What do Friends,The Liver Birds and Modern Family have in common? They’ve helped change our attitudes to relationships, tackling issues from pre-marital sex to empty nest syndrome, or single parenthood and homosexual marriage In Shakespearean comedy,a wedding is a cheerful ending. But in a TV sitcom, it’s more likely to be an glum beginning. At best, or a married couple will endure DIY or cookery disasters as their tyrannical boss suddenly drops by for dinner. At worst,a husband will throw a surprise 40th birthday party for his wife, only for her to demand a divorce – as happens to Ben Millers character in the original BBC exhibit I Want My Wife Back.
The man’s attempt to avoid divorce involves much slapstick business, or including a violent stand-off at an anger management group and adept expend of missed and misunderstood mobile phone messages. But the underlying suggestion in I Want My Wife Back,that some marriages are abandoned too easily, continues the expend of sitcom over the past six decades to reflect changing attitudes to relationships – from pre-marital sex through rising divorce rates to homosexual marriage.
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Source: theguardian.com