no, in real life of course it isn’t but we are talking about a series that assumes ghosts exist. To think that someone can inherit an intrinsic “comfort” with that style of living is a minor concesssion in comparison.
As you pointed out she doesn’t appear to be particularly posh. To Americans I guess a regular rather neutral English accent sounds posh. You have to beat us over the head with a cockney accent to show lower status.
In show it doesn’t make sense for her to be posh. Her connection to the Woodstone’s is tenuous at best and it comes as a complete shock to Alison. They are looking at barely livable houses before she inherits. They are poor and there is no indication that there was a fall from high status.
I agree that the character Alison doesn’t come across as posh, which makes sense in the context of the show. What I’m trying to say is that to me, the lack of chemistry between Alison and Mike is due to the actress Charlotte Ritchie being posh and it coming through, despite her excellent acting skills.
I confess I don’t detect a lack of chemistry at all, they seem like a perfectly comfortable well-matched couple.
I think we are just both clearly getting completely different vibes from them and that’s not something we are likely to get an objective opinion on.
Fair enough. I do like their relationship better than the couple in the American version, who border on being schmoopy
Here’s how Mike & Allison’s relationship struck this American: I’ve been taught that the British are reserved – that they lack enthusiasm and affection (or that they don’t show it, anyway). I’ve oft wondered if this reserved-ness translates into relationships. Like are British husbands and wives less affectionate with each other (behind closed doors, of course) than their American counterparts? I don’t know - but the lack of chemistry between Mike & Allison hits to me that their relationship is just … British (or at least, how this American views the British through the lens of exaggerated stereotypes).
It’s not really possible to argue with personal perception. I just don’t see it that way. There are plenty of examples of on screen chemistry in British shows and movies. For some reason the real life couple of David Mitchell and Victoria Coren-Mitchell popped into my head. They are posh and reserved and yet there is an unmistakable chemistry between them.
Another difference is Button House itself. In te UK version, it is horribly dilapidated - holes in the walls, floors aren’t what you’d call load bearing, pigeons, general grime, a manky kitchen dingy furniture- it feels like a genuine money pit and a terribly unpleasant place to live, at least in the first couple of seasons.
The US version feels a lot more salubrious - cleaner, brighter, fewer or no hazards to life and limb.
Similarly, the UK version treated Alison and Mike pretty horribly. It took a long time for them to have anything resembling a profitable business running out of it, and there were plenty of attempts that crashed and burned (sometimes literally). The US pair don’t seem to be worrying as much about either money or the house.
1st season was very touch and go and just as they were welcoming the first guest, the floor at the entrance collapsed. But yes, Button House UK is in worse shape.
I understand why they don’t do this on the show (either US or UK), because then it would be a different show with a different vibe… but I often feel like in real life (if ghosts existed in real life), in a situation where a couple with no money is struggling to make a dilapidated, inherited, very haunted mansion pay off as a bed & breakfast, they would play up the haunted aspect, not go to extremes to try to hide the hauntedness from everybody.
It could be a big selling point. Keep it vague, as in ‘rumoured to be haunted’, don’t go to extremes to prove it, so you don’t get all nutty ghost-hunter types. Have seances, where Robin / Thor flicker the lights in answer to questions, and no-pants guy moves stuff around. Parlor trick or real paranormal activity…who knows?!? Only the owner couple. Have plaques on the walls, with likenesses and detailed capsule bios of the ghosts ‘thought’ to haunt the place. The couple would have a successful B&B, and the ghosts would appreciate the participation and notoriety.
Win-win!
They tried exactly that. It did not end well.
Which episode/ season/ version was that? I’ve seen all 3 seasons of the Brit version available to us Yanks, and every episode of the US version so far.