milesahead1 I agree with Alan - this is a very enjoyable show with lots of laugh-out loud moments. I remember enjoying it at the time of its first broadcast, but bought it with some trepidation - comedy can date badly and I feared that it would be of its time, as I found with the Dick Emery Show. I needn't have worried - the scripts by Eric Chappell in particular are very amusing. The cast is excellent, too, with some impeccable comic timing on view. Ken Jones is quite wonderful and Bernard Hepton displays his versatility, but everyone contributes to the fun. Well worth buying!

Alanjackd This little gem captured a spot in my memory I thought was deleted but on buying it and watching again I realised how funny this is.This is a typical old English sitcom that uses characters instead of plot. Marvellous cast and exceptional comic timing from the brilliant Ken Jones.Crammed full of laugh out loud moments but not a single piece of smut or innuendo.Office politics run rife and one- upmanship take over as I did not see ANY work done at all.This could NEVER be re-made and SHOULD never be attempted. This for me has better characters then Rising Damp and if Leonard Rositter was here would have topped it off. Paranoia and boot licking typically let us in to the madness of office politics.Bought this as a box set of 3 series and smiled all the way between laughing. What an awesome legacy for these amazing actors to leave the viewer and writers to be.Revisiting all my comedy memories on DVD and this is as good as it gets. Nearest and Dearest..Steptoe and Son...Dear John...Rising Damp...In Sickness...Rab. C. Nesbit...They just DON'T make them like this any more.

ShadeGrenade "I hope 'The Squirrels' never return. It drove me nuts!" went a letter in 'The People' newspaper in 1976. I suppose it was inevitable that someone would make a crack like that, about a show with such a daft title. Writer/creator Eric Chappell described it as being about 'the paranoia and lust for promotion of white-collar workers in confined spaces.". He based the show on his experiences as a travelling auditor with the East Midlands Electricity Board.It was his first sitcom hit, the pilot being screened just ahead of the first series of 'Rising Damp'. Set in the accounts department of International Rentals, a television hire company, it focused on the lives of a motley group of characters; 'Mr.Fletcher' was the boss, splendidly played by Bernard Hepton ( his first T.V. role since 'Colditz' ) as a bow-tied, bespectacled lecher, his underling was the nervous 'Rex' ( the wonderful Ken Jones from 'Porridge' ), 'Harry' ( Phil Silvers-lookalike Alan David ) was always on the make, and then there was 'Burke' ( Ellis Jones from the children's sitcom 'Pardon My Genie' ) who read Dracula comics when he was meant to be working. Being a '70's sitcom with an office setting, there just had to be a sexy secretary, and was - 'Carol' ( Karin McCarthy ), whom Fletcher was always lusting after. Rex was married to downtrodden but sympathetic Susan ( Patsy Rowlands - who was also in 'Bless This House' when this was made ). In one episode, Rex had to attend a company conference, which meant him spending time away from home. Susan dutifully packed his belongs, and then secretly followed him to ensure he got up to no naughty business. In another, Rex got so fed up that he resigned, before applying for a similar job. He later found that it was his old job he was applying for. In yet another, Rex meets an old friend and rival ( Philip Madoc ) whom has fallen on hard times and is forced to play 'The Sugar Balls Man' for a breakfast cereal company. Wanting to get time off to watch cricket on television in another episode, Rex feigns illness, only to do the job too well - everyone back at the office thinks he has died.It was a standard sitcom, though good fun, boasting a good cast and some wonderful lines. When Harry complains about Rex's habit of having his hair cut on the firm's time, Rex responds: "Why not? It grows on the firm's time!". The only annoying aspect was the obvious canned laughter - a problem that dogged all sitcoms made by A.T.V.After two seasons, Chappell relinquished the writing duties to others, such as future 'Grange Hill' creator Phil Redmond, actor Kenneth Cope, and Alan Hackney. In 1991, Yorkshire Television remade it as 'Fiddlers Three' starring Peter Davison and Paula Wilcox, but it was nowhere near as good. The surviving episodes of 'The Squirrels' came out of hibernation for a long-overdue D.V.D. release in 2013.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre "The Squirrels" (ignore its irrelevant title) was a sitcom running on Britain's ITV channel from 1974-77. In Britain, where it's illegal for a household to receive television transmissions without paying an annual television license fee, most people hire (rent) their televisions rather than purchasing them outright. This provides part of the premise of "The Squirrels".Most of the action takes place in the accounts department of International Rentals, a television hire company. Bernard Hepton plays Mr Fletcher, the boss, nicknamed "Fletcher the Lecher" because he fancies himself with the ladies ... especially sexy Susan, played by Patsy Rowlands. (Fletcher is also a tyrant, of course.) Ken Jones plays Rex, Fletcher's nervous dogsbody assistant.It was a fairly typical office-setting sitcom. The main characters spent half the time doing everything except their jobs (office intrigue, office romances, skiving off work) and the other half of their time frantically trying to cover up for the cock-ups committed in the rare moments when they actually did their jobs.The cast was excellent, and the 28 half-hour episodes were briskly directed, but the scripts (primarily by Eric Chappell) left much to be desired. Chappell later went on to create "Rising Damp", one of the most popular sitcoms in British TV history ... so "The Squirrels" is still worth a look as an early example of Chappell's work.