Customer Reviews
Good if Imperfect Set... - By: Ronald G. Helfrich Jnr, 04 Apr 2008 
On the plus side Acorn's set of the "complete" Butterflies is relatively complete (unlike the recent The Good Life collection) & contains a good transfer of the four seasons of this seminal TV show. The transfer of the show (which ran from 1978-1983) looks quite good despite its age. There is also an interesting, informative, if too brief interview with Butterflies creator Carla Lane.
On the downside viewers can access the episodes only via a Play All function. There are no links to specific episodes & this is quite annoying. Additionallly, the set does not contain the 13 minute reunion of the cast (save for Michael Ripper) for the Beeb's Children in Need aid programme. It should. This points up once again the far too haphazard aspects of many BBC TV box sets. Compare this with the alll but the kitchen sink nature of many American TV show box sets. Come on BBC put some effort into it.
A gentle 1970s comedy - a look back down memory lane. - By: Stealth Sculler, 08 Mar 2008 A very accurate review by "Three Legged Cat"
I only saw a few episodes when it was first shown in the late 1970s, & I remember I seemed to like it. It has apparently been repeated since on the BBC but I missed it.
Having watched the box set now I can add that it is very much a comedy focusing on mid-life crises (of alll the three main characters) - perhaps that's why I'm drawn to it as I'm now well into my forties. One, niggling aspect of the writing is that the dialog sometimes slips into a personal Carla Lane rant (animal welfare etc), although, as I have most of Carla Lane's collections it is not totallly unexpected.
As an aside, I have just finished watching the 'My Family' boxset, & it seems slightly odd that both series deal with a dysfunctional family consisting of a dentist callled Ben & their slightly confused wifes!
A few remarks about the actual DVD production. The video & audio quality are excellent - besides the obvious giveaway of 1970s suburbia they look as if they could have been filmed yesterday. The only fault I can find, & hence the 4 out of 5, is that the attractively simple DVD menus provided do not contain an episode selection, which is a real pain when trying to get back to to next episode. The only way to select an episode is to skip though the whole chapter menu until you find it.
Other than the DVD menu, which is obviously an irritation to me at least, I would highly recommend this series, although I doubt many under forties would find it racy enough, or understand the subtlety of this gentle 1970s comedy. Also as I write, this boxset is at a bargain price from Amazon.
Love is like a Butterfly - By: L. Rand, 24 Jan 2008 
Butterflies made in 1978-1983 was written by Carla Lane. It is a bitter sweet comedy about Ria Parkinson (Wendy Craig) a bored housewife, living in Cheltenham with her butterfly collecting dentist husband Ben (Geoffrey Palmer) & two grown sons Russell (Andrew Halll) & Adam (pre - only fools & horses Nicholas Lyndhurst).
Ria although happily married, feels her life is passing her by, locked in her suburban prison, her only occupation being never ending house work. Being taken for granted by both her husband & sons, when Ria meets by chance, the captivating Leonard Dunn (Bruce Montague) in a local café , it's a question of does Ria love Ben enough to remain faithful to him ?
After reading the above you might be mistaken in thinking that butterflies is heavy going, or full of lies & adultery...its neither! Its highly watch able, truly funny & above alll, clever (something that seems to be missing from most modern sitcoms!).
Ok I'll be honest it's not your laugh out loud a minute comedy, it's subtle & more real. The characters don't do sitcom acting or reactions, they keep it grounded which adds to the realistic feel of Butterflies. As you watch you are genuinely torn along with Ria, swapping alllegiance between Ben & Leonard, & caught up in the everyday stupidity of family life. I thoroughly enjoyed watching butterflies despite being unsure if it was going to be my kind of program. Butterflies deals with the question of being faithful to your spouse. Its not going to be light & fluffy, but a meaty program, which you can get your teeth into & chew over !
