Linda Green - The Complete First Series

Linda Green is a BBC series aimed at 30 something single women, much in the format of Bridget Jones's Diary. She is sexy, sassy and confident but struggles to get her life in order. She works in a boring job by day and sings by night in her local social club. She is constantly looking for “Mr Right�, but generally ends up with “Mr Right Now�.

"I’m not a slapper, I just go off people really quickly!"

Linda (Liza Tarbuvk) has a bunch of good mates including school friends Darren (Daniel Ryan) and Michelle (Claire Rushbrook), along with regular shag and coworker Jimmy (Sean Gallagher) who seems to be her own “Mr Right� waiting in the wings. Her non-conventional parents, Frank (Dave Hill) and Iris (Rachel Davies), round out the impressive cast.

The series consists of ten episodes, each with a running time of approximately 28 minutes. Every episode begins with Linda belting out a song at her social club in what most would assume to be karaoke but no, she gets paid for her less than impressive singing.

You know I can count how many cracks there are in your ceiling!

This is an enjoyable series, but it does take a few episodes to get into it. Once you get to know the characters, like any other series really, it becomes very entertaining. Linda is obviously the basis of the series, but the impressive cast add greatly and make it all good fun. It is not hysterical, but does offer quite a few good laughs throughout. The realism is what it is about, but thankfully it is not moralistic in any way, it simply shows a woman in her 30s going through everyday life in search of the right guy, something many women and men of similar age can relate to.

Episodes are varied, with such topic matter as Linda dumping her boyfriend, dating his twin brother and investigating lesbianism. Most episodes offer something amusing, including the funeral episode where the gang attend the funeral of a school friend they didn’t really like – just for a laugh.

The series is the brainchild of Paul Abbott, who came to prominence with his writing for the fabulous Cracker series. The writing team for Linda Green also includes Russell T Davies, who was the brains behind the brilliant Queer As Folk, the US replication of which can currently be seen on SBS here in Australia.

Linda Green the person is likeable and a bitch at the same time. She is confident and scared simultaneously also, but her most attractive feature is her enthusiasm. She goes from boyfriend to boyfriend and doesn’t think twice that the breakdown of each relationship could possibly be her fault, it is simply a case of – next!

The picture is presented in an enhanced aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it looks terrific. Sharpness is impressive, as is the use of colours. Grain is never a problem and blacks are deep. Detail is also strong with only the odd instance of aliasing. The picture stands up well to the impressive BBC standard. Subtitles are supplied in English for the hearing impaired and are reasonably accurate to what transpires on screen.

Audio is supplied in English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Being a dialogue-driven series, this audio track is more than adequate, offering quality sound throughout. Dialogue is clear at all times and synch is never a problem. There is quite a bit of music used in this series and this is also delivered well. There is no need for surround use as kareoke style singing is hard enough to handle in stereo!

The single extra with this release is a series of text pages masquerading as character profiles. These are short, but do offer some amusement.

Overall this is a light and enjoyable series. It takes a few episodes to get to know the characters and handle the Manchurian accents, but once in it becomes quite addictive. The video and audio transfers are of the usual BBC standard and the single extra is a little lonely but still a nice addition.