I think it lost its way, in the last few seasons, the babys just dragged it out, and the final season was awful, why they even thought of going on without the lead actor is beyond me.
I've only ever seen a handful of episodes from the earlier seasons. It was amusing--'Father Dougal as Superman' seems like comedy gold. I mean to watch more of it sometime, mainly 'cos Ardal O'Hanlon never fails to crack me up. I agree about the business of recasting the main character. O'Hanlon would be a hard, if not impossible, act to follow. I don't know as I'll be going out of my way to see the last season.
I thought it was ghastly from season 1. There were a few funny bits, but very few. I caught an ep from the season where he'd changed faces, and I thought "wtf?"
It was mind-buggeringly shit from the get-go (deliberately US-ified picture quality, laughter track, etc) and then went massively downhill with the talking baby and stuff. Frankly, it should be wiped from the chronology of TV comedy....
This and Hyperdrive are proof that not all British comedies are gold. And I really tried hard to like Hyperdrive.
That's pretty much how and why I started watching it. BBC America was running it next to My Family weekdays back when I had Digital Cable and I found it amusing enough. I eventually tracked down and watched all of the episodes until I got to the first episode of the last season. It was beyond bad once Ardal O'Hanlon left so I don't consider the last season to exist. I'm a completest by nature, so if something on TV peaks my interest I tend to end up wanting to see them all. Once I had though, I never felt any real need to see them again, so I deleted them. I STILL have yet to watch Father Ted though, something for which I'm constantly chastised. Thanks for the reminder.
The only good thing about My Hero was that it introduced Hugh Dennis into my life. The first two series or so were good I thought (though I doubt I'd watch now). Then they went overboard with Talking Baby, Prophetic Baby Called Cassandra and then George was recast to James Dreyfuss of Gimme Gimme Gimme fame, who is utterly awful. Basically, BBC1 ruined it, as BBC1 ruins absolutely every single sitcom it takes from BBC2 and BBC3 because every single sitcom it makes itself is cack.
Drop The Dead Donkey was very much a topical show, but most of it still holds up. Chelmsford 123 isn't on video or DVD here, more's the pity...