Brenda Blethyn-Simon Callow
Off the wall sitcom about a man whose life is full of coincidences. Simon Callow will either annoy you or continue to make you laugh. Tom Chance is a unique and different creation. I had a lot of fun with this eighteen episode show.
Opening episode: “Plumstones” – Alison (Brenda Blethyn) goes to a pub to meet a cousin named Tom she hasn’t seen since she was four. She waits in the lounge. In walks Tom who is looking for a computer matchup named Alison. They don’t realize each is the wrong person.
There are some unexpected sight gags that fit perfectly. They go outside and run into a girl who has locked her keys in her car. She’s meeting a man behind her husband’s back. Tom offers to get the door unlocked with a wire from a hangar. A constable comes along and calls Sergeant Gough.
Turns out Tom has been arrested numerous times by chance and this time he’s not taken in. Tom and Alison straighten out their identities and decide to go to dinner. More funny stuff. The title refers to Plumcrumble and how sometimes there is one stone left from the plum in the desert. Very funny opener.
Final Episode: “The Wedding” – Sergeant Gough tells his men that a bunch of hookers have some new methods of drumming of business and they’re happy they’ll be dealing with the problem. A group of Vicars are in town and they have to be on the lookout for a thief called Jack The Vicar. The last item..make sure Tom gets to his wedding without mishap.
Alison is dressed like a hooker for a decadence party at the library. She and Tom go to buy some champagne. Some vicars are in the store. The clerk refuses to serve Alison thinking she in the game. One uptight vicar backs him up while another is on their side.
Things are getting hot between Tom and the clerk and Alison goes outside where there are a group of hookers. The cops come by and arrest them including Alison.
In jail Alison befriends the girls and tells them everything possible has gone wrong with her wedding day. She doesn’t know her missing parents are trapped in a sewer. In another cell Tom is with the vicars. Sergeant Gough comes in an apologizes to Tom and says he’s found a vicar to marry them.
It comes to the show’s usual off the wall ending. This is one of my favorite British sitcoms.
Simon Callow has appeared in many movies and TV shows. In 2005 and 2011 he played Charles Dickens on “Doctor Who.”
Brenda Blethyn has been in numerous movies and TV shows. In 1998 she played Mari Hoff in one of my favorite movies “Little Voice.”
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