The Wright Way - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Team health and safety the wright way episode 1 bbc one

The Wright Way is a British television sitcom written by Ben Elton which aired on BBC One in April–May 2013. It concerns a health and safety manager, his staff, and his family. Widely panned by critics, it was cancelled after one series.

Economic boom the wright way episode 4 preview bbc one

Plot

The series centres around Gerald Wright (David Haig), manager of the health and safety department of the fictional Baselricky Council implied to be in Essex. Wright's team includes Malika Maha (Mina Anwar), Clive Beeches (Luke Gell), and Bernard Stanning (Toby Longworth). His family includes daughter Susan (Joanne Matthews) and her girlfriend Victoria (Beattie Edmondson), and ex-wife Valerie (Kacey Ainsworth).

Characters

Gerald Wright – a middle aged divorcee who is the Chief Health and Safety officer for Baselricky Borough Council. He takes his job very seriously, and appears diligent, although slightly paranoid about the 'dangers' of everyday situations. His ex-wife Valerie left him after being married for over twenty years because she couldn't take his 'stick-to-the-rules' persona any longer. He lives with his daughter Susan and her girlfriend Victoria. He appears to have been deeply affected by the divorce, and Susan correctly deduces that his anxiety and anger over simple things is a mask to cover his depression caused by the end of his marriage. Also, although he clearly loves his only child Susan very much, he describes her coming out as a lesbian as a 'lifestyle bombshell' and he may secretly be slightly uncomfortable by his daughter's homosexuality. He argues a lot with Victoria, Susan's live-in girlfriend, but deep down he has grown to love her like a second daughter.

Susan Wright – Gerald's 23-year-old daughter. Since the divorce of her parents and her mother moving out, the responsibility of running the house has fallen to Susan, and she is now responsible for food shopping, paying bills, working as a plumber and looking after her equally invalid father and girlfriend. She plays the 'straight man' in comparison to Gerald's neurotic behaviour and Victoria's naivety. However, she clearly loves her father very much, and is shown to be very much in love with Victoria, despite her being far less intelligent than Susan. Also, Susan is shown to care very much for her mother, and tries to make her see that her new Australian boyfriend Kyle is just using her for her divorce settlement money.

Victoria – Susan's 19-year old, incompetent girlfriend. She is a DJ, although she gets very little work and has been mockingly nicknamed 'DJ No-Gigs' by people on the internet. She is quite posh compared to Susan and Gerald, yet she is openly in love with Susan, and has developed emotional attachment to Gerald.

Production

The Wright Way (originally titled Slings and Arrows) was commissioned by BBC One Controller Danny Cohen and Controller of BBC Comedy Commissioning Cheryl Taylor.

The series was filmed at the BBC's studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester from January to March 2013.

Reception

Critics did not like the first episode. The second episode was heavily criticised by Tom Phillips in the New Statesman. Adam Postans in The Mirror called it 'the worst sitcom ever'.

References

The Wright Way Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA