NEVER THE TWAIN

'Never The Twain' is a comedy which seems to have improved with age - it can certainly be regarded as one of ITV's best sitcoms. Excellently written, with Donald Sinden and Windsor Davies inspired choices as two middle-aged neighbours always looking to score points off each other, mostly through very witty verbal putdowns.

- Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.

Never The Twain - The Complete Series 1 DVD [1981]

Never The Twain - The Complete Series 2 DVD [1982]

Amazon.co.uk DVD Review:
Remarkably, the Johnny Mortimer-scripted series Never the Twain ran to over 50 episodes between 1981 and 1984 on ITV. It starred Donald Sinden as Simon Peel, a stuffy, upper-middle class antiques dealer who lives next door to Oliver Smallbridge (Windsor Davies of It Ain't Half Hot, Mum fame), a working-class lad made good, also in the antiques trade. As the first series establishes, theirs is a prickly relationship, not just because they're rivals in trade but also rivals for the affections of the middle-aged, comely Veronica. They are aghast when they discover their respective son and daughter plan to marry, coming on like the Capulets and Montagues of Middle England. Never the Twain is a pleasantly predictable antique of the sitcom variety, redeemed by Sinden and Davies' gruff, blustery and persistent antagonism. It depicts a cosy, never-never world of "dirty weekends", huge suburban houses, borderline homophobic mirth and reliable puns on "genes" and "jeans"--the sort of series in which characters greet surprising news by spraying a mouthful of tea halfway across the room. Some will find it barely endurable, others a welcome reminder of a bygone televisual era before alternative comedy became the ubiquitous norm.

This DVD contains an episode guide and picture gallery. --David Stubbs