The Worst Week of My Life

This article is about the BBC One comedy series. For the 2011 Italian film, see The Worst Week of My Life (film).
The Worst Week of My Life

Series title card
Starring Sarah Alexander
Ben Miller
Alison Steadman
Geoffrey Whitehead
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 3
No. of episodes 17
Production
Executive producer(s) Cheryl Tayor
Mark Freeland
Producer(s) Hat Trick Productions
Running time 30 minutes
Release
Original network BBC One
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
Original release 12 March 2004 (2004-03-12) – 22 December 2006 (2006-12-22)
External links
Website

The Worst Week of My Life is a British television sitcom, first broadcast on BBC One between March and April 2004. A second series was aired between November and December 2005 and a three-part Christmas special, The Worst Christmas of My Life was shown during December 2006. It was written by Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni.

Plotline

Series one

'Anything that can go wrong, does' is the plotline used by the writers. Essentially a comedy of embarrassment and errors, The Worst Week of My Life began with the seven days leading up to the marriage of publishing executive Howard Steel and his fiancée Mel, the daughter of a high-court judge, Dick Cook. Humiliating situations ensue: Cassie, a colleague with whom Howard had a drunken one-night stand two years earlier, sets out to snare him and becomes obsessive; Howard accidentally kills his in-laws' dog, puts Mel's granny in hospital and loses the wedding ring (a family heirloom). At the end of the first series, Howard and Mel were wed, despite the many mishaps that had befallen the well-meaning but accident-prone groom.

Series two

The second series takes place in the week leading up to the birth of Howard and Mel's first baby, and Howard has not yet shaken off the fate inexorably attached to him. With his father blowing up granny's cottage, into which the married couple was preparing to move, they are forced to stay with his wife's parents once again. During the course of the week he is accused of sexual harassment at work, and mistakenly arrested for 'dogging'. He also manages to toast his father-in-law's CBE on a barbecue. Despite Howard knocking out the midwife, the series ends with the birth of a baby girl, Emily.

The Worst Christmas of My Life

A three-part Christmas special entitled The Worst Christmas of My Life was shown on BBC One in December 2006.

Episode One

Set: 23 December: (aired 19 December 2006)

After his office Christmas party, Howard takes his intoxicated boss Nicola in a cab to her home, after realising she's not fit to drive. During the cab ride, she vomits on him and, after taking a shower at her place, he is forced outside naked by Nicola, after she mistakes his nakedness for preparation to rape her. Howard turns up naked on his in-laws' doorstep, and proceeds to urinate on the Christmas goose after the power goes out, leading to a series of events which culminate in him falsely claiming to his wife and mother-in-law that his father-in-law is dead. Later, he crashes into his father-in-law, drags his unconscious body inside, causes his mother-in-law to faint, makes his wife suspicious about his naked escapade the previous night when Nicola apologises and returns his clothes, and finally destroys his wife's childhood dollhouse, which was to be a gift to their newborn daughter, while attempting to fix the damaged fuse that led to him urinating on the goose initially.

Episode Two

Set: 24 December: (aired 21 December 2006)

With Dick continuing to receive wreaths and read obituaries following his "death", his contempt for Howard deepens further when he discovers Howard bought a new car with the money he was expecting to receive from the will. A freak accident involving a strimmer leads to family friend Felicity's pedigree dog, who is regularly put out to stud, losing a testicle, with Howard once more taking the blame. He then takes baby Emily Christmas shopping in the local shopping centre, where he gets in a fight with a drunken Father Christmas and accidentally ends up pushing around the wrong pushchair. He eventually manages to swap the prams back and return the baby to its black parents and reclaim Emily, but Howard's despair isn't over yet as he spills mulled wine over the local Vicar when he visits the house. Howard's visit to church on Christmas Eve sees him get in argument with Fraser over his refusal to publish his memoirs and another fight - this time with Eve's new love, Mitch, who Howard saw kissing another woman at the office Christmas party.

Episode Three

Set: 25 December: (aired 22 December 2006)

Howard receives a visit from police on Christmas morning following his fight with Mitch, while Eve is attempting suicide in the house and Fraser is accusing him of stealing his bagpipes. Meanwhile, Howard offers to help Dick repair the dollhouse but quickly the pair are glued together as their visitors, the Bledlow family (including Mel's ex-boyfriend, Ed), call in for Christmas lunch. With Howard fretting about a missing condom of his that the family dog took from his room earlier, he spots it and leaves the meal to try and reclaim it. But he ends up setting fire to the front room, damaging the presents that were to be opened after lunch.

Main characters

Geoffrey Whitehead as Dick Cook on the receiving end of one of Howard's many mishaps.

Minor characters

Episode list

Series 1: 2004

  1. "Monday" / 2004.03.12
  2. "Tuesday" / 2004.03.19
  3. "Wednesday" / 2014.03.26
  4. "Thursday" / 2004.04.02
  5. "Friday" / 2004.04.09
  6. "Saturday" / 2004.04.16
  7. "Sunday" / 2004.04.23

Series 2: 2005

  1. "Monday" / 2005.11.17
  2. "Tuesday" / 2005.11.24
  3. "Wednesday" / 2005.12.01
  4. "Thursday" / 2005.12.08
  5. "Friday" / 2005.12.15
  6. "Saturday" / 2005.12.23
  7. "Sunday" / 2005.12.29

Series 3: 2006

  1. "Series 3, Episode 1" / 2006.12.19
  2. "Series 3, Episode 2" / 2006.12.21
  3. "Series 3, Episode 3" / 2006.12.22

Reception

The series were both critically acclaimed and popular, with the first series averaging 5 million viewers on BBC One.[1] Reviewing the opening episode of the second series, Kathryn Flett wrote in The Observer that it "really made (her) giggle".[2]

International versions

In 2007, the first series was remade as Hilfe! Hochzeit! Die schlimmste Woche meines Lebens (Help! Wedding! The Worst Week of My Life) for a German audience starring Christoph Maria Herbst (Stromberg) as Joachim Witte (who is the counterpart to Howard Steel). The series aired weekly in the Friday evening prime time on Sat.1.

An American pilot was ordered by the Fox network in 2005, but Fox decided not to proceed with the show. CBS also commissioned a pilot of the series entitled Worst Week. Adapted by Matt Tarses,[3] Worst Week premiered on 22 September 2008, on CBS and was canceled 20 May 2009,.[4]

ABC also ran a short lived series, with a similar story arc, in 2006-7, entitled Big Day.

In 2011 the Italian director and screenwriter Alessandro Genovesi made his feature film directorial debut with La peggior settimana della mia vita, based on the British sitcom. In 2012, was released to theater the sequel, Il peggior Natale della mia vita.

Availability

Series one and two, as well as the Christmas special, are available on Region 2 DVD. The Worst Week Of My Life: Complete BBC Collection was released on Region 2 DVD on 26 November 2007. The first series is also available on Region 1 DVD, and had a Region 4 release in February 2008. A two-episode French version was produced in 2011 by Frédéric Auburtin.

References

  1. "British Audience Research Bureau Top 30s, March and April 2004". BARB. 2012-10-16. Retrieved 2012-10-16.
  2. "Kathryn Flett on Television". The Observer. 2005-11-20. Retrieved 2012-10-16.
  3. "News - Worst Week of My Life USA?". British Sitcom Guide. 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2007-08-08.

External links

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