Slinger's Day
| Slinger's Day | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Brian Cooke |
| Starring | Bruce Forsyth Paul Clarkson David Kelly Philip Bird Liz Crowther Vicky Licorish Suzanne Church Jacqueline de Paza |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 12 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Mark Stuart |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Thames Television ITV |
| Release | September 3, 1986 – October 14, 1987 |
Slinger's Day was a British sitcom that aired for two seasons from 1986 to 1987. It was a continuation of Tripper's Day, which had originally come to a natural end after Leonard Rossiter's death, and, despite the overwhelmingly negative response it had drawn from reviewers and a section of the viewing public, was revived this time with Bruce Forsyth as a different character to Rossiter but fulfilling the same rôle, i.e. the manager of a London supermarket with a largely useless staff.
Like Tripper's Day, it was created by Brian Cooke, however, in contrast to the previous series, Cooke only wrote 2 episodes out of the 12 that it ran for; more than half of them being written by the late Vince Powell with others being written by Alex Shearer and Sorry! creators Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, and one episode was even written by the prolific Andrew Marshall and David Renwick.
Like its predecessor, Slinger's Day has nonetheless an item of interest despite drawing a similar critical response, and that is that it represented Forsyth's only ever situation comedy acting rôle, being more associated with stand-up routines and gameshows (in as much Tripper's Day's item of interest is that it became Rossiter's last ever TV rôle before his death that took place while it was being transmitted).
Like Tripper's Day, Slinger's Day was made by Thames Television for the ITV network.
Plot
Cecil Slinger (played by Forsyth) is designed by the Supafare supermarket chain as the new manager in the branch that had previously been run by Norman Tripper. Like his predecessor, Slinger will have to come to terms with managing a supermarket branch that employs possibly the worst supermarket staff in the world: Mr. Christian (played by Clarkson), the cheerful but naïve shop assistant; Fred (played by Kelly), a lazy, alcoholic and inept and stereotypically Irish security guard; Hardie (played by Bird), the union shop steward; as well as Higgins, Hardie's assistant of sorts (played by Paul), secretary Sylvia (played by Crowther) and the pop tart-like checkout cashier Dottie (played by Licorish).
Fred replaced Alf (played in Tripper's by Gordon Gostelow), and in the second series Sylvia was replaced by Miss Foster (played by Church) and Dottie was replaced by Shirley (played by de Paza).
Episodes
Series One (1986)
- 1.1. New Management (September 3, 1986)
- 1.2. Going Bananas (September 10, 1986))
- 1.3. Butter Wouldn't Melt (September 17, 1986)
- 1.4. A Right Royal Mix-Up (September 24, 1986)
- 1.5. Black Letter Day (October 1, 1986)
- 1.6. The Nightshift (October 8, 1986)
Series Two (1987)
- 2.1. Lost And Found (September 9, 1987)
- 2.2. Whose Baby? (September 16, 1987)
- 2.3. Taken For A Ride (September 23, 1987)
- 2.4. Initiative (September 30, 1987)
- 2.5. The Stocktake (October 7, 1987)
- 2.6. A Pane In The Neck (October 14, 1987)
See also
- Tripper's Day
- Check it Out! (Canadian-produced series following the Tripper's/Slinger's format with Don Adams)
References
- Mark Lewinsohn, BBC Online Comedy Guide/Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy
- British TV Online Resources