It breaks me every single time I watch it. The line that Nana says "I'm not a burden to you am I Barbara?" and holds her hand, its just heartbreaking and amazing acting from Liz Smith and Sue Johnson
I agree. Its superbly written and acted. And it deals with a difficult albeit common event in peoples lives. Few tv shows have dealt with grief and the loss of a parent so deftly and empathetically.
I rarely like much nowadays. However, this is a fantastic analysis of a slice of culture that only a select few, from a glorious time of television, shall ever have the pleasure to truly understand. R.I.P Caroline Aherne, Liz Smith, Doreen Keogh, Geoff Hughes, and British Sitcom.
This was so painfully real!!! It knocked the wind out of my sails. It tapped into the strange atmosphere surrounding a household when a relative is fading. It was so accurate, like they were borrowing details from my own life.
THE finest piece of television ever written, because it’s so relatable, almost everyone has lost a mother/nana… and it’s becoming more common now than ever for working class brits that our elderly relatives are bed bound in the back of the living room. As a former care worker, what happens in this episode is SO true. There’s the funny moments, there’s the arguments and then there’s the realisation death is just around the corner. Again this is one of, if not THE greatest standalone piece of comedy television ever written and it’ll take a lot to top it! It’s a shame what happened to the show after this. They could have never have outdone this phenomenal high point, and unfortunately they decided to make the characters parodies of themselves towards the end and the show won’t go down the same way it should have done had they left it with this. BUT this episode will always go down standalone as an amazing piece of ART!
Jim crying at the bedside and Barbara doing Nana's hair just gets me every time and I just go to pieces. Amazing writing and amazing actors. Love this show.
This is the most comical famous comical show I love watch all time the queen of sheeba was a loverly the look on Nana's face when met baby norma those words are sad to hear to loose a nana
I watched the whole 3 series after work the last week just onto the specials now and this episode is absolutely heartbreaking I was so involved with the characters by that point can't wait to see the next few specials (on a side note I was 10 when the first episode of it aired I'm 36 now and I see it totally different now it's like a look back into my childhood the details from sofa to attitudes is really accurate
I’ve never seen The Royle Family but the way you talk about this show and the episode in particular, makes me want to watch it. Seriously, your videos keep getting better and better and I can’t wait to see what else you’re gonna do.
Couldn't get on with it when I first watched it! Will try watch it again because ur very persuasive! GREAT video!!!!!!! ALSOOOOOOOO very good song choice!!!!! I WANNNNAAAA TALKKKKKK TONIGHT!!!
It was a fantastic episode but it was also very real for my own family. My own Nan died that same year (2006). Please don't send sympathies, I'm not looking for that
Everything after ‘The Queen of Sheba’ was crap, the characters were Flanderised and caricatured to an absurd degree, unrecognisable. The comedy became slapstick and bore no resemblance to the everyday working-class tropes that made the series so good
