Geoff Posner makes unruly comedy legible without making it polite, a skill we value. His work with strong performers depends on timing and clear staging; The Young Ones also shows how easily that energy can become tiring.
Fi1m perspective
In The Young Ones (1982), the house has a life of its own. We laughed at the sentient house because it lets the setting supply a joke before anyone needs to speak. This is where we value Geoff Posner's direction: when the staging gives an unreasonable idea enough time to make sense. The series is sharp and worth watching, though its insistence can wear us down.
The credit needs sharing with fellow directors Paul Jackson and Ed Bye, rather than assigning every successful interruption to Posner. Colin Jones's editing helps those interruptions land, while Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson make much of the noise worthwhile. At its best, the staging gives their performances room without making the surrounding disorder hard to follow. There is real skill in keeping a series this wilful readable without making it behave like something more conventional.
The work then broadens through sketch shows and a continuing partnership with Victoria Wood. He directed and produced Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV (1985), directed early series of French & Saunders (1987), and returned to Wood as director and producer of dinnerladies (1998). Wood is an important collaborator here: the repeated partnership gives us a better way of understanding his work than searching for a signature shot. His live directing also includes the Eurovision Song Contest (1998), with music and performance work requiring precise, rapid decisions between shots. We would look for his contribution in how clearly the material reaches us.
The reservation is that technical assurance can encourage a joke to stay longer than it should. Some stretches of The Young Ones are overworked, with direction and performance pressing on before we have enjoyed the surprise. Jones's cuts help organise the chaos, but a few jokes still need a quicker departure. Start with this series, and leave a little quiet between episodes.
Biography
Geoff Posner is a British television producer and director. He began directing comedy programmes in the early 1980s, including episodes of Not the Nine O'Clock News and The Young Ones (both 1982).
He produced and directed Victoria Wood As Seen on TV (1985–1987) and later worked on series such as French & Saunders (1987), Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1992) and dinnerladies (1998–2000). In 1992 he co-founded the production company Pozzitive Television with David Tyler. His programmes have won six BAFTA awards.
