Boggen's Advent Calender (Day Twenty) - Goosing with Dick while Aladdin watches

Its Panto Time once again and for the twentieth day, here are some awkward Pantomime television ads to look at..

First off upto to Scotland to see how they can advertise a panto with mainly Scottish flavour, pantos do have a strong regional flavour in certain parts of the country and they draw on this to enhance what they have got already. However this just seems like the raw footage for a commercial which has somehow sneaked it way onto the internet, letting light behind the magic somewhat.

"No, the camera's over here..."

And over to Southampton as this is this year's advertisement for the production of Cinderella starring Brian Conley and Gok Wan, yes that Gok Wan is in panto. Conley, a veteran so many of these shows, makes it look so effortless. But hey, in a world where local advertising is so short nowadays, isn't reassuring that a show like this is going all out make itself noticed.

No puppets were harmed in the making of this advert

Or how about another way to get you message across, mainly shouting it out there! In Weymouth that's the way they like it seems, making sure everyone notices them. The simple pleasure of seeing the panto comes to us all, in my time I have seen everyone from Lorraine Chase, Cardew Robinson to the great Brian Cant, even appearing on stage with him. Overall panto has kept up with the times, with whoever is famous is cast in these shows, from the rash of soap stars in the late 80's through to reality stars of today. Its these people who make panto what it is and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Giant, doesn't cover it...

"You Tube, I Tube, we all tube for YouTube.."

"What has social media ever done for us?" That's the question which has been asked time after time... Well, in some cases it has opened up the world for us. Otherwise it has brought us closer to home and to ourselves. Our world was first revolutionised by radio, then television, video recorders etc. right upto the internet's inception. Now from the early dial-up days when any video took ages to down, there was rarely any sites out there for the media and pop-culture enthusiast.


With TV Cream and also the Television Ark being the exceptions to the rule, it was hard for someone like me to find about programmes apart from the knowledge I knew myself. For the others out there who had a love of television too, it was good to see the odd ident on a site. But for a long time this glimpse was enough, it wasn't until YouTube came along that I could see again half the things which had gone into my head.


It is a treasure trove of clips, all recorded by people and uploaded onto the site. Looking through everything, it gains itself a reputation as a resource. For instance, someone has uploaded the whole of End of Part One up there. Now because of varying issues, it has never been released on DVD. Being a fan of Marshall and Renwick's work, it comes as no surprise that the sketches still hold up today. Maybe not the contents but the style, the influence is seen through other's work. Peter Serafinowicz is an example of this, by using the spoof style of an actual broadcast or advert, this blurs the line between comedy and reality but to an extent which makes you question if its real or spoof.

Denise Coffey... and cream..

Where it comes into its own, thanks to 'filmnet' s YouTube channel who uploaded End of Part One on there, that they have uploaded Hardwicke House there too. This was a series dropped by ITV owing to its contents, starring Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall and the likes of Duncan Preston too. It seems tame now, that a comedy series which portrayed a secondary school as it is, would provoke so many people. Where as this is another lost gem found again, YouTube reminds us of the past too. 


In British cinema of the 50's, 60's, 70's and the early 80's, short features would be shown in front of a main feature, much the purpose of the newsreel had fulfilled this role in early times. Harold Baim made a lot of short films to be shown in cinemas highlighting things and places of the British Isles, showing people who had never been to these places a view of what they were like. One example of this is 'Telly Savalas Looks at...' A series made by Baim and voiced by the Kojak actor, clearly Telly has not even been to any of these places, rather then being in a voice-over booth in London. But that's by the by, Savalas' own style makes you want to go there and explore the place he is talking about. I will be coming back to a certain one of these films over the weekend, but let me leave you with a example of one and say 'YouTube, thank you for being there and for the people who upload the good bits of nostalgia, thanks...'

Mid-atlantic? No, its the Midlands!

Next time of Boggenstrovia's Bit...

We look inwards at ourselves and see how Telly Savalas took one city and made it 'One hell of a town...' He comes to Portsmouth, and I'll guide you through as we go... So hold on tight and all fares to the driver please!