The 60s, the spirit of free love, smiling on your brother, and good vibrations. We all know how that particular story ended, and the subsequent ridicule of those who perceived existence outside the mainstream. In 1999, after completing the cultural phenom that was Father Ted, Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan turned their attention to that movement for their next big thing in Hippies.

Though the times of the season of the decade may be sunsetting, the revolutionary spirit still lives on in the Notting Hill headquarters of the voice of the counterculture movement, Mouth. For each of the six episodes, the determined gang of young revolutionaries, try to preach the message of free love, and peace, with comical effect. Constantly finding themselves in over their heads as the declining days of the decade wash over them.

The pedigree of this series is strong, with the show coming straight from the creative team behind the Channel 4 hit Father Ted. Even on the camera, the legends of British comedy are here, such as Simon Pegg, who needs no introduction, plays, Ray. Joining him is Julian Rhind-Tutt who you might remember as the non-Stephen Mangan one off of Green Wing, and a few other cult classic productions, who plays the effortlessly cool, Alex Picton-Dinch. Sally Phillips, Miss Claire Barker herself, plays Ray’s love interest, Jill and Darren Boyd, just before Watching Ellie plays Hugo. The ingredients here are as strong as they could be for a turn-of-the-century sitcom, with talent both on and off the stage, so you can imagine how the expectations would be sky-high for this sitcom.

Without having to worry about ad breaks, Hippies makes full use of the 30 minutes to tell their stories of these four free-spirits living firmly in the throes of the counterculture movement. From armed overthrows, sit ins, and slight skewering the perception of the generational clashes of the decade. The jokes are broad, and it doesn’t require much knowledge of the era for them to land, but anything you know about the period, like John Lennon’s famous Bed-in, helps the humour land all the more smoothly. Yet the broader sitcom tropes will carry you the rest of the way there. A lot of gags, aimed around the liberation of gender politics and the general liberation of the era, fit in nicely with the sitcom formula laid out by Mathews and Linehan.

Three decades on from the premier and its final episode, and We are about as far away from the show’s airing as the hippy revolution was to the show. Much like the revolutionary quote-unquote pioneers of the time, a lot of good ideas, filled with charismatic individuals, just couldn’t make the mark. If you can find the D.V.D., and can distance yourself from the monumental hype, you will find that the love state over Notting Hill Gate remains, if not in spirit but in memory.

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