Prismark10 David Jason returns to BBC sitcom land where he has had great success in the past. He plays Captain Guy Hubble; an ex-guardsman who becomes the Head of Security at the Buckingham Palace car park. He then gets promoted as the Royal Bodyguard after somehow saving the Queen's life at the State Opening of Parliament.Geoffrey Whitehead is Colonel Dennis Whittington; Hubble's hapless boss. He knows that Hubble is useless but is unable to fire him because Hubble somehow manages to please the Queen.You can immediately guess that Jason plays a cross between Johnny English and Inspector Clouseau with Whittington essentially being Inspector Dreyfus.At 71 years of age, Jason is rather too old to play such a role and looks it especially as is makes demands on him physically. It also did not help that the sitcom is so lame, predictable and lacks an ounce of originality as you know where they got their inspiration from and has an actor who is miscast.

zoe-butler51 A weak script with unlikeable supporting characters spoiled what could have been a great idea. As it is, The Royal Bodyguard is funny as a gentle comedy. It is not something David Jason will be remembered for, despite trying hard. Some people have said it would have been saved by a younger actor, but to me, this looks like missing the point. The premise is that Guy Hubble, a forgotten member of the security forces is given the job as a car park attendant so that he can carry on working out of harms way, but through being in the wrong place at the right time he impresses HM The Queen so much that she insists he be promoted way above his level of competence. It's a one joke film, of course. The only way the premise can be stretched is that everyone else is incompetent too. We have incompetent senior civil servants, incompetent security guards, even incompetent terrorists. It could be argued that the Queen herself is incompetent to be taken in, to the extent of insisting on Hubble being kept in his job. That is the weakness of the concept. An incompetent security officer in a highly efficient security department facing well organised, highly disciplined terrorists could have been far more suspenseful and therefore far funnier when the comedy relieved the tension. Instead we get situations where everyone falls over their own and each others' feet and Hubble wins by being the last man standing. This is not intelligent comedy at all. Comparisons have been made with Norman Wisdom. But Norman Wisdom comedies had sympathetic characters. The foils for Wisdom's antics were always the mighty brought down. In The Royal Bodyguard, we don't care about any of the other characters, and the mighty are brought down by their own incompetence as much as anything. There is one big mistake in Hubble's character. He blames everyone else. This is a believable flaw, but it alienates him from us. Hubble does too much of it. It is not well written because he is always childishly shouting, "That was your fault!" it is one thing to let someone take the blame, but to deliberately blame innocent passers by is not the way to endear audiences. I have given this a fairly generous score of five out of ten. This is entirely for David Jason. He brings pathos to what would be - in real life - a tragedy. This is a story about someone who is overconfident and in over his head; an old man who is too proud to retire and take a less active role and who pathetically attempts to look younger by wearing an obvious wig. People like that really exist and, in these days, there are probably more of them than ever. With better writing, this could have rocked. With poor writing it crumbles.

plutus1947 David Jason is arguably the best UK TV actor ever. Whether it is comedy like Only Fools & Horses and Porterhouse Blue, or hard hitting dramas like Frost and All The King's Men, Jason's acting is impeccable.He has, or had, a knack of selecting just the right scripts to show off his perfect acting ability.Sadly, in the case of The Royal Bodyguard this knack appears to have eluded him.SPOILER BEGINS: David Jason plays the part of Captain Guy Hubble, an ex soldier, who, after saving the Queen's life by stopping her runaway carriage was given the post of The Royal Bodyguard. It was Hubble's fault the horses stampeded in the first place.I must say this scene I thought was quite funny.SPOILER ENDS From there on what promised to be a typical Jason comedy series started to go down hill and if the first episode is anything to go by the series will continue to falter.True I have only seen the first episode and because I love Jason as an actor I will continue to watch the series in the hope it will improve although I don't hold out much hope.SPOILER BEGINS: In the first episode Jason (Hubble) was employed to secure the Queen's safety at a conference, because he had saved the Queen's life.The whole of the Government department responsible for the Queen's safety hate Hubble and want him replaced because of his total incompetence.Of course that did not happen because through his incompetence he saved the life of the Queen yet again.SPOILER ENDS All through the thirty minute episode it was no more than a sequence of slapstick and farce. The plot and dialogue was totally forgettable, in fact it was thinner than a sheet of paper.This series gives the impression that it was written after the author had seen Johnny English.Johnny English was much better and much more enjoyable, probably because Rowan Atkinson who played English is perfect in this type of role, and if they had cast Atkinson in the part of Guy Hubble I have a feeling I would have thoroughly enjoyed The Royal Bodyguard, especially if they had named the main character Bean, the character Rowan Atkinson is most famous for.I am so sorry Sir David but as much as I admire you as possibly Britains greatest TV actor I feel you have made a great mistake in choosing the role of Guy Hubble in this series.Unless there is a drastic improvement in the next 5 episodes I really cannot see a second series.I have given this first episode a 3 star rating simply because I love David as an actor and did enjoy the first scene.ADDENDUMSince writing the above review I have watched the complete first series and I owe David Jason a big apology.Each episode became more and more enjoyable and in the end I was sorry to see the first series end.Have no fears though The Royal Bodyguard is coming back for another series very soon.Once again I hope David will accept my apologies.

DaveFilmlover Big mistake. Woefully unfunny. Absolutely no story. David Jason trying to be a cross between Johnny English and (I suspect) Inspector Clouseau and failing dismally. Came across as a very embarrassing old man, wearing an awful hairpiece, and trying to re-live his youth. In his younger days Jason starred in a God awful LWT series called "The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs". This is a pale imitation of that show. How can such a fine comic/character actor get roped into something like this. I am a great fan of David Jason, his fabulous performances of Grenville, Del Boy, Blanco and Jack Frost made me forget some of his earlier stinkers. I am afraid that this has reminded me of the struggle he had in getting through what a comic talent he was/is. Give up on this one David. "Go on my son, you know it makes sense"