The royle family is clever because the action is limited, there are pauses just like real life and it's realistic, everyone has a Jim or a Barb or a Nana in their family and everyone at times slobs in front of the T.v and talks about the pub, club biscuits and toilets (Whether we admit to it or not) The acting is good, scripts are great and Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash have great character observation. Jim Royle's catchphrases are funny and well remembered and the extra characters, Cheryl, Mary, twiggy etc are cool.Anthony and his dippy mate Darren are funny to watch doing their impressions.I have read that some people hate this show because they think the language of northerners is hard to get and they are scruffy and live in council houses.Welcome to the real world, people are scruffy and some do live in council houses, that can still be funny. i live in the south east of England, very far removed from Manchester but i still love their ways, their expressions and can still identify with them; it doesn't matter where you live, people all over the globe are getting married, having children, fighting with siblings, getting drunk etc.Yes they don't do a lot but the T.V is full of action films and sitcoms with lots of action involved, this is realism, it's about people, real people, living together and it's the realism of the show that makes it funny. We can all go 'I'm just like that' or 'oh god we're like that'.Give this show a chance, watch all the episodes they don't get boring, in fact it's quite addictive.

I watched the new 2006 episode last night and it brought a tear to my eye. It was so moving. It highlighted for me that much of television comedy works on nasty, ironic humour. EG: I liked Extras, but the relentless gay and disability jokes wear you down. The Extras boys should take a leaf out of the Royle Family scripts. The strength of the Royle Family was it it was just well observed and faithful to what the UK is all about. The small conversations that are really hidden code for live and death issues.Last night's episode was a real treat, let's hope they do another one soon. Fingers crossed.

This is about a family and their every day lives. There's Jim the foul-mouthed lazy father who likes to save cash, Barbara- the dippy mother, Denise- the lazy daughter who tries to find her way out of looking after her son (only in the third series!) and Anthony- the teenage lad who gets treated like a skivvy by the rest of the family!! Of course there's Nana, Dave (Denise's husband). their next door neighbours- Joe, Mary and Cheryl (who is constantly trying to lose weight). Each series is full of rude jokes, witty lines and tons of everyday gossip in front of the television!!!This is incredibly funny. Ricky Tomlinson has some classic lines- he is definetly the star of this show. It has some right witty lines in it without all that canned laughter spoiling the atmosphere. Don't knock it til you watched it!!!H xxxxxx

Jim Royle is a "hard working" father who tries to look after his wild family.I'll rephrase all of that: Jim Royle is a lazy old man who sits in a chair all day long watching television, and the other members of the family are just as bad. The son (Anthony) does all their work for them. I love this TV series, I find it very amusing and always tune in on Monday nights! You HAVE to watch this!8/10