Moving on with the project, as described in the "Mulberry" thread, I have now viewed all episodes of "Hope It Rains". I don't expect all of these to be gems, but I do want to watch them merely as a student of Esmonde and Larbey. I doubt any of their work can be as bad as some of the shows presently on TV. As it turns out however, this one tends to be one of those non gems. The show aired from 1991 to 1992. The main characters were played by Tom Bell, Holly Aird, Eamon Boland, Eileen Nicholas. The following is a description I found on the net which is written much better than I could do. (Don't know the author)

This series was not to everyone's taste. It was not a laugh-out-loud comedy. Instead it was an interesting and bravely-written piece, with some dry, rather melancholic humor in it. On a number of occasions, the script-writers could have gone for a warm fuzzy moment with the Tom Bell character coming out of his grumpy shell, but they went for integrity of character instead of the cheap feel-good moment. This in turn enabled them to show the vulnerability of the outwardly quite angry and hard Holly Aird character. In showing his loneliness and her vulnerability, it was quite moving at times, and deserves more respect than your average sitcom.

That said, the show does have it's funny, and moving moments. And I did find myself taking an interest in the characters. So, I can see why some have written that they very much enjoyed the show. I will leave that to the individual.