[spoilers] Sir Harry Pearce - Return of the Jedi (#3)

[loladom]

All of the above plus one. Peter almost forced this part to become what it is, but Peter's abilities aside, Harry's role has fallen into something similar to the godfather. He's the daddy so to speak. Whilst younger eye candy may come and go, there is the feeling they are more dispensible to the viewer. Harry is the backbone, structure, consistency and to some extent the moral (or imoral) compass. He sets the ethos of the team. He also sets the heart of the team and the viewer. As much as Ruth/Nicola is excellent, the viewer is more invested in Harry finding happiness. Pull that away and the show loses its core. If they had changed the boss every season from the beginning this perhaps would not be so, but now it's too late IMO. Should they chose to try this now it would be an enormous gamble I think.

Whilst I love PF in general and PF as Harry, I don't doubt there are other actors who could've started this off and moved Harry into this pivotal role (albeit in a different way.) Having said that, I do believe Harry is Peter's ultimate role, and I credit Peter with harnessing viewer love and running with it.

Harry represents something old fashioned from a lost time and I think there is something in all of us that secretly longs for those old values.

SO it's a combination of Peter's abilities+Harry's character+great lines = backbone of the show.