h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: 'The Grove Family' - the TV Programme - A67273004
Author: Jimster - U292

It's been a while since I did one of these, but I thought it was about time I did something for the Edited Guide again.

How very odd - my name-change hasn't taken. Hmm....

Yous been Smij for ages, too.

In 'The End':
"the series came to an end on 28 June. 1957."
--> extra full stop

In 'The Writers':
Do we know what Michael Pertwee did before he started writing for The Grove Family?

In 'The Writers':
Did Jon Pertwee actually write any episodes, or have you just added him in for a bit of extra interest?
If he's just for added interest, it may be best to make it clear he's not a writer, given we're in the Writers section.

Lennie Grove section:
Missing your tags

In 'Episode Guide:
"Scripts by... Pertwee." has a full stop unlike the two points above

In 'Season Two'
Prevention or Cure has a * but is missing its '

In 'It's A Great Day'
Missing your s again in the last paragraph

In 'It's a Great Day'
"... his son, Jack who turns.."
This almost gives the impression it's Jack who's the crook! Either drop the comma or put in another after his name to make it clear.



Gosh, these guys broadcast every episode live? That's incredible, really.

Well written and informative. I'd never even heard of it before. There's possibly only one thing I would like to see and that's a little more detail about the character's personalities. They may not have very fleshed out characters though, so don't worry if there's not a lot more to say.

Thanks for that, Vip. Yes, it's incredible they did all TV live back then - just like theatre in your living room.

Unfortunately, with only two episodes surviving, I don't have anything else to go on for storylines. I get the impression though that a lot of the episode titles are kind of self evident. They didn't go in for deep and cryptic back them

Hi Jimster, nice to see you back in PR.
A little gem this one, never heard of this till today,(not often I can say "it's well before my time" )

BMT Scout

That's fair enough, Smij, I did wonder. They were a vehicle for the message, probably, rather than real characters as we'd think of them today.

Ooh, good re-write in the Writer's bit, by the way.

I just remembered how well-connected that family were. I stopped at going any further and explaining Sean and Dariel Pertwee being Roland's grandkids. Thought that was going a little too far.

A really interesting and comprehensive piece. I hadn’t realised there were quite so many episodes

The one thing that is an abiding memory from the Groves, which I don’t think you mention, is Gran’s catchphrase. As I recall it was mentioned in most episodes.

‘I’m feint from lack of nourishment’.

Maybe it’s worth a mention?

Deke

How do you do smij! Nice to meet you. This is a tremendous piece and a joy to review. It's amazing how innocent things were that half century ago.

A few nitpicks and typos


Can you clarify this sentence for me please?



Gran is cared for as part of the extended family, rather than placed in care or in sheltered accommodation that allowed her some independence, as some might expect today.

eg ---->
Gran is cared for as part of the extended family, rather than placed in care or in sheltered accommodation as some might expect today. This allowed her rather more independence.




he couldn't have a pet, but he was still [be] present in the next episode

delete the [be] or change to {would still be]


After the list of the titles of the episodes you write

* - These episodes survive in the BBC Archives.

It is quite hard to then track back to try and spot the asterisked titles - I wonder if there are not many - they could be mentioned by name later on, in the paragraph The Grove Family Revived. Then this sentence could be deleted?


Scheduling was a much les precise art ----> less

Lanzababy

Cheers, Lanzababy. I realised I did need to clarify the section on Gran because I wasn't saying she was more independent at all. She was pretty much housebound and used to spend her time moaning - so that's slightly rewritten. Also made a few more adjustments, as suggested.

It's amazing how much I'd forgotten in the three years since I left the in-house team, but also how much I'd remembered, slightly helped out by that crash course I had, doing the update to the Doctor Who Episode Guide on Christmas morning a few months ago!

Jimster/Smij, good to see you back in the thick of PR once more with an offering - and a quality one it is too

<> Not 1936?

In the 'Production' section you mention that Ronald and Michael were father and son twice. The sentence containing the second one could be cut short, leaving <>

In 'The End' section, you mention Michael and Ronald Peacock - I assume that should be Pertwee not Peacock. Then in the 'The Writers' section you have Roland Pertwee instead of Ronald.

This is why Peer Review is so brilliant - it's easy to get word-blind after a while, and if one's mind wanders (as mine clearly did when confusing Michael Pertwee with Michael Peacock, a former head of comedy at the BBC), then mistakes creep in.

Hi Smji

Great entry.. Are we allowed to offer feedback to a former italic.

I have one comment - I'm not entirely sure if the entire episode list is really worth it, it seems very space consuming.

I do like the reason about not recording the episodes - I had no idea about that - would you consider adding it to the entry.

I do meet lots of virtually hosue bound older people. Living in sheltered housing doesn't make them any more mobile, though it does mean that they have other people of their own age around.

I think if I was going to be housebound then perhaps I'd rather live with family than in sheltered housing.

'I agree with Nick'

This is a great entry, well written and about something which, despite my advancing years, I had never heard about beforehand. I really cannot see how it could be improved.

The more I looked at that line about sheltered housing, the less confident I felt about it - so it's gone. I was trying to make some kind of social commentary, but it wasn't really working.

Hmmm... the bit about not recording the episodes was in the entry, at the bottom, but I've moved it up to where I mention which episodes survive. Does that make it clearer?

And yes, the episode guide is shameless padding in one way, but it's also the only real guide to the kind of subjects they covered in the series. Glad this one seems to be well received though - it's been about three years since I wrote an entry!

You never lose the touch, it's like riding a bike.

I agree that the titles are a useful guide to the topics covered and I wouldn't want to remove them. It's the only guide we have as the scripts are forever gone.
I guess they could be put at the bottom as a kind of appendix if people thought they were out of place in the main text.

I agree the titles are a vital piece of the documentation in this case, not an add-on. I do wonder though whether they might be better in a table - job for a subbie perhaps?

I thought we were moving away from tables though - they look rubbish on mobiles

I like the solution of moving the ep list to the bottom. I shall do that.

Right - moved the episode guide down now. I agree - that's better.