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This is verging on Old People Do The Funniest Things but while you’re hooting with laughter at 94-year-old Bobby’s reaction to male grooming or 82-year-old Laura-Jane’s attempts to incorporate obscenities into her conversation, there are some interesting (and contentious) points being made. Bobby, for instance, just can’t understand that what he calls people from Pakistan causes offence. This is the sort of territory we are in. Linked with variable success by Barry Humphries, one of the most astonishing sequences shows us a charming trio of elderly friends - Margot (73), Trish (82) and Daphne (78) - trying cannabis for the first time. They get in a right old tizz attempting to smoke a spliff in an Amsterdam café but they persevere and, it would seem, thoroughly enjoy recreational drugs as an experience. “It’s like having a second childhood,” they trill as they take to the swings in a children’s playground.
Oh dear, after 94-year-old Bobby’s trials with racist language, he’s now accosting people in the street to find out what he should call a homosexual. If that doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable, you may need to cover your ears and eyes when Helen, who says that at 91 she’s still frisky, investigates sex among the elderly. But it’s those adorable friends Margot, Trish and Daphne who steal the show. Having recovered from their cannabis experimentation, they try their hands at video games. And they do get a bit carried away. “Margot!” squeals Daphne, “This is your dead body and I’m going to kill you all over again. Yaaaay!”
Viewers seem to be divided on whether this is just a bit of fun or a serious misrepresentation of the older generation. But I don’t think it’s really suggesting that everybody over the age of 70 has existed in such a bubble for the past decade they’ve never heard of the internet, political correctness or reality TV. Different generations have different views on things, that’s all. In any case, in the final programe of the series Laura June, the very refined 82-year-old who struggled to master obscenities in programme one, gets a disturbingly frank lesson in celebrity from Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby while Bobby tries to be politically correct. Winston goes online dating. Bernard convinces unsuspecting members of the public that he was a founding member of the Jackson Five and the architect of Hadrian's Wall.
