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Goodnight Sweetheart: The Complete Series Five DVD
01/10/2006 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
DVD. Pub: Revelation Films PAR61279. 330 minutes. 2 discs 10 episodes plus extras. Price: £19.99 (UK))stars: Nicholas Lyndhurst, Elizabeth Carling, Emma Amos, Victor McGuire and Christopher Ettridge and others. Buy Goodnight Sweetheart: The Complete Series Five in the USA - or Buy Goodnight Sweetheart: The Complete Series Five in the UK  check out website: www.revfilms.com
If anything, the penultimate series of 'Goodnight Sweetheart' is much more heavier into the uses of time travel than ever before. Based on things inferred from the audio commentaries, I didn't think neither co-creator Maurice Gran or a couple of its writers, Gary Lawson and John Phelps, in the audio commentaries thought it would last so long but also intended to play around with the formula because it was getting a little too safe.
Although at the ending of series four, Yvonne, Gary Sparrow's current day wife played by Emma Amos, appeared to have lost all her money in a health foods project, we come back a year later to see her on her to becoming a millionaire even if they've only glorified their current home. Her only story covers everything from travelling abroad, to giving speeches to a ghost-written exaggerated autobiography and its signing. If you watched both DVD series 4 and 5 one after the other, this is quite a jump and you could be forgiven to think you missed a season.
To escape a bomb, Gary (actor Nicholas Lyndhurst) escapes back to the present with his young son, Michael. Later, much to Gary's horror, Phoebe (actress Elizabeth Carling) follows him into the shop and meets Yvonne briefly. Gary's printer pal, Ron (actor Victor McGuire) finds the bomb blast also allows him back into the past as well. A knock on the head makes Constable Reg Deadman (actor Christopher Ettridge) smart and solving crimes briefing becomes a detective at Scotland Yard. The events they are a changing and did I mention Phoebe's brief singing career courtesy of Noel Coward (actor David Benson who has a superb long interview which gives insight into what its like to be a fringe actor)?
Back to the present, Ron finds all his possessions and flat re-possessed but moves into the Sparrow Mayfair flat which is still owned in the present day. Gary in the past is found out by the real MI5 and sent on a mission to France (even if he thought he was off to the Isle of Wight), cunningly disguised as a French officer to distract the Germans. I'll leave it to you to see what he does in the present when he discovers Michael (a very clever performance and inspired casting by 'Dad's Army' actor Ian Lavender) has become a derelict drunk and what's to see him right.
Have I gushed enough yet? Series five covers so much ground that you can only reflect after the fact. Even the writers in the audio commentaries have to point out just how much of a user Gary Sparrow actually is and even devote an episode to his nightmares when his conscience finally begins to prick him. The way the ten episodes was built up, I don't think even they expected a sixth series. Gary does find out the fate of some of the people in the past but eventually doesn't pry too deeply into that. Actor Lyndhurst balances this enough that the performance rather than what he realises what he's become that makes it stand out.
Looking at the number of time travellers here, made me do an actual count. Gary's father hints he briefly went back into the Victorian past but didn't hang about because he didn't recognise what had happened. Gary, a young nephew, his young son Michael, Phoebe and Ron add up to quite a lot of people travelling through the time portal in Duckett's Passage even if not all of them are aware they've been on a temporal trip.
I think if you're British and remember the series, you're going to be picking this series up. If you're from across the pond and eager to see a bit of period Britishness and can play Region 2 DVDs, then you'll be after this series as well. It's hard to believe this originally played in 1998 is nearly a decade old now. 'Goodnight Sweetheart' has lost none of its magic and in the years to come has surely got to be remembered as a timeless classic and a unique SF sit-com.
GF Willmetts
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