Mike and Angelo S10E4 (1998) - FULL EPISODE

Upstairs, Downstairs. Katy's fed up with the temporal blips she's experiencing, so tries to get Angelo to switch off his time machine once and for all. Unfortunately, the shutdown doesn't quite go according to plan, and they and Mike suddenly find themselves hurled back a hundred years to 1898, when the house was owned by a certain Albert Squeers and his chimney sweep nephew Charlie. How will the gang return to the present day? This episode was originally broadcast on Thursday, 29th January, 1998, and in all honesty, it's a strange one. It starts out in normal enough fashion (with some extra crazy editing for comic effect), but once the time travelling has taken place, the tone changes quite a bit. Suddenly there's a vulnerability there, and more at stake than if a neighbour catches Angelo doing something weird. The tension is created by needing to be in a certain place at a certain time, and then ratcheted up a notch by failure meaning the end of the universe. But the real plot doesn't really start until about halfway through, when we find out about Albert's nasty side and his dreadful treatment of Charlie. Needless to say, the themes from A Christmas Carol fit the Victorian England setting perfectly, even if Dickens would never have resorted to such a method of resolution! (You'll see what I mean.) The character stuff is very funny in places, and I have to admit that at the beginning I had no idea what was going on with the blips. I enjoyed Katy frantically blagging it to get to stay in the house, and there are some good subtle reactions from Mike, too. The cynic in me sees the contradiction of Angelo being desperate not to create a paradox versus deliberately changing the fundamental relationship between two people living in that very house, but I doubt CITV got any letters of complaint about that. All in all, not quite as much emphasis on the comedy side and big gags as usual, but a fascinating and enjoyable episode. Young Charlie is played by Eric Graves in this one - and I can't find out much about him besides a handful of one-off appearances from him on the likes of Casualty, Holby City, and Murder in Mind between 1997 and 2003. I hope he's doing all right for himself, because he's very good in this. John Grillo, meanwhile, has a long list of TV, film, and stage credits to his name, including some proper Dickens and Shakespeare, plus recurring parts in Brideshead Revisited, Crown Court, Three Up Two Down, and many others. He also guested in both Spatz and B&B, plus had an earlier foray into the world of Mike and Angelo in series five as Herr Klugman. Other children's television includes Chocky, Watt on Earth, and Danny the Champion of the World, and you may recognise him as the doctor who prescribes Blackadder a course of leeches. Many thanks to Grant for providing this recording. (To the best of my knowledge, the contents of this video have never been available commercially anywhere in the world. Please also note that I don't monetise any of my uploads. Nevertheless, if you are a copyright holder and have an objection, please don't hesitate to contact me.)