I Didn't Know There Was So Much in it - March 11th to March 17th 1967

Welcome back, our second look back at TV Times' past, this week takes us to this week in 1967. A place with three channels and still with all the original ITV companies, thus ABC rule the North and Midlands at weekends and ATV are London's weekend television with the might of Granada for the North and Rediffusion London, naturally enough in London. 

So what was gracing the cover of the TV Times this week then? 

It's Michael Miles, the host of Take Your Pick. This was not uncommon for one of ITV's biggest stars to be on the cover of TV Times, however there was a special reason for it and that reason being the bridge behind him in that picture. This week, Take Your Pick was going to Australia for a special show filmed in front of an Australian audience and with Australian contestants. Which at this time for a show to go to the other side of the world to film an episode was unheard of, especially with satellite television in its infancy. Rediffusion took the show to Sydney, where most of the audience were ex-pats, however thirty years before this, Miles himself had gone to Australia to establish himself in show business there. 

As such with this being a special edition, the sheer numbers of people wanting tickets was into the thousands and the production staff had to whittle that number down to 450 who were invited into the audience to see the show take place.

Meanwhile, the magazine reflects on just over forty years of Elstree Film Studios existence with an article about the productions which had been made their both for film and television, including the numerous television programmes which had been made upto that point by ATV. 

On the other end of the scale comes the chance to collect another set of six pictures for the colour Coronation Street album featuring Peter Adamson holding a pint as Len Fairclough, Eileen Derbyshire as Miss Nugent, Valerie and Ken Barlow featuring a very smiley Anne Reid and a even more smiley William Roache, Sandra Gough as Irima Barlow showing some leg, the Queen of the Rovers Return Annie Walker (Doris Speed) looking regal and Phillip Lawrie as Dennis Tanner, no doubt plotting something. This being the second chance to collect a set of pictures, then all the Weatherfield regulars would be in the other five sets of photographs to collect on a weekly basis. 

With this being 1967 and the Summer of Love coming, naturally in the summer. Marley somehow make a simple advert for linoleum flooring seem like talking down to women or as they put it 'Get Off Your Knees!' Which even as a joke about women scrubbing floors, seems a bit off in style and humour even back then. 

So onto the programmes, with Saturday 11th March. In a land where restricted broadcasting hours are still in place, Saturday starts off at a leisurely pace, that's if you call learning Russian leisurely. So at 12.35pm you can 'Say It in Russian', but after fifty-seven lessons of which this is the fifty-seventh one. I'm sure by then your could write a whole novel in Russian and there is no indication of how many lessons were left either. Though think that was hard, another lunchtime treat is First Steps in Physics, today the 22nd lesson about Magnetism. But in 1967, adult education, rarely seen nowadays on television, was a staple of the weekend schedules. This being because most people were at home at the weekend and it was also a further education aid to those already taking the subjects and an introduce to those wanting to learn them.

After the first news bulletin of the day from ITN at 1.20pm, then comes World of Sport introduced by Eamonn Andrews. For all the sensible sports in this edition, Racing and Rallycross. There comes a sport, which I don't think has seen the light of day on television ever since and that sport is Roller Derby. So the Australian Thunderbirds take on the Detroit Devils in this exciting contest, whether this was brought in from another television station or if this was staged in the UK, I do not know at all. However, this being World of Sport and knowing some of the thing that they would put on in later years, this seems sensible compared to them. 

As a separate programme, comes the more sensible sport of wrestling at 4pm with visit back to the World of Sport studio at 5pm for all the day's results from on horseback, on the football pitch or anything else which takes your fancy. 

From that comes Just Jimmy with Jimmy Clitheroe and Mollie Sugden at 5.15, this week when Jimmy tries to invent a brother for himself, but after the news at 5.40pm comes another Dynamic Duo with Batman and Robin, the Saturday night early evening imports seemingly making an impact for ITV even back then. With this week's episode 'Catwoman goes to College', making me wonder if she's taking the Russian course or the Physics course instead? So lots of daring do from the caped crusader there, but another hero of kinds comes along after them at 6.20pm, when Ken Dodd opens his Music Box featuring this week guests including The Hollies, Johnny Hackett and Barbara Law, not forgetting Bob Sharples and the ABC Showband plus the Mike Sammes Singers as well.

Doddy seemingly cramming a lot into his music box there, after high drama with The High Terrace featuring Lois Maxwell at 7pm, there comes then Charlie Drake in Who is Sylvia? If the question is Who is Sylvia? Is the answer, then Who is Mr Drake? Plus with a title of 'The Man from C.L.U.N.K., somewhat of a spying theme maybe going on in this episode. 

After that at ten past nine, the real secret agents come along as John Steed and Emma Peel find 'The Correct Way to Kill' as Steed changes partners and Mrs Peel joins the enemy and all wrapped in 55 minutes as well, again like last week Peter Vaughan features in one of the week's leading dramas at five past ten in The Happy Sacking, but the story is not as jolly as it sounds. With Vaughan starring as Elmo Frankfurter trying to train up Dug Whitby, played by Jim Norton in the art of how to win at business.

Then Honor Blackman is asked what she would put in The Magic Box of her favourite things by Kenneth Robinson at 11.05pm, followed by On the Braden Beat at 11.35pm where Bernard Braden adds his 'serious wit' to proceedings.

Sunday brings two more lessons in Russian and Physics after the Morning Service from Brixton Parish Church, later on at 3.30pm there is a whole galaxy of stars as James Mason tells the Story of the Stars focusing on 40 years of Elstree Studios. Plus with more stars at 5pm in the Sound of Laughter featuring Ted Ray, John Junkin, Rosemary Squires, Reg Varney and Ray Alan as well. Later on at 7.25pm comes the second part of the weekend's Batman story but afterwards romance is in the air for Deborah Kerr in the film Perfect Strangers at 7.55. Finally following up with a double of The New London Palladium Show introduced by Bob Monkhouse and also the Eamonn Andrews Show bringing Sunday to close.

On Monday at 6.30pm Barbara Kelly asks the question in Criss Cross Quiz, with Monday being a Coronation Street evening with All Our Yesterdays preceding at 7pm. Mrs Thursday loses an hour at 8pm with the reason being British Summer Time, right on time at 8.55 is the main evening news from ITN. After that at ten past nine, there's No Hiding Place with Detective Chief Superintendent Lockhart considering whether to prove another colleague wrong, but another man with a free brief is Mike Scott in Scott Free at 10.05pm. 

Late night drama comes about with The Invaders at just after 10.30pm and the News Headlines, finishing on this day with Bernard Levin interviewing Robert Bolt, the one time school teacher and now Oscar winning writer and playwright. 

As its 1967, so there is an advert for cigarettes in the middle of the listings between days. Advertising Richmond's Players Navy Cut for the price of 4/3d, commonplace these adverts were in magazines of the time. The way that advertising these products were to change over the next decade with them becoming less overt in style and not showing directly cigarettes themselves.

Onto Tuesday and during the schools broadcast, a programme which was to be become very familiar for many years to come started the day's broadcasting. At ten past eleven was Picture Box, with the same format as always but also directed by Brian Cosgrove, who of course went on to form Cosgrove Hall Animation Studios. Such was the way that the school programmes were spread out that they with intervals and closedowns are broadcast until 2.40pm. With a programme at 1.25pm, The Automobile Age produced by another long term Granada schools producer, Jack Smith. He was famous for Experiment later on in his career, but here in this programme which looks at what impact the motor car has had on the town and countryside.

In the limited hours that ITV was on the air at this time, meaning that Granada started up again at 4.50pm with 'On Air', a look at the day's news with a dash of pop and comment as well. The first children's programme of the after comes from Rediffusion with three very familiar names within it, Disney Wonderland is presented by Jennifer Clulow, who later was to be an announcer on both TVS and TSW, as well as her Peter Hawkins provides the voice of Goofy and Tony Hart pops by to launch a Cartoon Competition as well.

Afterwards in contrast to this at 5.25 is action adventure with Orlando starring Sam Kydd, this week's episode being the third part of a story called Irish Stew, with the episode subtitled Masks over Masks, this also coming from Rediffusion's children's department. Though once the ITN news and Granada's Northern News has been and gone, then Wally Whyton has more cartoon fun for all the family at five past six in Time for a Laugh.

The early evening itself concentrates on entertainment with My Man Joe starring Joe Baker at 6.30pm and at 7pm, Hughie Green gives the contestants the chance to Double Your Money. The show itself, a mainstay of ITV's schedule from the start was in its last two years until Rediffusion made way for Thames in July 1968. But still even in 1967, Double Your Money was one of ITV's biggest ratings winners with the combination of Hughie Green and the chance to win big cash prizes. 

The main feature of Tuesday is the film, The Barefoot Contessa, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardener, shown at 7.30pm but split into two parts bisected with the evening's main ITN news at 8.55pm. The action does not stop there with The Rifleman at five past ten and Danger Man starring Patrick McGoohan at 11.05pm, with agent John Drake being accused of being a double agent whilst in Jamaica. 

Wednesday evening brings more entertaiment with Tom and Dick Smothers in The Smothers Brothers show at five past six and Phyllis Diller in The Pruitts of Southampton at 6.35, for all the entertainment Bamber Gascoigne is the quizmaster in University Challenge at 7pm, though there's no record of who faced who in that week's TV Times. For all the brain nourishment, Wednesday brings another edition of Coronation Street, with a family gathering in the Barlow's house and a 'wet' idea from Miss Nugent played by Eileen Derbyshire of course later to become Emily Bishop.  

The main attraction from Rediffusion on Wednesdayat 9.45pm is an entertainment special starring Bing Crosby called 'A Little Bit of Irish' celebrating and looking ahead to St. Patrick's Day on the 17th of March. Bing's guests include Milo O' Shea, Siobhan McKenna and also Kathryn Crosby as well. 

Though not to make the English and the Scots to feel left out, then at 10.45, there are highlights from Hampden Park of tonight's Scottish League vs English League game of football, with the English team beating the Scots 3-0 with goals from Alan Clarke, who got two and Geoff Hurst who scored the other one. 

Thursday's early evening, has in depth reporting on the week's issues from ITN in Reporting '67 with Andrew Gardiner at ten past six, after there's another Time for a Laugh with Wally Whyton at 6.35pm and there's mystery in the air as Glynis Johns stars with John Justin and Cicely Courtneidge in Agatha Christie's 'The Spider's Web', at 8.25pm Galton and Simpson brings laughs with their latest sitcom starring Harry H. Corbett in Mr Aitch, though with it being a Thursday night, This Week appears at ten past nine looking at the stories in the news. Also Granada broadcast's Dr De Waldo's Therapy by Fay Weldon starring Ursula Howells, Wanda Ventham and Dilys Watling as well.

What The Papers Say is at 11pm follow by a comedy special starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope called Mr and Mrs., which clearly had nothing to do with the Border/HTV gameshow of the same name. Which comes as light relief after current affairs heavy evening including two current affairs programmes and review of the week's papers as well. 

The end of the TV Times week on Friday starts with another edition of Disney Wonderland at 5pm, but the action comes thick and fast at 5.25 with another adventure with Stingray as Troy Tempest looks for The Cool Caveman in this edition, but there's more drama at 6.15pm after the ITN News and Newscene in Emergency Ward 10 as Dr Brook struggles to preserve a patient's sanity and also he clashes with a visiting consultant as well. All in a day's work for the medics of Emergency Ward 10, I suppose. 

At 7pm, television's new world sports programme brings you drama, danger and excitement introduced by Tony Maylam in Sportsweek from ATV. Someone else who is used to excitement is Simon Templar and at 7.30pm, The Saint spots a nun wearing high heels at a London train station and this leads him into what Sportsweek would call drama, danger and excitement. 

Then the pick of the week is shown at 8.25pm with the aforementioned edition of Take Your Pick from Sydney, Australia as Michael Miles and Bob Danvers-Walker go Down Under to give away prizes galore to the ex-pats on the other side of the world. After the main news at 8.55, Mr Rose stars William Mervyn in an episode called 'The Jolly Swagman' where Rose is offered a free trip on a luxury cruise but he meets two old friends and an old enemy as well.

This England at five past ten looks at the railwaymen in 'A Railwayman for Me' focusing on the men who work at the Doncaster Railway Works and the lives the lead as they build some of the most upto to date rail engines. Finally Friday Scene looks at what is going on around the Granada area with Brian Trueman and Chris Kelly directing the programme and at 11.45pm is Gideon's Way, with John Gregson as Commander George Gideon, where the whispered words of an accident victim reopens a old case for the aforementioned Commander.

So that's the TV Times from the 11th of March to the 1967 of March 1967, contain classic shows, strange by today's standards adverts, stars making their way in television as well as popular entertainment from ITV.

Join us next time as week, look at another edition from another year and say to ourselves, I Didn't Know There Was So Much in it.

Mike Yarwood - This is Him... (Part Two)

In the last part we looked at how Mike Yarwood had become a impressionist and performer, through doing impressions for his family and work colleagues and how television director Royston Mayoh had a direct effect on his career by helping him hone his act both for cabaret and also television.

By the end of the 1960's Mike Yarwood had made his first tentative steps into television having appeared on ABC TV's Comedy Bandbox and also Sunday Night at the London Palladium, which at that point Mike thought that it would give him his big break as had happened to Jimmy Tarbuck before him. In 1968, he had done two series for BBC Two of Three of a Kind with comedian Ray Fell and also Lulu. Though when a third series was going to go ahead without Lulu who had moved onto BBC One with her own series, Yarwood himself thought that he was good enough to had his own solo series and in a fit pique turned down the opportunity to appear in the third series.

At that time in 1968, it seemed that Mike Yarwood had made totally the wrong decision by ignoring his agent Dave Forrester's advice at rejecting the chance to carry on working for the BBC at that time. But it was around then that Yarwood had some luck, Lord Lew Grade was planning a charity gala at the London Palladium to raise money for the British Olympic team so that they go to the Mexico Olympics, the first to be shown by ITV in almost full coverage. One of the main acts who were going to appear on the show pulled out, it was around the time when Eric Morecambe had a heart attack, so it was impossible for Morecambe and Wise to appear at that time. This left gaps to filled, so Mike was asked by Lew Grade to appear at the gala.

Because of the importance of the gala, The Queen and Prime Minister Harold Wilson were to be in attendance, though the climax to Yarwood's act was to be an impersonation of Wilson himself. Though this was to cause problems for Lew Grade as Mike Yarwood recalls in his 1986 autobiography Impressions of My Life.

“ 'What are you going to do in the Harold Wilson part?' asked Lew Grade.

'Oh, I've got a script,' I said vaguely. Lew shook his head 'Be careful. We don't want anything political with The Queen here. Just come on and say good evening or whatever and leave it at that.'

I was in despair. Harold Wilson was the most popular part of my act. I felt sure it would fall flat if I was to leave him out, but what was the point of coming on with the pipe and mac and saying 'Good Evening'? That would hardly leave them rolling in the aisles.

I had a moan to Jimmy Tarbuck who was also in the show. 'Why don't you come on and look down at Wilson and say “Snap”? said Jimmy.

I thought about it. It might work. 'Thanks, Jimmy. I'll give it a try,' I said.”

So thanks to Jimmy Tarbuck it seemed that Mike's act on the night had been saved. When he went on to do his spot, he felt that it as was going well. Then he put on the mac and picked up the pipe to do the climax of his act, so much that because of Wilson being in the audience, there was an expectation of Yarwood was going to do. At this time it is important to remember that politicians were still held with high respect by most people and especially the Prime Minister. The fact that That Was The Week That Was had punctured the pomposity of politicians allowed for performers to get away with more then they had ever done before against the political class. When Yarwood walked to the front of the stage to do whatever dialogue he had lined up and all he did was a double take of Harold Wilson and his wife Mary that he had just spotted them in the audience. With a look at Wilson and after a brief few seconds Mike uttered the words which would bring the house down, he said “And as for you sir, I've got only one thing to say to you... Snap!” then at that point hurrying off stage as if he'd lost his nerve.

It was this performance at the gala which got Yarwood great reviews from critics and Lew Grade spotted that Mike was a performer that he could work with, so he signed up Yarwood for three shows, but there was to be more offered if they went well.

With these new shows for ATV came an appearance at the London Palladium appearing with Cliff Richard, going to rehearse for the ATV shows during the daytime and performing at the Palladium during the evening. With Mike's personal life taking an upturn at that time with his future wife Sandra who was a dancer at that time. In taking the Palladium shows with Cliff Richard, it boosted Yarwood's performing skills even more by doing more larger nightly performances. But it was one remark to Cliff that took Mr Richard aback, when introducing Cliff to the audience, he had quipped to the screaming audience of girls in Frankie Howerd's voice “All right, all right... Don't get you knickers in a twist!” It got such a big laugh that Mike used night after night in his act to introduce Cliff Richard. At that time with Mike performing at the Palladium, in pantomimes and also summer season. His was a talent that was getting noticed, though much like Morecambe and Wise who nurtured their act on ITV and to move to the BBC in the same year. Mike Yarwood's career was helped by ATV such as a contemporary at that time Dave Allen.

By the time of the Royal Variety Performance of 1968 and the ATV show going well, meaning as with all royal shows that the comedians shared the one dressing room, Mike was used to having small dressing room but on this occasion he was sharing the star dressing room with Frankie Howerd. But this was to lead to ructions between Mike and Howerd over Yarwood's impression of him.

“The only thing that slightly marred that evening was Frankie's disapproval of my impression of him. Strangely enough in all these year she's the only person who's ever admitted to my face that he didn't care for being mimicked.”

Howerd himself thought that Mike's impersonation was effeminate, though it was the style of delivery which Frankie did himself which was more gossipy than anything else, though this showed even in the most talented and adept performers that self-doubts of themselves could be there although they never showed it whilst performing. Something that Yarwood was to know more about by the end of his career. The fragility which can dog a performer, all through that time. Though in performing during the Royal Variety Performance meant that Mike was in demand, the new up and coming talent who was now starting to move up the Showbiz Set. Just as his home life was settling down, 1969 was to start with a bump with his ATV contract not being renewed after three television shows for Lew Grade. The same reasons for Yarwood not taking a third series of Three of a Kind with the BBC, had come around again. It was seemed that the management thought that he was too big-headed, thought it might have seemed Mike's showbiz career had stalled at this time his agent kept him going and negotiated for him to do summer season in Bournemouth with Frankie Vaughan.

Around this time Mike had proposed to Sandra, but this was to have unwanted effects when working with Frankie Vaughan. During one of the summer season shows with Yarwood, he had a spotlight turn around and shine on Sandra announcing that Mike and her were going to get married much to Sandra's embarrassment though she was in the business herself, it showed that even if people were in show business that a moment when being caught off guard could be embarrassing even if the sentiment was meant to be caring. But in looking at Vaughan's performance, Mike learnt even more in how to work a crowd with the movements and the style he used in his act. The most valuable lesson that he learnt from Frankie was that if you wanted to be a star, you had to be a star all of the time and not just on stage.

Just at this time when everything was going right in Yarwood's own personal life with marriage to his fiancée Sandra and finding out they were going to have a baby together, the same could not be said for his career. Work was plentiful and he was still appearing on other performers own shows, it seemed that although still working, the actual direction he wanted his career to go in was going in a straight line. Though for this somewhat feeling that he had come as far as he could, in his work snobbery was coming through. Questioning his venue for summer season in Blackpool and also his place on the bill, when he should be higher up having made television appearances and top the bill at club one-nighters. In this impetuousness, his agent Dave Forrester kept his feet on the ground, trying to save Mike from rushing too far ahead of himself as almost a case of too much, too young. In his thinking, Forrester wanted the best for Mike and for him to have a lasting career.

Though the Summer of 1970 was to prove, a lucky period for Yarwood. After one performance, Yarwood stepped off the stage and went back to his dressing room to find the BBC's Bill Cotton Jnr. waiting there to meet him. As Yarwood explains

“ 'We'd like you to do a series, Mike' Cotton said after the polite preliminaries. Then, seeing my face, he added, 'Yes, its going to be your show, although you will have someone with you.'”

That offer of a show was to become Look – Mike Yarwood, which gave him full range to try out new material and new ways of performing it as well.

Mike was joining a family of entertainers at the BBC, who after many years were looking to regain viewers away from ITV's dominance of light entertainment programmes up to the late 60's. With Morecambe and Wise coming from ATV, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett from LWT and Bruce Forsyth being given the chance to present a new game show. It was Bill Cotton Jnr's foresight to be able to find performers, put them into the right shows with the best writers and also the best production teams. Yarwood was to be another cog in this smoothly run engine, as the television industry produced some of the most memorable programmes of this time.

But with the new series came other things, for the money Mike was making by doing the shows for the BBC, it seemed like the money he was earning was going out the door quicker then it was coming in. On occasions, this seemed harmless enough with the odd purchase or an item which he was determined to get whatever the cost. It was fine on the luxury items, but when it came to smaller almost trivial items, it seemed like it was almost like a compulsion to buy things, most things could be quantified but some things were almost strange even to Yarwood. In needing a dinner jacket for summer season, Mike purchased six because if Tom Jones always ordered six at a time, then it was good enough for him. In being a performer, it was important to look the part so high-quality ties were bought four at a time. These things may have been quantifiable in Yarwood's own mind, it did show that with money, came the responsibility to go with it.

The seventies were one of Yarwood's best periods as a performer meeting the great and the good and also topping the television ratings regularly with his shows, but off screen things were turning out differently. The first incident was a indication of those who do not have fame recent others with it, whilst appearing in summer season in Scarborough and at a low ebb missing his family when going through fan mail to pass the time away in-between performances. When being met with a piece of writing paper and unfolding it came a chilling message inside.

As Yarwood takes up the story himself,

“ 'We're going to get you, Yarwood' I read, 'and by the time we've finished with you, you'll be unrecognisable...' and so it went on, threatening to kill me and injure my family. It was signed 'The Angry Brigade'.”

Having read this, Yarwood thought this should be dealt as police matter as having believed this was a genuine threat to himself and his family. When Special Branch eventually looked at the letter, they dismissed it as a hoax. To put this into context, with terrorism on the mainland of Britain from both sides of divide to do with Northern Ireland's Troubles and threats sent to venues and warnings as well by various groups, it was a very high alert time for people. In his own thinking when it was suggested that the letter maybe from someone who was jealous of Mike's success with the undertone of the group claiming responsibility would not issue a warning as to what they were going to do. If it had the sole aim of scaring Yarwood, it had done.

With this Yarwood was ordered to take out of his schedule for rest and recuperation, with the theatre management understanding of the situation and giving him as much time as he needed to do so. But although in taking the time off, the doctor who was treating him gave him a remark when he had told him to rest. The thought was that Mike had started to drink too much, almost pushing 'The Angry Brigade' letter and this other remark to the back of his mind in quantifying that he was doing as much as anyone else would have been around that time. In the time earned, it was just that he should spend it relaxing in the BBC Club or in the pub. But Yarwood's drinking was to become a problem in his personal life though he did not let this show in his performances, delivering show after show for ATV, BBC and later on Thames Television. In doing this, the Dutch courage was used to cover up stage fright and allow him to go on perform, relaxing himself so he could do a good show as always. Though as the 1970's went along, even with this Mike was trying quantify this as he explained to Channel 4's 2001 documentary 'The Showbiz Set'.

“I would at least drink half a dozen stiff vodkas, just enough to get a buzz on, just enough to feel no pain. But the thing is you get to the theatre sluggish and you need a pick-me-up and I would have a couple of vodkas and tonics before a show.”

Just as he was becoming one of light entertainment's biggest stars and his home life was settled, the drinking was having an effect on him. The pressure of delivering a good performance time after time was seeming to take it toll, though this was to change on his personal life as he continues.

“It make me cringe just to think about it, the drinking became more important then anything else and I spent less and less time with the children because when I wasn't in the pub, I was at home sleeping it off. I missed my first daughter's, first birthday because I was too hungover, that's the saddest thing I can think of actually. It makes me very sad to think about it actually.”

By trying rationalise away the drinking, it seemed that it had its place in Yarwood's performing and personal life. Though when filmed for a Thames Television documentary in 1984 about himself and the making of one of his television specials. A seemingly throw away line is used between Yarwood and the late John Ammonds, his producer at both the BBC and Thames might have let on more then the public had thought at that time.

Mike Yarwood impersonating John Ammonds : “Have you been drinking lately?”

Ammonds to Yarwood: “Not recently...”

Though as John Ammonds explained in 2001 about working with Yarwood whilst he was drinking.

“He never got really plastered lying on the floor like that, but it did interfere with the concentration. I think he would agree now, it did interfere with his work and made him more worried then ever. In fact, when of course he thought drinking would have the effect of taking away the worries, but it never does.”

As this was going on Yarwood was still able to make some of the finest shows seen on British television with a rota of characters that everyone could recognise. Thanks to the political landscape, apart from a few changes that the party leaders of the Labour Party in the shape of Harold Wilson and later Jim Callaghan and on the Conservative benches Ted Heath, along with union leader Vic Feather led to them becoming stock characters besides with the big personalities who had big personalities them such as David Frost, Patrick Moore and Brian Clough linking back to his love of football.

With starting the 1970's with Look – Mike Yarwood and also a radio series Hear – Mike Yarwood as well, made one of most popular entertainers and one of the most highly paid ones as well. It seemed like success was breeding success with a special show at the Talk of the Town, London showcasing his live cabaret act for BBC2's 'Show of the Week' strand. By the mid-70's not only the political landscape was changing as well as his BBC show. At the start of 1976, he was awarded the OBE in that year's New Year's honours list by Harold Wilson showing that he even by doing an impression of him that even politicians could have a laugh at their own expense.

His political material was never hard hitting satire much like Rory Bremner's in later years to come, but it made for the politicians and union leaders who dominated the 70's, could have otherwise been anonymous to the public at large. It gave them another platform on which they were recognised on, even later on Rory Bremner and other non satirical impressions would admit that Yarwood was their biggest influence in starting to imitate people both famous and around them leading more of a periphery of impressionists from the mid-70's onwards and into the new decade.

In 1976 his show changed title to Mike Yarwood in Persons and became a more variety based show welcoming other guests on to perform but always with Yarwood showing his talent for signing at the end with the inevitable phrase 'And this is me...' Starting with two specials, one in May and other under the 'The Mike Yarwood Christmas Special' title in December to start the Mike Yarwood in Persons period when finally the first series of which was broadcast fortnightly between January and March 1977. Though the series its self had a who's who of big name light entertainment producers amongst them future BBC head of light entertainment Jim Moir, John Ammonds who worked with Morecambe and Wise during this period as well plus future big name Alan Boyd, the man who brought Blankety Blank to the screen as well when in the ITV system a number of shows for LWT including Game for a Laugh and later to work for Television South.

But coming into 1977 saw a new personality come to the fore which was to even to test Yarwood's material, the rise of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader taking over from Ted Heath in 1975. This caused some problems for Yarwood, as most of his impressions were men and very rarely he did dress up as female characters. But to be relevant to his ask he had to keep Thatcher in there with references to her, even trying to impersonate her. Though after a while it was clear that this was not going to work as a on-going thing. So how exactly to solve the problem? Well, Mike and the producers didn't have to look too far, on ITV in this same period was 'Who Do You Do?' and one of the pop female impressionists was Janet Brown who was a part of that show.

The producers of Mike's show decided they wanted Janet to come on board the show to impersonate Mrs Thatcher, so it was possible to Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher or Robin Day and Thatcher doing a double-headed sketch together thus expanded the range and also the way that sketches could be performed without the need for lengthy filming of Yarwood doing a whole range of impressions and have them superimposed in a sketch using a technique called colour separation overlay.

But the use of C.S.O. was always important to Mike to be able to have several of his impressions in the same place at the same time, as the technology got slowly better it allowed him to play around more with it. Though during filming these sketches, because for eye-line levels, it meant there would have to be someone standing where another character would be in the final piece and most times it would be one of the crew but when John Ammonds was producing the show himself, he would be the stand-in and helping to prompt Yarwood by mouthing the lines to him so he knew what to say and when in the sketch. These techniques may seem like a long drawn out process, but it allowed Mike to be cutting edge in something that hardly no other performers had done to that point.

Come the end of 1977, with the BBC's biggest night of the year on Christmas Day. The corporation had rolled out the red carpet for their biggest shows on that evening with a schedule unmatched ever since including Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game plus Morecambe and Wise with their Christmas Special. On that night Mike found himself in between the two shows but never the less in a key position of that night's schedule to keep the viewers with BBC One. With an excellent viewing figure on that night, little did he know that he was to become the BBC's big Christmas Night star next year.

With Morecambe and Wise leaving the BBC at the end of 1977, this meant that the prime position was up for grabs on Christmas Day night in 1978, with Bruce Forysth moved to LWT and placed on Christmas Eve, Morecambe and Wise had gone to Thames Television and ITV had scheduled them for their prime slot during the evening. But the BBC had either The Generation Game with Larry Grayson, The Two Ronnies or Mike Yarwood to go head to head against Eric and Ernie. So it came down to Mike to take on what would be seen as ITV's scheduling juggernaut. Added to this there had been industrial action by unions at the BBC just before Christmas and had seemed that the BBC might have had to offer only a limited Christmas Day service. Eventually when the two shows played out Mike was at 8pm and Eric and Ernie at 9pm on ITV, the outcome was surprising though in the least. Morecambe and Wise had grabbed a substantial audience themselves but when the final ratings had come out, Mike had beaten them. Justifying the BBC's faith in him that for 1979 and 1980 he was given a prime slot on Christmas Day and his own stand-alone series had grown. By 1981 though he had been shifted off the big day for a slot on Boxing Day, after what had happened with Morecambe and Wise in 1977 maybe the BBC did not want a repeat. So, subtly the show was moved to the day after Christmas already in the knowledge that he'd moved to Thames Television.

Once again in 1981, his act was changing to compensate that the fact Janet Brown was impersonating Margaret Thatcher on her own show, Yarwood moved into the mimicry of the Royal Family especially Prince Charles and after his Royal Wedding in 1981 to Lady Diana Spencer, he used the same trick as he had done with Janet Brown by getting Suzanne Danielle to play Princess Diana in the sketches and later on impersonating Prince Andrew to Kate Robbins' Sarah Ferguson. Though it did seem a few small changes to allow new impressions, that some of the impressions were getting dated in having Harold and Albert Steptoe in his act after their series had finished a number of years ago on the BBC. Plus also Harold Wilson who had been out of power for five years by that point, but with the election of President Ronald Regan in the United States allowed him to use the same gentle political humour as he had done for Wilson but also use Regan's old show business connections to have sketches including the like of Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr., all of which Regan had worked with during his Hollywood career.

Around this point, though still popular with the viewers and also having great material from such writers Barry Cryer, John Junkin, Eddie Braben, Colin Edmonds and with script advisor former Morecambe and Wise writer Dick Hills, the shows started to feel dated. Though this could be said to be an effect of the rise of Alternative Comedy and its style of more barbed political humour and faster paced-delivery as well. By the end of 1983, Mike had completed the first series of his Thames shows and was about to have a special broadcast over Christmas of that year. 1984 however was to bring something which totally changed the landscape of what he was doing when Spitting Image brought a new edge to impressions and in particularly political satire.

Though as the worry about his shows and his increasing stage fright lead to more drinking than ever, leading to him admitting he was an alcoholic. But just like the BBC and Thames had done for Eric Morecambe to reduce the worry and also strain of working by only doing specials once or twice a year, it gave more worry by doing less television shows. With the removal of the alcohol as his crutch in performing, it seemed to have a major effect on his performance, the worry and stage fright was seemingly getting too much for him. His final special was shown by in December 1987, by that time he was doing very little television apart from the odd appearance on other shows and also gala performances for various causes. Later on Mike appeared on Have I Got News for You as a guest, allowing him to perform but also be himself following on from this there was a plan to bring him back to television as a adviser to the public wanting to do impressions in a planned BBC show called 'Taking Off with Yarwood' but he politely refused to do it.

It came as no surprise when he finally gave up performing in 1994 for his own health and well being finally giving alcohol for good allowing himself time to spend with his children who had by then had their own children.

The legacy of Yarwood lives on with most impressionists who worked during the 80's and 90's stating that it was Mike's influence which got them started in impressionism in the first place by having seen him performing on the television and as he would at the end of every show 'And this is me....' and I hope these two articles have given you an impression of the man himself. 

"Sykes and A Life..." Eric Sykes, the man and his work...

In this age of comedy, with stand-ups, sketch shows and panel games. Its it refreshing to think back on a time when silence was golden, with the passing of Eric Sykes this year this seems like a perfect time to look back this breed of comedy film where the actions speak louder then words as well as the man himself.

Eric Sykes was born in Oldham, Lancashire in May 1923 but owing to complications from his birth, his mother died three weeks later. The second and younger of two children, Sykes had an older brother called Vernon and when his father remarried when he was only two years old, he gain a half-brother called John. Schooled in Oldham, Sykes joined the RAF in World War Two as a wireless operator and a rank of Leading Aircraftman. But the war was to have effect on what Sykes was going to do afterwards in peace time, whilst ensconced with a Special Liasion Unit, he met Flight Lieutenant Bill Fraser.

Afterwards Sykes came to London to try his luck, but arriving in the capital during the coldest winter in living memory at that time in 1946, renting lodging to stay in at the end of his first week in them, he was cold, hungry and penniless but a chance meeting with Bill Fraser who was performing comedy at the Playhouse Theatre himself, invited Sykes along to a performance and offered him food and drink, but he had invited Eric there to ask him if he would like to write material for Fraser. Sykes accepted the offer and before long he was scripting for both Bill Fraser and Frankie Howard as well. When he formed a writing partnership with Sid Colin, they worked on BBC's radio's Educating Archie Andrews featuring Archie Andrews and his ventriloquist friend Peter Brough, but working on the show lead Eric to meet fellow performer Hattie Jacques, who would share a vast majority of his career with her playing Sykes' long time identical twin sister in the television series bearing Sykes' own name.

The 1950's was to see Sykes to move to television with him writing episodes of series and also one-offs for performers, in 1954 he wrote the The Big Man which starred Fred Emney and Edwin Styles, also he made his first ever performance on film Orders Are Orders with Sid James, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Bill Fraser and Donald Pleasence as well. Eric shared an office with Spike Milligan at this time in Shepherd's Bush writing above a grocer’s shop, though later on Sykes and Milligan were to form Associated London Scripts which was a co-operative, not for profit writing agency, which was Eric's idea for writers to be in one place to do their writing. Sykes and Milligan were the first two writers to take space later with Tony Hancock, Johnny Speight, John Antrobus taking offices alongside with Dalek creator and Doctor Who writer Terry Nation plus with a friend of Alan Simpson, Beryl Vertue who eventually became the firm's business affair manager and agent being the in-house agent, by 1957 the co-operative had over thirty writers eventually moving to Baywater Road adjacent to Hyde Park. By 1967 impresario and producer Robert Stigwood brought a controlling interest in ALS, which Galton and Simpson agreed to but Sykes and Milligan did not. The reason that Galton and Simpson had agreed to it because at that time Stigwood was moving into film productions, so they sold their share to Stigwood but they sold their share in Orme Court where they were based to Eric and Spike, but Milligan sold his share to Sykes and meant that Sykes held onto the freehold until into the 21^st century. Meanwhile Beryl Vertue went with Stigwood becoming Stigwood's Deputy in the group and that lead her to becoming a leading independent producer and also still working with Eric as well.

Sykes' most famous film with Tommy Cooper was The Plank, this silent film with two of comedy's masters involving the titular plank itself, was filmed in 1967 by Associated London Films, written and directed by Eric Sykes following the journey of two workmen who require a floorboard for a house they are building. This may seem easy enough, go to the timber yard and by the plank so it can be measured and cut to size. But its the return journey which is fraught with incident as the plank itself causes a whole heap of trouble for people who come across it. The actual plank itself from the film sold for over one thousand pounds at auction in December 2011, showing its place in British comedy as one of most key props. But what about the cast of the film itself? Cooper and Sykes were the two main stars, the supporting cast reads like a who's who of comedy, light entertainment and even acting for the next twenty years after it was made. Jimmy Edwards of Take It From Here and Whack-O! fame plays a police constable who has to deal with all the chaos left behind by the plank, Edwards was later to take a role in the next Sykes silent film project in 1969's Rhubarb.

From the world of comedy and entertainment come first of all from the Carry On world Hattie Jacques, Jim Dale and also Roy Castle. Jim Dale fresh like Jacques from the Carry Ons was already a big household name from those films as well as his time presenting Six-Five Special, Thank Your Lucky Stars and also as compère of Sunday Night at the London Palladium as well. Roy Castle had already found fame for his own BBC show during the mid 1960's and was to join the Carry On team during the next year for Carry On Up the Khyber. Plus with the additions of Bill Oddie, Jimmy Tarbuck and Kenny Lynch to name but three others who appeared in The Plank.

The set pieces owe a lot to the vaudeville style and also the silent films of early Hollywood, though it could be said that it had a lot of influence on the young Sykes seeing these films not only on his comedy career and the music hall/vaudeville as well. So routines which could have been seen on the stage were transferred on the screen by the comedians of the age and reused in different ways. Though the slapstick style can been seen in the Goodies body of work with Jim Franklin later to be their producer using the style with their writing, so it is interesting that Bill Oddie appeared in The Plank and also the similar style is seen in the Goodies' series as well.

But the 1960's saw the launch of Sykes and A... written in collaboration with Johnny Speight, the original idea was to have Eric living with a wife but Sykes saw the opportunity to changing it so he would have a sister as a housemate and giving greater scope for the scripts being written and allow them to have romantically interlinked with other characters, see the dynamic change and where it would lead the script in that way.

1969 saw the Rhubarb starring once again Eric Sykes and Jimmy Edwards starring again along with Jacques, Harry Secombe as a vicar with Graham Stark and Gordon Rollings, remarkably to later on to both play in a slapstick scene in Superman III. The origin of rhubarb come from radio dramas and productions, where extras in a crowd scene or a party scene would mutter the word over and over again to make it sound like people talking. But The Goons would use the phrase to make to sound there was more people in a scene then Peter Seller, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe themselves though they would say it loudly and clearly with the occasional shout of “Custard!” to break the monotony of it. In Rhubarb, Eric Sykes as the Police Inspector and the Vicar played by Secombe play a round of golf, but the inspector uses one of his constables played by Jimmy Edwards to manipulate his ball from awkward lies but Secombe asks for devine intervention when it is needed to help his vicar character. Even all the signs, any of the number plates plus a baby holding a sign, they all had the word Rhubarb on them. Though

it is plausible that this project happened and included Harry Secombe in it, that Eric Sykes was friend and close collaborator of The Goons.

The actual silent comedy golden era in the 1920's and 1930's, which was prevalent before the age of 'talkies' made names of the stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to name three. Though the approach of producers such as Mack Sennett and Hal Roach, made sure that their stars were the ones who were making people laugh with 'sight gags', 'prat falls' and other types of slapstick. The timeless nature of the style has meant that even today, Shaun the Sheep can link itself back to these great days with it being a silent comedy relying on comedy and slapstick for its plots, Mr Bean is another one with no talking from its main character plus also some of Benny Hill's silent sketches as well. It is no wonder that the world of silent comedy exports around the world so well

and that film directors Blake Edwards and Mel Brooks revived the art of the silent comedy with The Great Race and Silent Movie respectively, the slapstick remains in the movies today, maybe in different forms and those forms have been pushed further but the idea remains.

In the 1972, the BBC had decided to revive Sykes and A... calling the new series Sykes again with Hattie Jacques, Eric himself, Richard Wattis and Derek Guyler as the irrepressible PC “Corky” Turnbull. But these episodes were re-working of scripts of the 1960's shows, forty-three episodes to be exact, a total of sixty-eight episodes were made between 1972 and 1979 including a reworking of the episode Sykes and a Stranger which had originally Leo McKern later played by Peter Seller in the 70s revival. The series ended in 1980 when the death of Hattie Jacques from a heart attack, made the series impossible to carry on.

Come the 1980's having remade The Plank for television again with Tommy Cooper in 1979, went back to remaking Rhubarb also for television in 1980 and with It's Your Move in 1982 a remake as well. The popularity of all the films being remade for television, showed that the art which was created and formed wholly, meant Sykes star was still shining brightly at this stage of his career with a further starring role in Mr H is Late in 1988, its safe to say that these films brought Eric Sykes to a whole new audience as well as comedians who appreciated his talent for writing and directing as well. Even in 1993 when writing and directing 'The Big Freeze' featuring Bob Hoskins and Spike Milligan in a tale of a father and son team of plumbers trying to their job in freezing temperatures at an old people's home in Finland.

Sykes did all that with being hard of hearing, so much that he had to wear specially designed glasses frames that fitted bone conducted hearing aids, that Eric could hear. Though his hearing had been going for a long time, after waking up from a second operation in 1954, he found himself hard of hearing plus his eyesight went over the years due to macular degeneration. But this was not a barrier to Sykes and his writing that he kept on doing it day after day and with Eric Sykes taking a voice-over part in the Tellytubbies. Come the new millennium, he was starring in a adaption of Meryvn Peake's Gormenghast which also had a part for Spike Milligan as well, though the were not on the screen together at any point but it was to mark the last time they would appear in anything together. But for the early part of the new century, it was film where Sykes' career would lay. In 2001, he starred alongside Nicole Kidman in supernatural thriller The Others as a servant and four years later he took the role as Frank Bryce in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. He fame spread with all ages with these film roles, plus with Sykes working with roles in Last of the Summer Wine and New Tricks in 2007 and an appearance in a Poirot story entitled Halloween Party.

For all his long career taking the great days of BBC Radio, television, the advent of Colour, through his films both written and directed plus others as well. His light maybe gone, but for all what Eric Sykes did, we will remember the man and the body of work he has left behind.

"Hello there Mrs S.." - Marshall, Renwick and End of Part One

So when was it that television started to take itself so seriously? I can understand with such difficult and serious subjects to contend with, that the news and current affairs departments have to be on high alert all the time. Though the rest of television has developed almost a hardened shell to itself,  but it wasn't always like this. 

Over the years there's been attempts at spoofing the way television is seen by itself, from Channel Eight trying to looking into the future with 90-year old Nicholas Parsons still presenting Sale of the Century, KYTV covering the satellite revolution and everything that brought to the screens. Plus there have been attempts such as The Kevin Bishop Show, who parodies seem to almost say "Wasn't all old TV bad? A-ha-ha-ha! I can do it because I'm popular..." and also strands of programming with Focus North, getting right down to the ground the view local news has of itself with reports and the presentation style.

Though truly the only show who got the art of spoofing just right was Andrew Marshall and David Renwick's End of Part One, the whole two series just released on two DVD's by Network. This has brought to an end a very long journey for this series to be seen once again outside of just clips or footage on the internet. The style of the two series are very different, but even in the first series broadcast made in 1978 and broadcast in April 1979, the defining features of what the programme would be remember for were there, such as the spoofing sketches and mock continuity announcements. 

"I'm just going down to the Taj Mah.. Oh, its here!"

The world of television was played though the prism of Vera and Norman Straightman who live on Funnyname Street, with all different odd characters invading their lives and also the television they watch themselves. The premise even in the opening titles is to be a parody of Coronation Street, the interlinking stories of both characters, the titles featuring rows and rows of Northern terrace housing and also Corrie-esque theme tune. This itself has a feeling of the influence from Monty Python like their sketches taking place in houses, such with the cast playing supporting parts of people who surround the Straightman's lives i.e. people they meet along the way rather then characterised of anyone in particular. 

The intertwining storylines provided by the day to day lives of the Straightman's allow the sketches to played off such as Norman going for a job as a spider, the Straightman's having a new lodger who's a parody of Superman even speaking in cartoon-esque speech bubbles when first having a conversation with Vera. But with Vera and Norman going to the cinema allows the show to widen itself up with them getting the cheapest seats to see 'Christopher Columbus - A Film by Samuel Goldwyn' and with the tickets being so cheap that they are on the film itself! Allowing them to be surrounded by the action, with the actual cast of the spoof film oblivious they are there and the patrons with the cheapest priced seats having to follow the actors wherever they go to.

"Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird, is it a plane? No its Cheapo Cartoon Man!"

The spoofs of the programmes are thing which makes the first series stand out, with World of Sport given a good ribbing and also Raleigh Gilbert who read out the racing results on the programme was given special treatment by the writers over his annoying voice when reading the results. Also The Return of The Doughnut, a spoof on the returning Saint series with Ian Ogilvy who has gets plenty of jokes at his expense as well as well a spot on parody of Weekend World although a LWT production, jokes made at its expense such as it having only about two viewers in the slot it was broadcast in at that time. Though all of these programmes were all produced by LWT and they were the biggest targets for the show, but the management didn't have a problem at their best efforts being ribbed on regular occasions by the show's writers.

But the first series was broadcast before the 1979 ITV Strike which started in August of that year, which partly may have been the reason why there wasn't another series broadcast until October 1980 and would have been made earlier that year. Such as the backlog created by the stopping of production, that all new production would have been halted to allow what was still to be done to be cleared first. So any new series or returning series would have have waited at least till Spring 1980 to be filmed, but this had a unique effect on the series. By this time Marshall and Renwick had gone to work on BBC 2's brand new sketch show 'Not the Nine O'Clock News' using this to keep their writing hands in whilst End of Part One was off the air. With them writing for Not the Nine with its more topical humour, meant they could change End of  Part One to more a satirical type of show and also expanding the spoofing to be more elaborate and more cutting against its targets.

Though with the first series being more lighter and being shown mainly in a Sunday Afternoon slot, led the schedulers at LWT and also Michael Grade thinking this was the right slot for the show as it appealed more to older children and they made sure that the schedulers got the message in episode five  where they included a sketch called 'Kiddies Time' with a very twee style and what they thought Children's Television was like similar to Monty Python's 'Storytime' sketch which itself turned that the story being read out by Eric Idle was smutty and couldn't be read out at all. Even putting on the screen in captions what they though of this and alluding to a 'Unexpected Nasty Bit' which is going interrupt the sketch going on, building up to it with a spoof warning and countdown until its stated that they've lost it. Well, until the end of the episode a final quickie sketch to state an vinyl album of the show is out for release now, featuring the nasty bit as its cover... A man being beheaded by an axe, rather violently.. 

End of Part One was seen as a television follow on from Radio 4's 'The Burkiss Way' featuring almost as silly pythonesque humour, which itself had started on Radio 3 as the 'Half-Open University' as a pilot in August 1975 with the 'The Burkiss Way' starting broadcasting in 1976. Not only does the writers link this with End of Part One but also Fred Harris and Denise Coffey who was in the first series only as well as the producer of the first series Simon Brett who produced the first series of End of Part One. The style of the show having its credits in the middle of the show, sketches stopping halfway through and restarting later plus straight spoofs of programmes and continuity as well. All of these devices were used in End of Part One taken from 'The Burkiss Way'. So the links are there between the two shows, with even The Burkiss Way's final series finishing on Radio 4 on the 15th of November, the week before End of Part One finished on ITV on the 23rd of November. 

The cast itself with Harris and Coffey who had been in The Burkiss Way were joined on End of Part One by a pre-Only Fools and Horses Sue Holderness, actor Tony Aitken who had previously been seen in Porridge, David Simeon who had been in Z-Cars, Fawlty Towers and The Liver Birds amongst his credits and finally Dudley Stevens mainly a stage actor and also had done some music hall but previously had been in Crossroads as an upper-class landowner during the mid-seventies. All of them with comedic experience but with the ability to play character roles and this is what makes the series better for it as well. But the targets as such, were the programmes the viewers had seen also with the noticeable things as well that went on during their broadcast such as Nationwide or Mr and Mrs being spoofed as so sweet that its not safe for diabetics and the presenting style of Derek Batey, maybe barbed but always right in how its done and any average viewer could recognise the obvious things though its the hidden things which make the programme even better.

So finally there is a record of this show after many years being recognised with Harris, Coffey, Holderness, Aitken and Simeon still alive, presenting and performing but also as a tribute to Dudley Stevens who died in 1993. Finally at the end of the series Norman and Vera reappear poisioning the characters in the last spoof, hopefully thinking they'll be the stars of the programme now the rest of the cast are dead. Only for the LWT end caption to appear to snub that thought out straight away. 

It may not be in the top level of great shows and Marshall & Renwick may have written shows which have been better recognised both together and alone. If they hadn't have had End of Part One, then there wouldn't be no Whoops Apocalypse or Hot Metal, no family with 2 point Four Children or no Victor Meldrew saying "I don't believe it!" plus the magic and mystery of Jonathan Creek. Whatever they have both done since, they both have to thank Vera and Norman Straightman of Funnyname street hopefully with a bunch of Roses Chocolates... 

  

Funny Fortnight - All the world's a stage and all the players are Norbert Smith...

What does make something believable or more to the point, how can something be made to be believable? Since Bad News arrived on the small screen in 1983 and later Eddie Monsoon, both from The Comic Strip, the presidence of the mocumentry in the modern era was born. Either by aping or spoofing something to make it look real. Where as Bad News and Eddie Monsoon may have been more knock about with the later even mocking up clips, the first real mocumentry to go into such detail on British television was Harry Enfield's Norbert Smith - A Life. 

Part of Channel 4's Funny Fortnight, this reshowing of Enfield's first mockumentry with later on coming the sublime Smashy and Nicey - The End of an Era for the BBC and finally, the not so on form Norman Ormal - Political Turtle. In itself, this was different from everything else as the fiction could be better then reality itself. 
First of all, to make the programme real the presence of Melvin Bragg helps with the supposed reality as anyone not tuning in from the start would thing this was a repeat of The South Bank Show. The style is meant to be like that to blur the lines, used once again in The Cricklewood Greats nearly twenty five years later. 

From the opening lines, the whole programme is put at an angle with Smith proclaming that his home used to be a country house but he had it converted to a vicarage two years ago. But in which also Bragg's commentary pulls the viewer onto the joke, being able to talk about the important facts of the story with the comedy added into it but said at the same rhythm as he would a normal South Bank Show film commentary would be at. Meaning the the viewers have to listen to what he is saying and that the verbal jokes can help the flow of Norbert Smith's life along at a measured pace.

The simplicity comes when the simplest jokes are got out of the way i.e. his mother being a woman and his father being a man. Simple, maybe almost corny, but this settles a pattern for the mockumentry. Where as the interview sections are scattered with jokes about what the British film industry was like allowing people to link something said comically to an actual event, the strength of the programme comes from the recreation of the films and adverts that Smith had been in throughout his long and varied career. 

Now it's easy just to be able to do a spoof of something and say that it is an accurate portrayal what something was like. But what makes something stand out is the minute detailing of a spoof, such as the way its filmed, the clothes being worn or even the surroundings its being filmed in. Enfield's spoof of Will Hay films, allows the verbal dexterity to be shown. What maybe seen as easy takes planning to remember the right line put in at the right time. Capturing the monologues between the characters as they go, the sense that the audience are almost akin to a three-way tennis match with the characters hitting the balls to each other and replying back in kind.

But the supporting cast with the likes of Josie Lawerence and Felicity Montegau, means that Enfield can make the scenes bigger then it but without it getting too large at all. When something like a lavish dance number is needed, its done with the style demanded of Busby Berkley and when gritty northern realism is portrayed, something is played which is like those films. The supporting characters maybe be on the small screen, but they are played to look like if they could be on a bigger medium, exaggerated maybe but just big enough not to seem over the top.

As the years go on, the movies seem to turn out more terrible but the jokes also get more barbed but even more funny reaching his film 'Dogs of War' typical of those war films made in the 1960's and 1970's. With movies moving towards the more action angle, setting up to seemingly to go towards the films concentrating the Nuclear threat in the early edge such as Who Dares Wins, Defence of the Realm etc. But taking a sidetrack with the spoof of a 'Carry On..' film with Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas and Kenneth Connor. This tops off the whole mockumentry, by almost reflecting the British film industry from its early days right up until Norbert Smith was made. Its a reflection of what happened but painted in finer detail, there maybe bigger swathes of colour during the programme but its the hidden jokes which keep you wanting to return to watch again and again. 

Enfield went on to do more of this in Smashy and Nicey - End of an Era and Norman Ormal - Political Turtle, but in the past ten years only The Cricklewood Greats has come even close to matching Harry Enfield's work. These mockumentries should be loved for the joyous way they can portray a whole period of time but still make it seem real enough, even though none of it happened. That in itself maybe the mark of a good set of comedians, writers such as Geoffrey Perkins who also wrote for Norbert Smith. Meaning something filmed twenty five years ago can seem as fresh as something just made yesterday.

Funny Fortnight - 1997 and all that..

Last time I look at the what Channel 4 was doing for their Funny Fortnight, by repeating shows from their archives. As I said I was too young for some of these programmes such as Chelmsford 123 and Vic Reeves' Big Night Out.

Now my comedy had come from the BBC2 anti-news slot having seen things like Naked Video, KYTV, the repeats of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and also The Smell of Reeves and Mortimore. This is where I got my Vic and Bob training and by 1997, now 18, I was looking to expand my comedy horizons and go for a journey of discovery by myself. Armed with a car boot VHS, I was able to record comedy for the first time and analysis it. Yes, I was enjoying the sillyness of Shooting Stars on BBC2, but I was looking towards Channel 4 for something different and that came in the shape of Father Ted.

This was religion being pricked of its pomposity, but developing a silly sense of humour. The storylines in themselves seem almost ludicrous such as Father Dougal Maguire becoming a milkman. The lines which were delivered were honed to get the best out of them and to ramp them to a level of surrealness which added to the manic mixtures of this family which weren't actually family. By using that concete, it allowed the characters to form in their own ways. They mayhave had their individual characteristics but when they came together like any sitcom group, it allowed for them to bounce off each other. 

Maybe, I was silly to think that Father Jack saying 'Feck, Arse, Drink and Girls' was the be all and end all. The show grew on me, as the situations got sillier and the humour getting more and more like The Simpsons each week. But it put into my mind the seeds of sillyness and thinking that it need not be just like 'Whoops vicar, there goes my trousers!' But it was something new in my life, but then came some which rocked my world forever.

At that time daytime television was staid and boring, there wasn't anything different to shake it up at that point, then came along two ladies who were like the fun to the plainess of Pebble Mill. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins were like a shot in the arm to me at this time. 

Yes, to the 18 yr old me Mel and Sue were something from another planet, with their own language and way of performing and presenting took me aback. This was must see viewing, it was almost comedy/light entertainment/cooking had been involved in a love triangle and this was the result of it.  The food and cooking was a part of it, but it was the daily interviews with the guests, though more the comedy which made the programme. Having been part of the Footlights, Giedroyc and Perkins had treaded a well worn path by those before them and since by going to the Edinburgh Fringe to perform and also apart from that they had written for French and Saunders as well.

It was another step on the road to surrealism, but it seemed that Mel and Sue could not make the break though that French and Saunders had previously done. Wheither thst was down French and Saunders strong position as the leading female even double act of that time. Even after doing a quizshow for ITV in 1999, they seemed to merge into the background of comedy. Though seperatly they did seem to find their own niches with Perkins branching out on her own both presenting and performing and with Giedroyc becoming an author reflecting her experiences of her own pregnancy and giving birth, still acting and laterly becoming a presenter for radio.

It is surprising to think that the incoming Chief Executive of Channel 4 at that time was current outgoing BBC Director General Mark Thompson. He had taken on the role vacated by Michael Jackson who had moved to America to head up the USA Network. Though Thompson had be important in knowing that comedy was a key part of a channel when being controller at BBC2. Though it was Thompson later noted for the broadcast of Jerry Springer - The Opera, he allowed Chris Morris to make a Brass Eye special reflecting the knee jerk reaction by the media of the subject of paedophiles, it is important to remember this was the time of the now defunct News of the World's Name and Shame campaign to find paedophiles which lead to attacks on innocent people and the cause of riots. But by this one programme allowed Channel 4 to show that they still could be ground breaking still nearly twenty years after its launch, the furore may have been seen as big around that time. It was needed to reflect the furore that the press had caused itself, with this doing the job, it could be said that the reaction was justified to reveal the truth about the events many years later through the Leveson inquiry.

For all the surreal and strange comedy that Channel 4 has done, it has allowed Mark Thomas to bring his brand of humour to the screens but with it bring serious points for people to reflect on. His comedy was there to make people think about what was going on the world around them, though this allowed an off-shoot of this by him looking at a the places that the public weren't meant to know about such as places of significance to do with the Cold War and also places which were still on meant to be seen. 

This type of thinking marked Channel 4 out as wanting to try something new, but by the 21st century something new was coming, wheither for the good or the bad but it would change the humour of this country. As along came The 11 O'Clock Show launching both Iain Lee and Daisy Donovan on the nation's screen but also from this came Ricky Gervais and Sasha Baron Cohen as well, it took the idea of look at the day's news and showing it in a comical angle.

As such as Gervais and Baron Cohen much like Channel 4's comedy output comedy from 2000 onwards, it can be very much like Marmite. To be honest I have dipped in and out of it, but maybe with a new comes new shows and new comedians. Eventually shows like Peep Show will finish and be replaced, but with the Robert Popper written Friday Night Dinners for example it has got a ready made replacement. But in which way it goes, who knows...