‘ONSLOW’S BIRTHDAY’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

This is an episode where Onslow gets to celebrate his birthday. Unfortunately, it’s a family get-together and Daisy tells Onslow that they have to invite Hyacinth to his party, which he’s not happy about. This episode isn’t really about Onslow’s birthday party, which was very annoying for me here.

We could have had an entertaining episode where Hyacinth gets to react to what it’s like being at Onslow’s birthday party. Had this been like an hour-long special, maybe it would have accommodated for that. It’s like the episode finished before it barely begun. It’s quite disappointing.

Instead, the episode focuses on Hyacinth’s determination to impress Rose’s new gentleman friend, Mr. Marinopolous, played by Ivan Santos. He happens to be Greek and wealthy, according to Hyacinth. Mind you, I think Hyacinth is quick to assume that Mr. Marinopolous is incredibly wealthy.

On a visit to town, Hyacinth and Richard go off to purchase some new gold-plated cufflinks as a present for Onslow to impress Mr. Marinopolous. Incidentally, Anthony Dawes who plays the jeweller in the episode also played Mr. Libson in the ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode ‘Waldorf Salad’.

Also in this episode, Richard has another business meeting at the place where we works. He gets phone-called by Hyacinth a couple of times. Unlike the previous episode where Richard was calm and patient, he loses patience with Hyacinth as she’s interrupting him during an important meeting.

I found it funny when Richard screamed on the phone, “Hyacinth, I’m in a meeting!” Hilarious! I’m surprised Hyacinth didn’t ring back to say “Don’t talk to me in that tone, Richard!” 😀 Simon Merrick returns to play the committee chairman and Robert Bain returns to play the committee member. 😀

Hyacinth decides to have a pre-lunch cocktail party before going to Onslow’s birthday party in order to impress Mr. Marinopolous when he turns up in his car to pick her and Richard up. The guest list includes Jeremy Gittins as the Vicar and Marion Barron as the Vicar’s wife, but they back out of that.

There’s also Peter Cellier who returns as the Major and tries to woo his way with Hyacinth again. He didn’t learn his lesson from his previous episode, did he? Elizabeth and Emmet also attend the cocktail party. It was funny when Mr. Marinopolous turned up in a hearse which shocked Hyacinth. 🙂

‘Onslow’s Birthday’ rating – 7/10