1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:02,800 It's no good that this isn't enough room to reverse here. 2 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:05,000 Hurry up, Garth. Here comes a. 3 00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:07,280 Policeman. It's all right, Robin. 4 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:18,400 We're not doing anything. Abracadabra on the other side. 5 00:00:18,760 --> 00:00:20,320 Abracadabra. What? 6 00:00:29,990 --> 00:00:36,430 She's a bit cold this morning. 20 years at the police station 7 00:00:36,430 --> 00:00:38,990 have laughed to me to carry the blanket, but I knew one day it 8 00:00:38,990 --> 00:00:41,510 would come useful. Abra bloody Cadasbra having 9 00:00:41,550 --> 00:00:43,710 useful having useful twice this week. 10 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:57,000 Oh, is that living? Meantime, Back to sketch. 11 00:00:58,480 --> 00:01:43,620 Abraca bloody Debra. Hello and welcome to Goomod. 12 00:01:44,310 --> 00:01:47,750 In the words of the great man, what are we going to do now? 13 00:01:48,550 --> 00:01:52,390 Well, 1st, I'm going to introduce my guest this week. 14 00:01:53,110 --> 00:01:56,430 Returning as part of his community service is Adam 15 00:01:56,430 --> 00:01:57,830 Leslie. Hello. 16 00:01:58,670 --> 00:02:01,710 As I regularly said, you are almost like the beating heart of 17 00:02:01,710 --> 00:02:04,790 this podcast. You are the man who both 18 00:02:04,790 --> 00:02:08,990 designed the wonderful Goon Pod logo and of course, composed the 19 00:02:08,990 --> 00:02:12,260 theme tune. I mean, I think beating heart 20 00:02:12,260 --> 00:02:13,700 might be a bit, might be a bit strong. 21 00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:15,620 I think that's you. That'll be true. 22 00:02:16,220 --> 00:02:17,580 True you. You are the what? 23 00:02:17,980 --> 00:02:19,380 I'm not having the coat of the pod. 24 00:02:20,220 --> 00:02:25,180 Yeah, Adam, Adam, you have shirt, your responsibilities as 25 00:02:25,180 --> 00:02:28,580 a podcaster. There's been no new retro tube 26 00:02:28,580 --> 00:02:32,860 for at least years. At least since March, I think, 27 00:02:32,860 --> 00:02:34,620 was the last one. Was it OK? 28 00:02:35,140 --> 00:02:35,940 OK. Yeah. 29 00:02:36,460 --> 00:02:38,500 What you been doing? I've been busy. 30 00:02:38,500 --> 00:02:42,640 I've been busy writing I've. Had the workload of a full time 31 00:02:42,640 --> 00:02:45,160 writer while still working part time at a bookshop. 32 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:52,200 Heather's moved to back to Liverpool as she belongs, so 33 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,960 we've both been a bit all over the place, but hopefully 34 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,120 sometime soon we are actually going to get back to it and 35 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,000 we're planning to do give us a clue next. 36 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,960 The last one we did was moon dial, so we like to keep it nice 37 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:07,510 and consistent. Are you gonna do, Are you gonna 38 00:03:07,510 --> 00:03:09,710 do give us a clue In the style of give us a clue. 39 00:03:09,990 --> 00:03:12,550 We should that. Would be good for a podcast. 40 00:03:15,470 --> 00:03:18,870 Yes, it's. I don't give away too much, but 41 00:03:18,870 --> 00:03:22,030 it's very barrel Reed heavy. The episodes we happen to have 42 00:03:22,030 --> 00:03:29,310 picked, Not somebody I think about very often, but there she 43 00:03:29,310 --> 00:03:30,750 is, lots and lots of barrel Reed. 44 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,560 A little bit of Beryl Reed goes a long way in my book, but she's 45 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:40,280 always. Yeah, has Beryl Reed ever 46 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:42,600 cropped up in a goon related situation? 47 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:49,720 Yes, she was in two way stretch. She was being felt up by one of 48 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:51,440 the prisoners in two way Stretch. 49 00:03:52,230 --> 00:03:54,990 That's not an image I want. No, no, she was. 50 00:03:55,430 --> 00:03:57,750 She was famously in, well, famously not really. 51 00:03:57,950 --> 00:04:01,550 She was in the Inspector Clouseau film with Alan, the 52 00:04:01,550 --> 00:04:04,790 recently late departed Alan Arkut. 53 00:04:05,270 --> 00:04:09,150 God rest his soul, she was trying to get a leg over Alan 54 00:04:09,150 --> 00:04:12,150 Arkut and Inspector Clouseau, which is obviously goon 55 00:04:12,630 --> 00:04:17,790 adjacent, I suppose. So Adam, today you and I have 56 00:04:17,790 --> 00:04:23,790 come together to talk about. A television series which was 57 00:04:23,790 --> 00:04:29,510 very influential, very influential, and is dear to many 58 00:04:29,510 --> 00:04:32,030 people's hearts that listen to this podcast. 59 00:04:32,390 --> 00:04:38,190 It's Spike Milligan's Q series. Now I've watched all of all of Q 60 00:04:38,190 --> 00:04:41,390 that survives and it mostly all, almost all of it survives. 61 00:04:41,390 --> 00:04:43,430 There's a There's what I think there's four episodes missing 62 00:04:43,430 --> 00:04:48,510 from from the first series, Q5. But I haven't watched it all 63 00:04:48,510 --> 00:04:51,510 recently and I felt it was, it was a bit too much to ask, you 64 00:04:51,510 --> 00:04:58,150 know, you and me to cancel our week and and and watch all of it 65 00:04:58,870 --> 00:05:01,390 because it's, you know, it's funny, but it's variable, quite 66 00:05:01,390 --> 00:05:04,870 variable. So we decided to choose a random 67 00:05:04,870 --> 00:05:08,830 episode from each series. So we watched what did we watch? 68 00:05:08,830 --> 00:05:13,230 Episode 4 from Q5, Episode 3 from Q6. 69 00:05:13,710 --> 00:05:17,190 Episode one from Q7, Episode 6 from Q8. 70 00:05:17,670 --> 00:05:20,830 And episode 4 from Q9. Yes, you made me watch five 71 00:05:20,830 --> 00:05:22,790 episodes if I done something to upset you. 72 00:05:24,830 --> 00:05:27,790 Well, well, I actually found it quite pleasurable. 73 00:05:27,950 --> 00:05:32,470 Yeah, it was actually. Now the unofficial Q10 which 74 00:05:32,470 --> 00:05:34,590 which went out is there's a lot of it about. 75 00:05:35,190 --> 00:05:38,150 We didn't watch any of that because that's pretty rubbish. 76 00:05:38,670 --> 00:05:42,030 And also David, David Renwick and I talked about it a bit when 77 00:05:42,030 --> 00:05:44,550 I interviewed him in February. So if you're interested, go back 78 00:05:44,550 --> 00:05:48,540 and listen to that. But yeah, so we're going to talk 79 00:05:48,540 --> 00:05:51,540 about Q. So Adam, but how aware were you 80 00:05:51,540 --> 00:05:56,100 of Q before this I? Was certainly very aware, but I 81 00:05:56,100 --> 00:05:59,540 haven't seen any other than I think the best of Q or some 82 00:06:00,020 --> 00:06:02,140 possibly. There's a lot of it about I had. 83 00:06:02,140 --> 00:06:06,980 I have a memory of the compilation show maybe in the 84 00:06:06,980 --> 00:06:08,940 90s when I was really heavily into the Goons. 85 00:06:09,540 --> 00:06:13,620 So a lot of these sketches seem quite familiar, like the the 86 00:06:13,620 --> 00:06:15,980 Anthropological Caucanese one and the. 87 00:06:16,630 --> 00:06:21,350 Do people still stand up for the national anthem one the book at 88 00:06:21,350 --> 00:06:23,790 bedtime with the bad dandruff? So a lot of those did seem 89 00:06:23,790 --> 00:06:27,830 really familiar. So it was nice to see around the 90 00:06:27,830 --> 00:06:30,790 edges a bit and see some of the other things that don't make the 91 00:06:30,790 --> 00:06:34,870 best of and don't until we shown on clip shows and those kinds of 92 00:06:34,870 --> 00:06:38,110 things because it's because we were originally going to do the 93 00:06:38,110 --> 00:06:42,270 best of Q. Because we both we both in our 94 00:06:42,270 --> 00:06:45,150 youth love that video. I certainly did. 95 00:06:45,610 --> 00:06:50,570 Even though watching those sketches now, some of them are, 96 00:06:51,170 --> 00:06:54,290 you know, they make your socks roll up and down, your legs 97 00:06:54,290 --> 00:06:58,050 don't. They But it was actually, it was 98 00:06:58,050 --> 00:07:00,530 actually me, sucker for punishment, who requested we do 99 00:07:00,530 --> 00:07:03,490 some actual episodes. Mainly because I'd listened to 100 00:07:03,850 --> 00:07:06,570 an episode of the excellent Comfort Blanket podcasts where 101 00:07:06,570 --> 00:07:10,930 they're talking about Monty Python being very vociferous 102 00:07:10,930 --> 00:07:12,970 about the fact that you can't watch the best of Monty Python, 103 00:07:12,970 --> 00:07:16,300 you have to experience it. As it was intended, highs and 104 00:07:16,300 --> 00:07:18,940 lows equally, and I kind of thought maybe we should. 105 00:07:19,620 --> 00:07:22,580 Maybe that's sort of the interesting part is not just the 106 00:07:22,580 --> 00:07:28,660 memorable ones everyone remembers, but the I don't say 107 00:07:28,660 --> 00:07:31,140 chaff. That sounds awfully rude, but 108 00:07:31,140 --> 00:07:36,260 the less broadcastable bits as well the bits you wouldn't show 109 00:07:36,260 --> 00:07:40,380 on TV these days, bits that don't work quite as well I think 110 00:07:40,380 --> 00:07:43,460 give more of an overall feel and flavor and impression of the. 111 00:07:44,670 --> 00:07:46,510 Of the show. Yeah. 112 00:07:46,510 --> 00:07:53,190 So knowing how repetitive Q could be, I suppose, and and 113 00:07:53,190 --> 00:07:56,910 recognizing the tropes and subject areas that Spike like to 114 00:07:56,910 --> 00:08:01,990 mind for comedy, I decided that today we would look at the A-Z 115 00:08:02,110 --> 00:08:05,550 of Q. That's that's snappy, isn't it? 116 00:08:05,750 --> 00:08:08,750 Yeah, Drawing on the shows that we watched, and although they 117 00:08:08,750 --> 00:08:12,150 were randomly chosen, I think that the the five episodes 118 00:08:12,390 --> 00:08:17,660 provide a pretty rich seam of. Representative examples of the 119 00:08:17,820 --> 00:08:19,820 essence of Q. If you like, definitely. 120 00:08:20,020 --> 00:08:22,260 OK. Before we get into that, I just 121 00:08:22,260 --> 00:08:25,340 want to give a quick sort of bit of background to the series. 122 00:08:25,340 --> 00:08:29,100 Have you, have you done any sort of research into the the, the, 123 00:08:29,180 --> 00:08:31,940 the, the, the sort of the early stirrings of Q5? 124 00:08:33,620 --> 00:08:37,179 Not really. I did do research in so much as 125 00:08:37,179 --> 00:08:39,380 I had to look at who Neil Shand was. 126 00:08:40,500 --> 00:08:42,820 OK, we'll come to him. But other than that. 127 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:47,240 Yeah, no, not really, actually, because I'm a really good value 128 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:48,360 guest. Yeah. 129 00:08:48,400 --> 00:08:50,480 Well, you just pin your ears back and I'll, I'll do some 130 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,520 chat. So Q5 began in, in March 1969 on 131 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,840 BBC2. Now why was it called Q5? 132 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:03,080 There's a lot of speculation. We actually discussed this 133 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:09,920 recently on Goon Pod. Yeah, it could be any number of 134 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,360 reasons. It could be to do with the QE2. 135 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:17,960 It could be to do with BBC technical and internal technical 136 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:21,480 jargon for program recording quality. 137 00:09:21,560 --> 00:09:23,960 Believe it or not there's there's there's lots of 138 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:27,720 different possibilities. So I would direct curious 139 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:31,640 listeners to the Sunstruck episode if they want to hear 140 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:33,840 more about that. But anyway, it was called Q5. 141 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:38,400 And yeah, as you say, you mentioned Neil Shand, Neil Shand 142 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:46,130 and Spike wrote the. First series Q5 and we we know 143 00:09:46,130 --> 00:09:48,850 that Spike inspired the Monty Python LEDs. 144 00:09:49,410 --> 00:09:53,930 But he he possibly was also quite an inspiration to another 145 00:09:53,930 --> 00:10:00,570 comic genius sort of later on Douglas Adams, because Spike was 146 00:10:00,570 --> 00:10:04,530 sort of dragging his feet and he wasn't really looking to meet 147 00:10:04,530 --> 00:10:09,330 any deadlines when it came to delivering the scripts for Q5 148 00:10:09,570 --> 00:10:12,940 and. BBC head of comedy Michael Mills 149 00:10:13,300 --> 00:10:17,220 was starting to panic by late 1968 because they were ready to 150 00:10:17,220 --> 00:10:19,540 film and they just didn't have the scripts. 151 00:10:19,540 --> 00:10:22,980 So he wrote a letter to Spike and he he explained quite 152 00:10:22,980 --> 00:10:25,340 tactfully that they'd got together, you know, quite a 153 00:10:25,340 --> 00:10:29,180 group of technical people and like a special props man and a 154 00:10:29,180 --> 00:10:33,900 special sound effects man. And the producer Ian McNaughton, 155 00:10:35,100 --> 00:10:38,540 had told Mills that there that that there are a lot of original 156 00:10:38,540 --> 00:10:41,190 and exciting ideas. Brewing And he basically 157 00:10:41,190 --> 00:10:43,310 finished the letter by saying, come on lad, pull your finger 158 00:10:43,310 --> 00:10:47,390 out, Okay, Which we know that Spike was not one for being 159 00:10:47,470 --> 00:10:50,950 pushed into anything, particularly by the BBC, so I'm 160 00:10:50,950 --> 00:10:52,350 not sure how well that was received. 161 00:10:52,710 --> 00:10:58,110 And as I alluded to before, of the seven shows for Q5, only 162 00:10:58,150 --> 00:11:03,710 only three survive. And in that series, you had John 163 00:11:03,710 --> 00:11:08,950 Wells, you had John Bluthal, who went on to become a regular for 164 00:11:08,950 --> 00:11:12,420 the Q series. Fanny, Carby and Allen Claire 165 00:11:12,620 --> 00:11:15,900 and others. I mean, you had special guests. 166 00:11:15,900 --> 00:11:21,060 That, I mean, quite bizarrely. You had Richard Ingrams, who was 167 00:11:21,060 --> 00:11:27,460 the editor of Private Eye. There was a guest appearance by 168 00:11:27,460 --> 00:11:32,140 Eric Sykes, Clement Freud, Irene Handel, Bernard Myles. 169 00:11:32,860 --> 00:11:35,180 Clement Freud, So there's a couple of very dodgy people in 170 00:11:35,300 --> 00:11:38,840 this first series, then. Yeah, yeah, we, yeah, we don't 171 00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,440 talk about Clement Fried, do we? Now all the other all the other 172 00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:45,800 young man with the long hair. Who? 173 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,560 Chris Langham. Oh yeah, but he wasn't in Q5. 174 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:51,120 As you know, I thought he was in Q5. 175 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:54,000 Is he in Q6? They do blur into one. 176 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:57,880 Yeah, I think he's Q6 onwards. He's in Q6, yes, I think he's in 177 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,480 Q6. We will. 178 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:05,080 We'll come to him now in Q5. There was a sketch. 179 00:12:06,300 --> 00:12:10,780 Which was the annual grandmother hurling finals held at Beachy 180 00:12:10,780 --> 00:12:13,900 Head. And the studio audience who were 181 00:12:13,900 --> 00:12:16,660 watching it on film were less than enthusiastic. 182 00:12:16,660 --> 00:12:22,700 And this really irked Milligan, who who called them boring and 183 00:12:22,700 --> 00:12:25,580 he so much so he wrote a letter to The Sunday Times. 184 00:12:27,620 --> 00:12:29,900 He wrote an angry letter saying it's a pity the public doesn't 185 00:12:29,900 --> 00:12:33,140 know the tremendous difficulties that are incurred with the show 186 00:12:33,140 --> 00:12:36,110 of the nature of Q5. Which depends on high speed 187 00:12:36,110 --> 00:12:39,350 cutting, quick cutaways and various depths and sound. 188 00:12:39,830 --> 00:12:42,270 All of which doesn't come off in the time given by the BBC to 189 00:12:42,270 --> 00:12:43,790 rehearse and complete such a show. 190 00:12:44,790 --> 00:12:47,630 Everybody knows it's always a great idea to berate your own 191 00:12:47,630 --> 00:12:48,630 audience. Oh yeah. 192 00:12:48,990 --> 00:12:53,830 That never goes wrong. No, that's that's really, you 193 00:12:53,830 --> 00:12:58,030 know the the the beginning of of the Q series. 194 00:12:58,030 --> 00:13:01,390 And what I want to do as I say is is I want to run through the 195 00:13:01,390 --> 00:13:06,540 show A-Z. Leaning heavily on the five 196 00:13:06,540 --> 00:13:11,100 shows that Adam and I watched, but also where appropriate, you 197 00:13:11,100 --> 00:13:15,340 know, I might throw in the odd little example from other shows 198 00:13:15,340 --> 00:13:17,460 within the series. Okay. 199 00:13:18,260 --> 00:13:21,260 So shall we begin? Yes. 200 00:13:22,020 --> 00:13:27,260 So A is for appliances. Right. 201 00:13:27,820 --> 00:13:30,420 Okay. Flips through notes. 202 00:13:32,300 --> 00:13:35,240 Okay. Appliances is a favorite 203 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:40,280 euphemistic term used by Spike to indicate sex toys and the 204 00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:45,120 like, and he often referred to appliances in queue and also in 205 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:49,120 a lot of his work, Not the Goon show but later work. 206 00:13:49,960 --> 00:13:52,720 So I felt it necessary for inclusion here. 207 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:56,680 Although he only makes reference to appliances once, in the, 208 00:13:56,680 --> 00:13:58,920 these shows that we watched it was in the. 209 00:14:00,030 --> 00:14:02,750 The Q8 sketch with Michael Parkinson where he visits the 210 00:14:02,750 --> 00:14:05,750 Grenada Guards Soldier Rama Massage and Sauna Club. 211 00:14:06,350 --> 00:14:10,390 Yes. And at one point, Spike refers 212 00:14:10,390 --> 00:14:14,270 to appliances with a sort of a cheeky wink. 213 00:14:14,470 --> 00:14:16,270 That rings a bell. Now you mention it, yes. 214 00:14:16,430 --> 00:14:21,710 Yes, B is for Bluthal. John, John B. 215 00:14:21,750 --> 00:14:24,830 The present Bluthal, Yes, I had him down as probably the best 216 00:14:24,830 --> 00:14:27,630 person in it outside of Spike. Absolutely. 217 00:14:27,790 --> 00:14:30,520 He seems to have the most range. Oh, yes. 218 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:34,040 Yeah, you know, I don't want to call him a stooge because he's 219 00:14:34,040 --> 00:14:36,960 not a stooge to Spike, but he, he, he kind of is and but he 220 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,640 can. He holds his own very well. 221 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:42,760 And he was a Milligan collaborator since the 50s with 222 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,600 when Spike went out to Australia and did some TV and radio shows. 223 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,320 That's where he he met and started working with John. 224 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,640 And then John moved to the UK And, you know, we see. 225 00:14:52,040 --> 00:14:54,280 I mean, John was in Hard Day's Night, for God's sake. 226 00:14:55,210 --> 00:14:57,130 Mondays, not in Hell. So there we get we get our 227 00:14:57,130 --> 00:14:59,490 Beatles reference, Our obligatory Beatles reference. 228 00:14:59,890 --> 00:15:03,210 Got it in early. Yeah, yeah, I mean John Bluth 229 00:15:03,210 --> 00:15:06,330 was appeared to spike so much over the years. 230 00:15:08,010 --> 00:15:11,690 Digby, the biggest dog in the world, Great Mcgonigal melting 231 00:15:11,690 --> 00:15:18,170 pot, and he also appeared in the 1970 follow up sketch show to 232 00:15:18,170 --> 00:15:22,530 Q5O in Color, which was a bit of a. 233 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:25,440 Of a dense squib. It was more or less Q by any 234 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:29,680 other name. And ironically, although it's 235 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,640 called Owen Color, none of it exists in color. 236 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,400 Oh dear. Well done. 237 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:39,160 BBC Okay. So in the shows that we watched, 238 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:42,080 What What You know, what stood out for you in terms of Blue 239 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,080 Thor's contribution? He's all over it. 240 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:48,320 He's in, he seems to be in most of the sketches, and he does 241 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,000 seem to be the he seems to be the best actor there. 242 00:15:52,850 --> 00:15:57,410 Yeah, very adaptable into the different roles and he has very 243 00:15:57,410 --> 00:16:00,770 good comic timing as well, whereas I think a lot of the 244 00:16:00,770 --> 00:16:06,210 others just will just tend to shout pantomime style and a lot. 245 00:16:06,210 --> 00:16:07,890 Of it. Well, dare old Bob Todd towards 246 00:16:07,890 --> 00:16:11,930 the end, he's he's just, it's like he's checked out. 247 00:16:12,130 --> 00:16:14,930 He's just smiling. Grinning. 248 00:16:16,850 --> 00:16:17,610 No. Beautiful. 249 00:16:17,610 --> 00:16:18,850 Throws us all into it. Doesn't. 250 00:16:19,850 --> 00:16:21,330 He yeah, he seems to be, actually. 251 00:16:21,930 --> 00:16:26,250 The main one who's I mean, I think taking it seriously might 252 00:16:26,250 --> 00:16:30,730 be a bit strong, but he seems to be making the most effort in 253 00:16:30,730 --> 00:16:35,730 terms of doing a good job and not just bellowing or pantoing 254 00:16:35,730 --> 00:16:37,850 it up or corpsing or those sorts of things. 255 00:16:37,850 --> 00:16:40,570 And he's bringing range to it. Yeah. 256 00:16:40,570 --> 00:16:41,970 What did you say? Did you say corpsing? 257 00:16:42,650 --> 00:16:46,650 I mean, I'm sure he does corpse. See is for. 258 00:16:47,250 --> 00:16:48,890 Corpsing. Corpsing. 259 00:16:50,410 --> 00:16:51,530 Right. If you picked up where we're 260 00:16:51,530 --> 00:16:53,170 going with this now. There's a lot of it about. 261 00:16:53,770 --> 00:16:56,090 There is a lot of it about, I'll tell you, there's nothing left 262 00:16:56,090 --> 00:17:02,050 to me below the waist. I jotted down a handful of 263 00:17:02,410 --> 00:17:04,690 examples of corpsing in the episodes that we watched. 264 00:17:04,690 --> 00:17:09,930 There's the the Q7 sketch, the Bermuda Triangle sketch, when 265 00:17:11,369 --> 00:17:15,329 Spike's character, who's who's miserably married to Rita Webb, 266 00:17:16,609 --> 00:17:18,890 sort of looks at the camera and says there's nothing left to me 267 00:17:18,890 --> 00:17:23,770 below the waist. Then just starts giggling. 268 00:17:24,930 --> 00:17:27,450 The Michael Parkinson sketch, they barely make it through that 269 00:17:27,450 --> 00:17:30,690 sketch, which actually, which makes it a joy, I think had had 270 00:17:30,690 --> 00:17:33,170 they done a retake and just did the sketch as written. 271 00:17:33,170 --> 00:17:35,290 I don't think there's a lot to it. 272 00:17:35,490 --> 00:17:37,410 It's very. I mean, it's quite a wacky 273 00:17:37,410 --> 00:17:39,050 sketch. We're going to talk about the 274 00:17:39,050 --> 00:17:40,450 Parkinson sketch. Right, OK. 275 00:17:40,890 --> 00:17:45,410 Because in detail, because there's some really stuff in 276 00:17:45,410 --> 00:17:47,250 that. There certainly is, yeah. 277 00:17:47,290 --> 00:17:49,730 But I think it's lifted by the fact that. 278 00:17:50,380 --> 00:17:51,900 Hockey can barely hold it together. 279 00:17:52,380 --> 00:17:53,780 Yeah, I. Mean He doesn't hold it 280 00:17:53,780 --> 00:17:57,260 together, really. No, he's not a good actor. 281 00:17:58,820 --> 00:18:02,140 He's he's terrible actor. I mean he Max Galdrey level. 282 00:18:02,900 --> 00:18:07,420 He was better in Ghost Watch. Actually, you're right. 283 00:18:07,940 --> 00:18:10,780 Although he was essentially just, he was just being a 284 00:18:10,780 --> 00:18:12,420 television presenter, which is what he is. 285 00:18:13,340 --> 00:18:15,780 You know he wasn't. He wasn't being asked to play a 286 00:18:15,780 --> 00:18:21,080 grieving widower. I suppose a lot of TV presenters 287 00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:23,800 just suddenly feel really self-conscious when they're 288 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:27,560 asked to. When you see like news anchors 289 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:30,520 on things like Dog Two and that kind of thing, often you can 290 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:33,040 tell that they're they're quite self-conscious, even though 291 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:35,280 they're doing exactly what they would have been doing anyway had 292 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,400 it been real. Yeah, there's also the nice 293 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:42,280 little bit of almost corpsing in the Q 8 Royal Windsor Scout 294 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:44,080 Troop sketch. Oh, yes. 295 00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:48,240 When Bob Todd brings in in an intact teapot. 296 00:18:49,410 --> 00:18:51,770 Because they're trying to what they're trying to do, they're 297 00:18:51,770 --> 00:18:56,010 trying to recycle rubbish. And Bob Todd brings in a teapot 298 00:18:56,010 --> 00:18:59,130 which isn't broken, and Spike takes several attempts to smash 299 00:18:59,130 --> 00:19:03,250 it with a hammer. And John Bluthal who's who's 300 00:19:03,250 --> 00:19:05,890 huge Weldon. That's right. 301 00:19:05,930 --> 00:19:11,210 Tries hard not to corpse and just about gets away with it. 302 00:19:13,050 --> 00:19:15,130 That's I don't know if we need to come back to this sketch, but 303 00:19:15,130 --> 00:19:18,250 that's felt the most one of the more goon show sketches. 304 00:19:19,660 --> 00:19:23,980 I think because we get their Boy Scouts, obviously, which I think 305 00:19:23,980 --> 00:19:25,820 helps. But Spike's character, even 306 00:19:25,820 --> 00:19:28,220 though he's not doing the Blue Bottle voice, is very blue 307 00:19:28,220 --> 00:19:31,620 bottly, even down to the fact that he's calling this character 308 00:19:31,620 --> 00:19:34,180 Huge Weldon, which is probably his scripted name anyway, but 309 00:19:34,180 --> 00:19:36,180 just the fact that it feels. That's true. 310 00:19:36,180 --> 00:19:38,460 Never thought that it's. Quite a blue botly character. 311 00:19:38,980 --> 00:19:41,060 His terms of phrase are very blue, bottly. 312 00:19:41,380 --> 00:19:46,620 Well, of course Ruxton Haywood, who inspired Blue Bottles voice. 313 00:19:47,430 --> 00:19:50,110 Was this was this Scout leader, wasn't he? 314 00:19:50,390 --> 00:19:53,510 Yeah. Now I've included this in the 315 00:19:53,510 --> 00:19:55,790 Corps in category because I there's nowhere else we could 316 00:19:55,790 --> 00:19:59,230 put it raspberries because raspberries often elicit 317 00:19:59,350 --> 00:20:02,510 corpsing. Yes, in Q, there's quite a few 318 00:20:02,510 --> 00:20:05,830 raspberries being blown in this series, aren't there? 319 00:20:07,110 --> 00:20:09,790 Including, including, again, the Bermuda Triangle sketch, where 320 00:20:09,790 --> 00:20:14,350 where Spike blows a particularly fruity Raspberry at the travel 321 00:20:14,350 --> 00:20:18,400 agent Keith Smith. And Keith Smith looks the camera 322 00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:20,440 and says Could this be the phantom Raspberry blur of old 323 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:21,840 London town? Yes. 324 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:30,080 This was after this was maybe two years after I think, so I'm 325 00:20:30,080 --> 00:20:34,640 not quite sure why Spike decided to include that, but self 326 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:24,400 referential. Is this just for the Two Ronnies 327 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:36,480 version? Why not? 328 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,840 Why not? He likes back references, He. 329 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:42,960 Well, yes he does. He'd like. 330 00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:45,600 Yes. He's very proud of his his back 331 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:48,640 catalogue. OK. 332 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,560 So up to D now what could D stand for do you think? 333 00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:54,880 I don't know. I've got an idea for E, but I 334 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,640 haven't. All right, what D might be D is 335 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:02,240 for David Lodge. He was in Cockle Show Heroes of. 336 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:05,520 Course. Who else would it be? 337 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,520 Good old Dave Lodge. I like that running gag. 338 00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:12,280 It's great and he's a good sport. 339 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:16,650 More than one series as well. Oh, it's it's this three series 340 00:21:16,650 --> 00:21:20,730 that we watched that he he says it or it's be it is It is said 341 00:21:20,730 --> 00:21:28,970 to him because he wasn't in Q5. In Q7 he appears as a Labour 342 00:21:28,970 --> 00:21:35,050 Party MP called Jim Daft or Daft, and as he's as he's 343 00:21:35,130 --> 00:21:37,570 addressing the camera Spike comes over and lays a massive 344 00:21:37,570 --> 00:21:42,090 wreath over him and looks at the camera and says he was in Cocker 345 00:21:42,090 --> 00:21:46,840 Show Heroes. But I love the I love the the Q 346 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:56,840 9 Royal Guardsman sketch, yeah. Tom, stand at ease. 347 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:58,320 Phone. Phone, Phone. 348 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,120 Please. Go ahead. 349 00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:03,240 What are your duties? Guardsmen. 350 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:04,600 Gronics. First ones. 351 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:10,150 Get all this spit off me. Grolics. 352 00:22:10,670 --> 00:22:12,110 Grolics. I am. 353 00:22:14,430 --> 00:22:18,950 I am not Guardsman Grolics. I am Guardsman Britt Eklund. 354 00:22:21,070 --> 00:22:23,950 Just testing your memory. I was just testing yours. 355 00:22:24,950 --> 00:22:25,670 Yeah. Wait a minute. 356 00:22:26,510 --> 00:22:28,510 Be a minute. And you? 357 00:22:29,100 --> 00:22:32,060 You are Dave Lodge of The Couple Shell Heroes. 358 00:22:33,900 --> 00:22:36,500 Funny you should say that. I didn't think it was funny. 359 00:22:36,500 --> 00:22:38,580 Didn't get a laugh. I did. 360 00:22:38,620 --> 00:22:40,580 Nothing is tonight. Billy. 361 00:22:40,860 --> 00:22:42,940 Yes. What bit of the film did you 362 00:22:42,940 --> 00:22:44,580 like? I like the bit where you get 363 00:22:44,580 --> 00:22:47,260 mangled up by the Ebert German propellers. 364 00:22:47,900 --> 00:22:50,860 I didn't get mangled. You mean you? 365 00:22:51,140 --> 00:22:55,140 You look like this normally. That was one of the laugh out 366 00:22:55,140 --> 00:22:59,570 loud gags. It's a minefield for laughing 367 00:22:59,570 --> 00:23:04,010 out loud as Q, yeah. It's it's it's like a roller 368 00:23:04,010 --> 00:23:06,730 coaster of laughing at the cringing very hard. 369 00:23:07,170 --> 00:23:12,010 Yes, it's one of those shows. Gary, my friend, says that 370 00:23:12,850 --> 00:23:19,770 there's certain shows or certain films of a certain era where and 371 00:23:19,770 --> 00:23:21,610 I'm not talking about pornography or anything like 372 00:23:21,610 --> 00:23:25,170 that, but just you know that if you have to watch, hey. 373 00:23:25,690 --> 00:23:28,340 You would never, Oh no, no, he did. 374 00:23:28,660 --> 00:23:34,500 You he He knows that they're the sort of programs that he has to 375 00:23:34,500 --> 00:23:39,860 watch on his own, because he would feel incredibly 376 00:23:39,860 --> 00:23:42,420 uncomfortable if anyone walked into the room while he was 377 00:23:42,420 --> 00:23:47,620 watching them. But let me tell you, because I'm 378 00:23:47,620 --> 00:23:50,940 not one of your fancy guests who has a a family and a marriage 379 00:23:50,940 --> 00:23:54,740 and stuff, I I live in a house here because I'm a I'm a writer. 380 00:23:56,340 --> 00:23:57,780 Don't. Don't do writing, kids. 381 00:23:58,580 --> 00:24:00,700 So I I live in a house. Are you in a Garret? 382 00:24:01,220 --> 00:24:04,900 Pretty much, yeah. So I live in a house share with 383 00:24:04,900 --> 00:24:06,460 people who are much younger than I am. 384 00:24:07,740 --> 00:24:11,340 So there was when I was watching which everyone, it was either 385 00:24:11,340 --> 00:24:13,940 the the Q8 or Q9. There was a stream of 30 year 386 00:24:13,940 --> 00:24:18,380 olds coming through the room and I was going, it's for a podcast. 387 00:24:18,380 --> 00:24:21,740 It was the IT was the the scene where the it's scantily clad 388 00:24:21,740 --> 00:24:26,100 police women wrestling burglars. It's for a podcast. 389 00:24:26,100 --> 00:24:29,250 Look, here's the notes being groped. 390 00:24:31,730 --> 00:24:36,690 Inelegantly, elegantly groped. That's where you can. 391 00:24:38,130 --> 00:24:43,770 And I told my, my housemate Hillary, that I'm going to watch 392 00:24:43,770 --> 00:24:45,970 this comedy show and it has quite a lot of racism and things 393 00:24:45,970 --> 00:24:48,570 in. And I paused it to make some 394 00:24:48,570 --> 00:24:51,290 notes. And she came in just as I, as I 395 00:24:51,290 --> 00:24:54,610 paused it on John Bluthal in full blackface. 396 00:24:58,670 --> 00:25:04,950 So you you do have to. They didn't mind, though, yeah. 397 00:25:05,910 --> 00:25:08,190 Oh, Adam, what's he? What's he watching this time? 398 00:25:08,190 --> 00:25:11,110 Oh Adam, is that like a catch phrase in your house? 399 00:25:11,910 --> 00:25:13,790 What's? What weird stuff is he watching 400 00:25:13,790 --> 00:25:14,950 now? Yeah. 401 00:25:16,150 --> 00:25:18,950 But yeah, so Dave Lodge, obviously he's he's gone down 402 00:25:18,950 --> 00:25:22,030 he's you can't know what these days, our generation, you can 403 00:25:22,030 --> 00:25:25,110 never mention Dave Lodge without someone saying he was in Concord 404 00:25:25,110 --> 00:25:29,390 Show heroes. Not a bad legacy, I suppose. 405 00:25:29,430 --> 00:25:31,230 No, I don't. I mean, it was the 50s. 406 00:25:33,110 --> 00:25:34,590 It's a great film actually, I've. 407 00:25:34,950 --> 00:25:36,510 Not seen it. Brilliant film. 408 00:25:37,870 --> 00:25:40,790 So if in fact I think it was on it was on it was on film 4 409 00:25:40,790 --> 00:25:44,070 today. I should have told you sorry. 410 00:25:45,350 --> 00:25:47,230 You could have set your VHS for. It. 411 00:25:49,310 --> 00:25:51,030 Now you reckon you know what E stands for? 412 00:25:51,030 --> 00:25:53,150 Come on. I think it's Ed Welsh. 413 00:25:54,540 --> 00:25:55,780 It's not. It's not. 414 00:25:55,820 --> 00:25:58,340 But we will talk about Ed Welsh. No, no. 415 00:25:58,340 --> 00:26:00,940 It's for the environment, believe it or not. 416 00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:06,340 One of Spike's pet causes. Well, yeah, because he he was 417 00:26:06,340 --> 00:26:10,060 one of the earliest, I guess, celebrity voices speaking out 418 00:26:10,060 --> 00:26:14,220 against pollution and and other environmental concerns. 419 00:26:15,340 --> 00:26:19,940 And he he would sometimes incorporate the environment into 420 00:26:19,940 --> 00:26:23,030 Q, which I suppose was quite progressive in some ways if you 421 00:26:23,030 --> 00:26:25,270 think about it. But I noticed in this that in 422 00:26:25,270 --> 00:26:29,110 the in Q7 he was wearing a Friends of the Earth tshirt. 423 00:26:29,870 --> 00:26:31,990 I missed that. Oh, did you? 424 00:26:31,990 --> 00:26:32,670 Right. OK. 425 00:26:33,110 --> 00:26:35,670 And in Q8 we're back to the Royal Windsor Scout Troop 426 00:26:35,670 --> 00:26:37,750 sketch. Of course they're recycling, 427 00:26:37,830 --> 00:26:40,550 aren't they Of. Course like Wombles, yes. 428 00:26:41,750 --> 00:26:44,350 So they go away. Now we get to F Now F is. 429 00:26:44,350 --> 00:26:47,150 I think we're going to be talking about this for a while, 430 00:26:47,630 --> 00:26:52,260 actually, because F is full females. 431 00:26:52,860 --> 00:27:01,900 Right, Bosomy or battle axes. Yes, It's a shame, isn't it? 432 00:27:02,220 --> 00:27:06,580 What's a shame? I mean for start, in one of the 433 00:27:06,580 --> 00:27:09,620 episodes he's got Margaret Nolan and all she does is just stand 434 00:27:09,620 --> 00:27:15,940 there and look gormless. She has a couple of lines, but I 435 00:27:15,940 --> 00:27:20,500 think this I forget which one it is where it has the role call 436 00:27:20,500 --> 00:27:22,210 of. The cast at the beginning and I 437 00:27:22,210 --> 00:27:27,810 counted 66 men and four women in the cast. 438 00:27:29,130 --> 00:27:32,290 But the women don't get to do anything other than be awful, 439 00:27:32,290 --> 00:27:38,170 battle axe harridan wives or stupid blondes who just stand 440 00:27:38,170 --> 00:27:41,970 there and look gormless vacant. They're vacant expressions. 441 00:27:42,170 --> 00:27:47,810 Or Julia Brick, who just who just blots out the sun and he 442 00:27:47,810 --> 00:27:50,560 doesn't. No, I know what you mean. 443 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,840 The beginning. I think it's beginning of Q6. 444 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:54,880 The credits. Yeah, there's there's all the 445 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,320 all the males, all the men. And then there's even there's an 446 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,440 actress, famous actress, that she, Sheila Stifel, of course, 447 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:03,120 Yeah. And. 448 00:28:03,120 --> 00:28:04,360 But she doesn't even appear in it. 449 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:09,360 Yeah, it gives because there's certainly there are women in it, 450 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:14,360 but they normally just either stand there or sit. 451 00:28:14,820 --> 00:28:17,340 Sit there next to the main action as the wife, and they'll 452 00:28:17,340 --> 00:28:19,780 have a couple of lines and a side to the camera. 453 00:28:20,260 --> 00:28:23,260 They usually don't take part in the actual back and forth of the 454 00:28:23,260 --> 00:28:25,380 sketch itself. They'll they'll make some kind 455 00:28:25,380 --> 00:28:27,700 of comment, but normally they just they would just be there 456 00:28:27,700 --> 00:28:32,900 with their arms folded, looking glum, furious. 457 00:28:33,580 --> 00:28:36,500 It's either either Stella Tanner, she always plays the 458 00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:41,740 sort of bespectacled, downed wife, or in the earlier series 459 00:28:42,260 --> 00:28:44,260 Rita Web. Who spent? 460 00:28:44,830 --> 00:28:51,110 All of 1 after just screaming. I think that was the the 461 00:28:51,110 --> 00:28:53,150 Cockneys one, wasn't it? She was screaming in the 462 00:28:53,150 --> 00:28:54,710 Cockneys one. She's screaming in another one 463 00:28:54,710 --> 00:28:56,310 as well. She was screaming in the Bermuda 464 00:28:56,310 --> 00:28:57,750 Triangle sketch. That's right. 465 00:28:58,390 --> 00:29:00,030 And I always think of her screaming. 466 00:29:00,670 --> 00:29:02,510 That was her whole career was built on screaming. 467 00:29:03,030 --> 00:29:05,950 I think of her most famously Screaming at Ringo Star in the 468 00:29:05,950 --> 00:29:07,230 beginning of The Magic Christian. 469 00:29:07,670 --> 00:29:10,470 Oh, I've not seen that in years and years and years, she shouts. 470 00:29:10,470 --> 00:29:12,750 Something along the lines And get your bloody haircut. 471 00:29:15,650 --> 00:29:19,170 Yeah, so he had plenty of actresses in it, but he just 472 00:29:19,170 --> 00:29:21,210 didn't use them. I mean, this is a very 70s 473 00:29:21,210 --> 00:29:23,610 sketch. I think it Python in a way were 474 00:29:23,610 --> 00:29:29,770 worse because they did have good, strong female, funny 475 00:29:29,770 --> 00:29:32,930 female characters and they played them all themselves. 476 00:29:33,090 --> 00:29:35,850 So they didn't even have the middle-aged harridans played by 477 00:29:35,850 --> 00:29:38,370 women. They just had the fake lungs. 478 00:29:38,690 --> 00:29:43,270 Well, they had Carol Cleveland, but she didn't just do a 479 00:29:43,270 --> 00:29:45,430 glamorous bitch. She should be given some stuff 480 00:29:45,430 --> 00:29:46,590 to do. A little bit. 481 00:29:46,630 --> 00:29:52,590 And most of it was looking a bit confused, crying. 482 00:29:54,270 --> 00:29:56,190 Oh, Bevis, and I thought you were so. 483 00:29:56,190 --> 00:29:59,990 Oh no, that was. That's right, Connie Booth. 484 00:30:01,150 --> 00:30:04,550 But yes, she gets the occasional thing to do, but not very much. 485 00:30:06,190 --> 00:30:09,630 But then she wasn't Python but in this that very definite named 486 00:30:09,630 --> 00:30:12,150 cast members. But they're they're on the 487 00:30:12,150 --> 00:30:16,310 periphery, yeah. So Spike is either with the 488 00:30:16,310 --> 00:30:21,590 women in the show, spikes either lusting after them or trying to 489 00:30:21,590 --> 00:30:24,430 kill them. But in the the Q6, where does it 490 00:30:24,430 --> 00:30:27,110 hurt? Sketch, which we'll come to in a 491 00:30:27,110 --> 00:30:30,190 bit. Rita Webb's is very frumpy wife. 492 00:30:30,190 --> 00:30:34,270 She's got a cute lumbago and she's being sharply sort of 493 00:30:34,270 --> 00:30:37,710 poked, I think with a stick by Spike because he wants a holiday 494 00:30:37,710 --> 00:30:44,830 in the South of France. And then we've got, we've got a 495 00:30:44,830 --> 00:30:49,910 sketch which I was very familiar with from the Best of Q video, 496 00:30:50,190 --> 00:30:57,150 which was the Arabs buying up London sketch, where you've got 497 00:30:57,150 --> 00:30:58,910 Juliet Breck has has Spike's doors. 498 00:30:58,910 --> 00:31:01,430 Spike always seems to play the same sort of character which is 499 00:31:01,430 --> 00:31:07,150 this kind of Cockney working class cloth cat wearing you know 500 00:31:07,230 --> 00:31:09,590 man with the kind of with the mate voice. 501 00:31:11,740 --> 00:31:14,220 And Juliet Breck plays his daughter in that sketch and 502 00:31:14,220 --> 00:31:16,980 she's wearing sort of black lingerie and you've got, I mean 503 00:31:16,980 --> 00:31:20,500 the sketch, that sketch actually, it's it's very funny 504 00:31:20,500 --> 00:31:22,620 in parts. It's it's not funny in other 505 00:31:22,620 --> 00:31:23,340 parts. It's very funny. 506 00:31:23,340 --> 00:31:27,340 In parts, particularly the beginning, which it starts quite 507 00:31:27,340 --> 00:31:31,340 promisingly with Spike, he's he's living in a flat and he's 508 00:31:31,340 --> 00:31:34,140 staring at his flat window at a back at a really terrible 509 00:31:34,140 --> 00:31:38,960 backdrop of Gas Works and he looks to the audience. 510 00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,120 I bet you thought it was a Turner painted, didn't you? 511 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,200 No, no. It is just a sweep of the 512 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:48,680 English countryside, as you can see what he do with a good 513 00:31:48,680 --> 00:31:51,160 sweep, that's what. That was very nice. 514 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,360 It's his environmentalism again. True. 515 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,760 Absolutely. But then Julia Brett comes in he 516 00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:00,320 and he and Spike sort of going well this is. 517 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:04,450 This is a real is, isn't it? It's, I mean it's it's well 518 00:32:04,450 --> 00:32:09,130 acted, but it's very, it's very, it is very. 519 00:32:09,290 --> 00:32:13,850 And then he says, he says to his wife, Stella Tanner, who's that? 520 00:32:13,970 --> 00:32:15,610 And she says, who's that? That's our daughter. 521 00:32:15,610 --> 00:32:22,610 And he goes. There's a narrow sheep pulling 522 00:32:22,610 --> 00:32:24,810 up outside. What's she pulling up outside? 523 00:32:26,130 --> 00:32:27,970 It's not. It's not offensive in the way 524 00:32:27,970 --> 00:32:31,130 that some of the later jokes are, but it doesn't sit 525 00:32:31,130 --> 00:32:35,830 comfortably, no. It's a bit grim, but it's also, 526 00:32:36,310 --> 00:32:40,950 it's kind of grimly funny if you take it, you know, it's quite a 527 00:32:40,950 --> 00:32:43,590 dark thing, but I'm not sure it's intended as quite a dark 528 00:32:43,590 --> 00:32:45,470 thing. I think everything's just a gag 529 00:32:45,470 --> 00:32:47,590 to Spike. Yes. 530 00:32:47,590 --> 00:32:50,790 And later in that sketch, of course, his daughter, Julia 531 00:32:50,790 --> 00:32:53,550 Brett gets some, I'll say this delicately. 532 00:32:53,550 --> 00:32:56,870 She gets taken into another room and ravished by an Arab. 533 00:32:57,070 --> 00:32:58,710 She does, yeah. It goes. 534 00:32:59,070 --> 00:33:03,800 It goes into some places. Yeah, the sketch, it takes some 535 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,280 turns. It has one quite good gag where 536 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,520 she says there's there's some Arabs pulling up outside and he 537 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:12,080 says what are they pulling up outside? 538 00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:13,840 Not quite like that. Yeah. 539 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:19,000 Yeah, I like the bit when he's showing the the Arab gentleman, 540 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,880 the prime London real estate, which is like a window box. 541 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,120 Oh yes. And he said there was a last 542 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:27,480 week, there was a herd of deer on there. 543 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:30,040 What happened to them? They fell off. 544 00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,400 That was quite good, yeah. But of course we've got to come 545 00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:43,040 to the Parkinson sketch because Parkinson is talking about the 546 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:46,840 fact that he only agreed to appear on the show. 547 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:50,880 He says I gave Spike Milligan £50 to get the dressing room 548 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:54,840 next to the girl with the big boobs and use the other £50 to 549 00:33:54,840 --> 00:34:01,200 buy a black and Decker. At one point in that sketch, I 550 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,040 think it's that sketch. Spike says it's Neil Shand wrote 551 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,720 the Boob gags. Yeah, I don't believe that. 552 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,360 No, I'm not sure I believe that. But if if he did, cuz I don't he 553 00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,239 he seems to be a jobbing writer. I don't know if we'll come to 554 00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:16,920 Neil Shand so if I if I will save that, OK, I'll save it. 555 00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:22,239 But yeah, I imagine Spike likes the opportunity to talk about 556 00:34:23,199 --> 00:34:26,320 ladies bosoms. Yes, I think Spike had a Spike 557 00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:31,060 had a took. Took quite a fancy to ladies 558 00:34:31,060 --> 00:34:34,060 bosoms so. I think, I think we, you know, 559 00:34:34,300 --> 00:34:36,380 it could be argued this is the 70s. 560 00:34:36,380 --> 00:34:38,500 Of course there's not going to be strong female characters. 561 00:34:38,500 --> 00:34:42,100 It's the 70s. But if you look at an 562 00:34:42,100 --> 00:34:44,980 approximately contemporary comedy show, although it's not 563 00:34:44,980 --> 00:34:48,020 the same thing, it's a sitcom rather than a sketch show. 564 00:34:48,020 --> 00:34:52,780 You've got The Good life. Yeah, Which has the Margot ever 565 00:34:52,780 --> 00:34:58,460 got Knock us out, did she? But but Margot and Barbara. 566 00:34:59,150 --> 00:35:02,150 They're not just the harridan and the dumb blonde. 567 00:35:02,150 --> 00:35:04,510 They're they're or you know, the glamorous. 568 00:35:04,510 --> 00:35:05,910 What? It's not like the dowdy one and 569 00:35:05,910 --> 00:35:07,510 the glamorous one. I think like that they're very 570 00:35:07,510 --> 00:35:12,390 well-rounded comedy characters who have agency, but also 571 00:35:12,390 --> 00:35:13,910 they're they're allowed to be funny. 572 00:35:13,910 --> 00:35:16,630 They're not just oils for the for the husbands. 573 00:35:16,630 --> 00:35:20,310 They they have their own comedy lives themselves and they can be 574 00:35:20,310 --> 00:35:23,110 the butt of jokes but without losing their dignity and they 575 00:35:23,110 --> 00:35:25,150 can deliver the jokes and that kind of thing. 576 00:35:25,150 --> 00:35:26,630 And this is, this is contemporary. 577 00:35:27,090 --> 00:35:29,970 So yeah, a few years earlier, but before the good Life. 578 00:35:29,970 --> 00:35:33,410 I think at least a good year or two before was man, about the 579 00:35:33,410 --> 00:35:37,730 house, which had two or certainly one very empowered 580 00:35:38,090 --> 00:35:43,650 young female character. I've not seen it, but I I I know 581 00:35:43,650 --> 00:35:48,090 it by you've not seen it. God, she was quite the equal of 582 00:35:48,090 --> 00:35:51,490 the the male sort of the Larry male characters and you know 583 00:35:51,490 --> 00:35:53,370 what I mean? Giving as good as she got. 584 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:57,040 But yes, they were doing it in sitcom. 585 00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,960 Not, not always, but certainly there were some good examples of 586 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:04,480 70 sitcoms with with with proper decent female characters. 587 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:09,400 But even well into the 80s and horribly the 90s they they was 588 00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:12,160 still more or less the same. And it's certainly not a Spike 589 00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,160 Milligan thing of having terrible women characters in 590 00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:19,320 these things, but he kind of kept it going for maybe a little 591 00:36:19,320 --> 00:36:21,560 bit longer than it he should have done. 592 00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:26,360 Definitely yes, as well as other things which we'll come to. 593 00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:29,800 OK. So moving on, unless there's 594 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,120 any, is there anything else about boobs you want to you want 595 00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:33,920 to talk about I? Think I've got it off my chest. 596 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,920 OK, good. I mean, actually there is a 597 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:42,800 this, the magical floating boobs in the triangle sketch, which is 598 00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:47,240 again, it's it's certainly objectification, but it's when I 599 00:36:47,240 --> 00:36:49,680 think with a lot of these things it makes the male characters 600 00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:53,040 look rather ridiculous because he's just he's this desperate. 601 00:36:53,420 --> 00:36:55,820 Character who's chloring at this vision, that chloring at the air 602 00:36:55,820 --> 00:36:57,500 when this vision appears above his head. 603 00:36:59,220 --> 00:37:03,300 But yes, it doesn't. It doesn't age well, no, no. 604 00:37:03,300 --> 00:37:06,180 And I can't include a clip of the magical floating boobs 605 00:37:06,180 --> 00:37:09,900 because this is a podcast, so you'll have to buy the DVD. 606 00:37:11,060 --> 00:37:13,180 Okay. So G we're up to G, and now G is 607 00:37:13,180 --> 00:37:17,500 for genuinely funny sketches. So here we go. 608 00:37:18,100 --> 00:37:21,060 There are definitely some. There was quite a few. 609 00:37:21,300 --> 00:37:23,820 I laughed out loud. What would you say with the 610 00:37:23,820 --> 00:37:28,420 standout sketches for you? The Bermuda Triangle sketch had 611 00:37:28,420 --> 00:37:32,660 two consecutive proper laughs out loud for me, so that was one 612 00:37:32,660 --> 00:37:36,140 of my favorites. The the so the gag where he's 613 00:37:36,140 --> 00:37:39,260 hitting the bell on the countertop and he hits it so 614 00:37:39,260 --> 00:37:41,060 hard, it goes all the way through the counter. 615 00:37:41,940 --> 00:37:45,820 I mean, I like things falling through, other things. 616 00:37:45,820 --> 00:37:49,020 That always makes me laugh in one of the early Retrotube 617 00:37:49,020 --> 00:37:50,940 episodes when we're talking about The Persuaders. 618 00:37:50,940 --> 00:37:54,550 And I think it's Tony Curtis. Falls all the way through some 619 00:37:54,550 --> 00:37:56,910 stairs, like he's going down the stairs and falls all the way 620 00:37:56,910 --> 00:38:00,350 through them. I really found that I'm using, 621 00:38:00,470 --> 00:38:02,510 so I think there's something about something falling through 622 00:38:02,510 --> 00:38:04,110 other things that are not supposed to fall through that 623 00:38:04,110 --> 00:38:05,790 entertains me. But so I was really entertained 624 00:38:05,790 --> 00:38:08,990 by the bell. And then the guy behind the 625 00:38:08,990 --> 00:38:12,630 counter says you rang and spike says no, you twit, it was the 626 00:38:12,630 --> 00:38:15,510 bell. And I I hooted. 627 00:38:16,230 --> 00:38:21,150 That's that's appealed to me from the key five episode we 628 00:38:21,150 --> 00:38:23,700 watched. I was laughing quite a bit at 629 00:38:23,700 --> 00:38:29,260 the national anthem schedule, particularly because the whole 630 00:38:29,940 --> 00:38:33,900 conceit is that they wanted to check that people were actually 631 00:38:33,900 --> 00:38:35,740 standing whenever they heard the national anthem. 632 00:38:36,620 --> 00:38:42,740 And they go into like a public, a gentleman's convenience and 633 00:38:42,740 --> 00:38:44,980 they play it and you could hit there's somebody you could the 634 00:38:44,980 --> 00:38:46,940 toilet cubicle, you can't see them obviously. 635 00:38:46,940 --> 00:38:49,780 They start playing the national anthem anthem and then you just 636 00:38:49,780 --> 00:38:53,340 hear this voice from inside going Oh no. 637 00:38:55,940 --> 00:38:58,020 I I because I've seen that sketch before. 638 00:38:58,020 --> 00:39:00,820 I didn't particularly laughed at this time, but I remember many 639 00:39:00,820 --> 00:39:05,300 years ago, it's Spike on the park bench and the Sunday 640 00:39:05,300 --> 00:39:07,500 playing a record of the national anthem somewhere behind him. 641 00:39:07,500 --> 00:39:11,740 He doesn't know where the music is coming from, but he stands up 642 00:39:11,740 --> 00:39:13,260 anyway and looks really confused. 643 00:39:13,380 --> 00:39:16,060 And I remember nearly expiring from laughing at that. 644 00:39:16,140 --> 00:39:21,760 And I was much younger. I also like again, a memory from 645 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,120 the video Best of Q6 Jehovah's Burglars. 646 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,760 Oh yes, there's some good, yeah, there's some good gags in that. 647 00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:33,640 That's very, I like the ones that just have like layers of 648 00:39:34,240 --> 00:39:38,040 really good sort of goon style plays on work, play on words. 649 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:40,600 And that's, yes, there's some, there's some great stuff in 650 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:41,520 that. I mean, you've got Chris 651 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:43,640 Langham, the aforementioned Chris Langham, it's very young 652 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:48,020 Chris Langham, and you've got John Bluthal as Fang the police 653 00:39:48,020 --> 00:39:50,100 dog doing a WC Fields impression. 654 00:39:50,580 --> 00:39:52,900 Yes, it's he. That's whenever he plays dogs. 655 00:39:52,900 --> 00:39:55,260 He always does it as WC Fields for some reason. 656 00:39:56,260 --> 00:39:58,940 Twice he appears. Yeah. 657 00:40:00,460 --> 00:40:06,180 Growl. I love the bit where burglar 658 00:40:06,180 --> 00:40:08,620 Dave Lodge says to policeman Spike Milligan. 659 00:40:09,140 --> 00:40:12,820 I'm a distant cousin of the Queen and spikes sort of drops 660 00:40:12,820 --> 00:40:15,240 to the ground. Sort of twists his leg over his 661 00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:18,320 back and says this puts me in a very difficult position. 662 00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,600 Yeah, some of them. I think when when he's given 663 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:27,040 himself room to just do that kind of thing, they work really 664 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:32,400 well and it's just, it's just a very basic idea. 665 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:35,240 Yeah, yeah. Shout out to Peter Jones as 666 00:40:35,240 --> 00:40:37,680 well, who's great in these shows. 667 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,720 Peter Jones as the restauranteur in that sketch. 668 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,050 We are Jehovah. Burglars. 669 00:40:46,050 --> 00:40:47,570 I'm not Jewish. I'll come with that later. 670 00:40:47,690 --> 00:40:51,170 You see, me and my friend here are being persecuted for our 671 00:40:51,170 --> 00:40:53,170 beliefs by the police. What are your beliefs? 672 00:40:53,210 --> 00:40:55,450 We believe you got a lot of good silverware and stuff like that. 673 00:40:55,450 --> 00:40:57,810 Yeah, good heavens, that's absolutely true. 674 00:40:57,810 --> 00:40:59,450 We only believe in the absolutely true. 675 00:41:00,490 --> 00:41:01,450 What are you doing? You. 676 00:41:02,750 --> 00:41:05,310 But why are you removing that Very valuable silverware Should 677 00:41:05,310 --> 00:41:09,350 be kept in a safe and it's mine. We have a disbelievery brother. 678 00:41:09,590 --> 00:41:13,070 We must convert him. Kneel down and say after me, oh, 679 00:41:13,070 --> 00:41:16,510 my bleeding head, Oh my bleeding head. 680 00:41:17,510 --> 00:41:24,190 Here come the ground Sergeant. There has been a distinct thud 681 00:41:24,190 --> 00:41:26,870 on the head AT365 Hagley Road, Birmingham. 682 00:41:27,190 --> 00:41:40,890 This is a job for the police. Yeah, they're playing her show. 683 00:41:49,890 --> 00:41:52,010 Pardon me, Sir. We have reason to believe that a 684 00:41:52,010 --> 00:41:53,770 lump on a head has been committed to disadress. 685 00:41:54,930 --> 00:41:57,290 Heel Fang. Heel Heel Fang is. 686 00:41:57,290 --> 00:41:58,810 Sir. I'm sorry, Sir. 687 00:41:59,050 --> 00:42:01,890 I shall have to rest your wrists with handcuffs In connection 688 00:42:01,890 --> 00:42:03,090 with what? The rest of your arms? 689 00:42:04,370 --> 00:42:07,610 There's also some quickies, like like how to start your own wine 690 00:42:07,610 --> 00:42:13,490 cellar. And I tell you what, I hooted. 691 00:42:14,130 --> 00:42:15,890 You know the bit. In fact, it's the episode that 692 00:42:15,890 --> 00:42:18,490 where he was wearing the Friends of the Earth tshirt. 693 00:42:20,820 --> 00:42:24,660 When he's invented, he's got this dole, this dole that walks, 694 00:42:25,860 --> 00:42:29,820 oh, he's got, he's got it on this little desk and it's this 695 00:42:29,820 --> 00:42:32,020 little girl doll. And she just walks and then sort 696 00:42:32,020 --> 00:42:35,100 of just walks off the side of the desk and drops onto the 697 00:42:35,100 --> 00:42:37,020 floor. And Spike says, yes, I've 698 00:42:37,020 --> 00:42:38,740 invented the doll that commits suicide. 699 00:42:38,740 --> 00:42:46,840 I should make a fortune. The sketches that I didn't 700 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:50,480 necessarily think were funny but was so weird they impressed me. 701 00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:52,800 There was a couple of them. The one that really stands out 702 00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:57,000 was the the Patrick Moore sketch, which started off not 703 00:42:57,000 --> 00:42:58,120 very good. The whole thing about the 704 00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:02,920 sausage, the unidentified flying sausages, whatever. 705 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:08,200 Then there's a bit where he he, I forget who it is that he's 706 00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:11,770 going to talk to. So he opens a wardrobe and 707 00:43:11,770 --> 00:43:14,730 suddenly starts conducting all the people inside the wardrobe 708 00:43:14,730 --> 00:43:18,970 who are in this kind of this rocking diorama of a tube train, 709 00:43:19,610 --> 00:43:22,730 but they're making the noises with their mouths and he's 710 00:43:22,730 --> 00:43:24,770 conducting that and this just happens. 711 00:43:24,810 --> 00:43:27,930 It's like, whoa, this is gone, very dreamlike. 712 00:43:28,130 --> 00:43:30,770 But I like it when it just suddenly the reality of it 713 00:43:30,770 --> 00:43:35,010 collapses in and you get this really odd moment where if 714 00:43:35,010 --> 00:43:37,050 you're not paying attention, it's always another thing 715 00:43:37,050 --> 00:43:39,370 happening in Q. But it's like that's actually 716 00:43:39,370 --> 00:43:42,690 really weird and satisfying, but it's just all these people 717 00:43:42,930 --> 00:43:46,970 rocking inside this and and it also has John Bluthal as a 718 00:43:46,970 --> 00:43:52,290 ventriloquist dummy, the yokel sitting on his lap and they've 719 00:43:52,290 --> 00:43:54,930 reversed it so that the ventriloquist dummy is the 720 00:43:54,930 --> 00:43:56,610 ventriloquist. But he's still doing the 721 00:43:56,610 --> 00:44:00,050 ventriloquist dummy mouth thing and the yokel on his lap is 722 00:44:00,250 --> 00:44:05,530 talking normally. It was quite a complex series of 723 00:44:06,390 --> 00:44:09,270 images and ideas inside this this wardrobe that happens to be 724 00:44:09,270 --> 00:44:12,430 on this set of the otherwise rather late. 725 00:44:14,390 --> 00:44:17,510 It's like spikes always trying to allude to the fact that 726 00:44:17,510 --> 00:44:20,830 they're trying to save money by cutting corners wherever they 727 00:44:20,830 --> 00:44:23,590 can. It's like in the the Crafts 728 00:44:23,590 --> 00:44:27,270 sketch from Q9, which I was again, I thought that was great 729 00:44:28,070 --> 00:44:32,790 when you've got Keith Smith coming into the. 730 00:44:33,820 --> 00:44:37,460 Ticket office and asking for tickets while changing into 731 00:44:37,460 --> 00:44:41,140 different hats. And then a caption flashes up 732 00:44:41,140 --> 00:44:44,700 saying BBC economy crowd scene which I thought. 733 00:44:44,980 --> 00:44:49,060 That was nice cuz it delays, It doesn't say BBC economy crowd 734 00:44:49,060 --> 00:44:51,940 scene first. I wonder what he's doing. 735 00:44:51,940 --> 00:44:53,780 Why does he keep doing this? Yes. 736 00:44:54,220 --> 00:44:56,460 So I think, yeah, that one works. 737 00:44:56,850 --> 00:44:58,730 Oh yeah. And also in that the the sketch 738 00:44:58,730 --> 00:45:01,050 in the tube train inside the wardrobe, there's a there's a 739 00:45:01,050 --> 00:45:02,970 lovely bit of corpsing in that. Did you notice that? 740 00:45:02,970 --> 00:45:07,650 When I think it's Spike says about the ventral Lucas dummy 741 00:45:07,650 --> 00:45:10,810 it's Izzy Bond and one of the old man, just one of the extras 742 00:45:10,810 --> 00:45:15,170 dressed as a city gent. He goes, Did you notice that I? 743 00:45:15,170 --> 00:45:17,450 Didn't notice that. I didn't notice that. 744 00:45:17,490 --> 00:45:18,730 Yeah, one of the old well is that. 745 00:45:18,730 --> 00:45:22,610 There's so much to look at. It wasn't there in these, but 746 00:45:22,690 --> 00:45:24,890 there's a Beatles reference as well for you, Izzy Bond. 747 00:45:25,420 --> 00:45:28,660 Izzy Bond from Sergeant Pepper. That's the only place I've ever 748 00:45:28,660 --> 00:45:31,140 heard of him before. I'm completely unfamiliar with 749 00:45:31,140 --> 00:45:35,660 Izzy Bond beyond. He's the one who has the his 750 00:45:35,660 --> 00:45:37,020 hat. He's waving his hand. 751 00:45:37,500 --> 00:45:39,380 He is floating above Paul's head. 752 00:45:39,380 --> 00:45:41,540 So strange. People think that that means 753 00:45:41,980 --> 00:45:46,140 Paul died in 1966. Those people are sick. 754 00:45:46,900 --> 00:45:52,100 Should be locked up The Parkinson's sketch from QA Bob 755 00:45:52,100 --> 00:45:55,660 Todd as a topless waitress. Had me, had me howling. 756 00:45:57,260 --> 00:46:01,100 Good evening, Mr. Parkinson. I'd love one. 757 00:46:01,100 --> 00:46:02,780 Thank you. It's very kind of thank you. 758 00:46:03,100 --> 00:46:07,740 What year is it, 1979? So it's on top of all the 759 00:46:07,740 --> 00:46:19,380 newspapers, milk and sugar. It's his own suit. 760 00:46:26,530 --> 00:46:30,210 You're a thing. Of such exquisite beauty and 761 00:46:30,210 --> 00:46:34,370 charming and charm, I find it difficult to believe that you're 762 00:46:34,370 --> 00:46:37,050 a man. What else? 763 00:46:37,050 --> 00:46:39,650 Do you find? It difficult to believe that 764 00:46:39,650 --> 00:46:42,530 you've forgotten your lines? Yes. 765 00:46:43,010 --> 00:46:44,890 Certainly. I also find it very hard to 766 00:46:44,890 --> 00:46:46,050 believe what I'm saying. Right. 767 00:46:46,050 --> 00:46:51,370 That's right, Camera 3, right? I find it difficult to believe. 768 00:46:51,370 --> 00:47:01,330 I'm saying these sodding lines. It's quite a funny sketch, that 769 00:47:01,330 --> 00:47:05,170 one, despite being wrong on many, many levels, it's so wild. 770 00:47:05,490 --> 00:47:10,850 Yeah, it kind of. It rides roughshod through taste 771 00:47:10,970 --> 00:47:13,330 and decency. Well, absolutely. 772 00:47:13,330 --> 00:47:17,290 And staying on that sketch. We get to H Now what could H 773 00:47:17,290 --> 00:47:19,530 stand for, do you think, if we're staying on that sketch 774 00:47:24,250 --> 00:47:26,770 homophobia? Well done. 775 00:47:26,770 --> 00:47:29,970 Give that man a bum. I mean, it's not, is it, 776 00:47:29,970 --> 00:47:34,290 Homophobia, Is it just? I suppose that's the technical 777 00:47:34,530 --> 00:47:35,330 phrase for it. Is it? 778 00:47:35,330 --> 00:47:36,210 I suppose. I don't know. 779 00:47:37,170 --> 00:47:39,570 I don't know if, yeah, I don't know if you call it homophobia 780 00:47:39,570 --> 00:47:45,250 so much as maybe insensitivity. Yeah, it's not outright, it's 781 00:47:45,250 --> 00:47:48,890 not outright hatred because it's not in the way of the, you know, 782 00:47:48,890 --> 00:47:54,290 a lot of the racial stuff is definitely way beyond the, shall 783 00:47:54,290 --> 00:47:56,090 I say, way beyond the pale. I mean, there's a lot of 784 00:47:56,090 --> 00:47:57,890 blackface. So it's literally beyond the 785 00:47:57,890 --> 00:48:04,530 pale and I think isn't necessarily meant. 786 00:48:04,970 --> 00:48:06,770 I don't know. It's difficult to say that this 787 00:48:06,770 --> 00:48:09,250 this kind of remove and I don't want to come across as an old 788 00:48:09,250 --> 00:48:12,730 sour purse. No, I know, I know. 789 00:48:12,770 --> 00:48:17,290 And and it's funny enough. So we watched 5 episodes. 790 00:48:17,290 --> 00:48:19,490 The first three episodes that we watched, assuming you watched 791 00:48:19,490 --> 00:48:23,250 them in chronological order, there was not a not a whisper of 792 00:48:23,410 --> 00:48:27,050 anything, you know, any sort of gay caricatures or anything like 793 00:48:27,050 --> 00:48:29,450 that or limp wristed shenanigans. 794 00:48:29,450 --> 00:48:33,930 None of that. And it's just in the the the, 795 00:48:33,970 --> 00:48:38,250 the NAFI sketch, the Parkinson sketch in QA when you have John 796 00:48:38,250 --> 00:48:44,860 Bluthal as the duty homosexual. Yes, And he's not even that camp 797 00:48:44,860 --> 00:48:46,540 really. It's the floor manager. 798 00:48:46,540 --> 00:48:48,660 Is that the sketch with also has the floor manager. 799 00:48:49,140 --> 00:48:51,340 No, that's in Q9. That's the Gunsman, Royal 800 00:48:51,340 --> 00:48:52,820 Gunsman sketch. It's Keith Smith. 801 00:48:52,900 --> 00:48:56,940 Yeah, Keith Smith. Anyway, like, I mean, I know who 802 00:48:56,940 --> 00:48:59,700 he is in relation to that, but he, he didn't look familiar. 803 00:48:59,700 --> 00:49:00,740 Out of all of them. I'm like, oh. 804 00:49:00,860 --> 00:49:02,300 You know, I do know, but I've forgotten. 805 00:49:04,580 --> 00:49:06,260 Yeah, he was always good. He was quite good. 806 00:49:06,540 --> 00:49:08,540 He was always. He's just played gormless, 807 00:49:08,540 --> 00:49:10,780 didn't he? Yeah, he's this weird grin. 808 00:49:11,720 --> 00:49:14,840 But look, there's not a lot considering the time that it was 809 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:18,880 made. Certainly in the shows that we 810 00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:22,560 watched, there wasn't a huge amount of insensitive gay 811 00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:25,760 portrayals or references. I think. 812 00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:30,280 I think you lent quite heavily on the the bosoms and the the 813 00:49:30,280 --> 00:49:31,920 black face. Not so. 814 00:49:32,280 --> 00:49:36,430 Not so much on the, yeah, certainly compared to a lot of 815 00:49:36,430 --> 00:49:39,990 comedy that I remember from the early 80s, where the homophobia 816 00:49:39,990 --> 00:49:44,030 or the like, the gay references could be quite aggressive and 817 00:49:44,110 --> 00:49:47,030 they'd be using the P word a lot and you know, that sort of thing 818 00:49:47,030 --> 00:49:51,190 in an accusatory way. I don't remember any of that. 819 00:49:51,190 --> 00:49:56,550 It was just it was just some quite ridiculous camp characters 820 00:49:56,550 --> 00:49:59,190 and flouncing and that sort of thing. 821 00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,600 Pooves as the Pythons head to a collective game. 822 00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:10,560 None of that that I remember no kind of aggressively accusing 823 00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:13,520 people of such. No okay. 824 00:50:14,720 --> 00:50:18,120 Just going to go a little bit serious for a moment with I 825 00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:21,560 okay. So I is for quote. 826 00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:24,920 I just had me and some second bananas. 827 00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:28,320 UN quote. Okay. 828 00:50:29,500 --> 00:50:35,380 Spike, with typical bluntness years after Q ended, said of the 829 00:50:35,380 --> 00:50:42,700 show that unlike Python, who had, you know, wonderful 830 00:50:42,700 --> 00:50:45,980 performers equal in talent. In your wish you could, you 831 00:50:45,980 --> 00:50:49,860 could argue, he said. With regards to Qi, just had me 832 00:50:50,060 --> 00:50:54,020 and some second bananas and I and I think that's totally 833 00:50:54,020 --> 00:50:56,620 unfair and totally untrue, particularly beautiful. 834 00:50:57,020 --> 00:51:01,390 Spike was always trying to. Rewrite history or his own 835 00:51:01,390 --> 00:51:04,590 history and always trying to sort of undermine the value that 836 00:51:04,710 --> 00:51:07,830 other people bought 2 shows that he was involved with, I feel. 837 00:51:08,110 --> 00:51:10,110 Yes, weird. He seemed at the time of doing 838 00:51:10,110 --> 00:51:11,950 anything. He always seems like a big team 839 00:51:11,950 --> 00:51:14,350 player. Yeah, but later he's like, no, 840 00:51:14,350 --> 00:51:15,990 it was all me. They're all idiots and I hate 841 00:51:15,990 --> 00:51:18,590 them. The exception being the Goon 842 00:51:18,590 --> 00:51:20,630 Show, I guess. He never he never really 843 00:51:20,630 --> 00:51:22,350 criticized Sellers or Secum at all. 844 00:51:22,990 --> 00:51:26,190 Yeah, but everything else Larry Stevens out of history. 845 00:51:26,190 --> 00:51:27,470 Oh, yes, he did. Yeah. 846 00:51:27,470 --> 00:51:31,530 Yeah. And he he he also said in in. 847 00:51:31,530 --> 00:51:35,050 I'm not sure if it's the same interview, but he said what he 848 00:51:35,050 --> 00:51:37,410 didn't know. It didn't just slag off the 849 00:51:37,410 --> 00:51:41,130 performers on cue. He also was quite critical of 850 00:51:41,130 --> 00:51:43,290 the directors and producers that he worked with. 851 00:51:43,290 --> 00:51:45,730 And he said, he said television is a difficult medium for 852 00:51:45,730 --> 00:51:48,170 comedy. Your imagination gets filtered 853 00:51:48,170 --> 00:51:52,570 through so many people, but without those people. 854 00:51:52,960 --> 00:51:55,560 Could you imagine Spike just trying to do it all on his own? 855 00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:58,200 It would be. It would be Julia Breck in 856 00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:02,400 blackface, just jumping up and down on a trampoline or 857 00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:04,760 something. The thing is as well, nobody 858 00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:09,320 seemed baffled. Everybody, he he had the right 859 00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,400 people around him. Everybody took it in the spirit 860 00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:15,320 that they were supposed to. Yes, there was, yeah. 861 00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:19,360 There were some cast members who were quite elderly and seemed 862 00:52:19,360 --> 00:52:22,380 quite, you know, for better one, for better went straight 863 00:52:22,460 --> 00:52:27,140 compared to Spike who were just taking it in the spirit it was 864 00:52:27,140 --> 00:52:28,900 intended, you know, going along with it. 865 00:52:28,900 --> 00:52:33,660 And they weren't, they weren't. They didn't seem confused as to 866 00:52:33,660 --> 00:52:36,340 why they were there and what all this stuff was about and 867 00:52:37,020 --> 00:52:38,940 everything. So I think he did have really 868 00:52:38,940 --> 00:52:41,180 good cast around him. They're all very simple. 869 00:52:41,180 --> 00:52:44,340 They're all mainly middle-aged white men. 870 00:52:46,580 --> 00:52:49,020 Well, if he didn't like them, or if he didn't rate them, why did 871 00:52:49,020 --> 00:52:51,280 he? Keep getting Blue Salon Lodge 872 00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:52,800 back. Exactly. 873 00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:55,800 Series after series. The affection is clear as well. 874 00:52:55,800 --> 00:53:00,280 Like, yes, the way he's ribbing Dave Lodge about being a cockel 875 00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:02,680 shell heroes repeatedly. And you can tell he has a lot of 876 00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:04,160 affection for a lot of these people. 877 00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:07,120 Yeah, yeah. So I think it's just by being 878 00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:11,000 cranky, isn't it? It is OK. 879 00:53:11,120 --> 00:53:15,840 So Jay is for Jack's brackets union. 880 00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:24,680 And Jack's commentary, Seasons in the sun, Jack's Union and the 881 00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:29,080 Trappings of a Lost Empire. And what I mean by that is you 882 00:53:29,080 --> 00:53:33,760 see quite often, I mean, there's Union Jacks all through this 883 00:53:33,880 --> 00:53:37,840 series, isn't there? In Q5 you see a very young John 884 00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:43,400 Wells with blonde floppy hair and a Union Jack tie and a suit, 885 00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:45,240 and he looked for a brief. Split second. 886 00:53:45,240 --> 00:53:46,360 I thought it was Tim Brook Taylor. 887 00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:51,040 Yes, I did as well. A lot of ripped and frayed Union 888 00:53:51,040 --> 00:53:55,400 jacks abound. They're all over Q, aren't they? 889 00:53:57,160 --> 00:54:00,360 And tatty as to say the the trappings of a lost empire. 890 00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:02,240 Because Spike was obviously an empire child. 891 00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:07,320 And at one point in the Q7 Arab sketch, he dresses up as a Voice 892 00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:10,840 Roy of India. Yes, he looks very smart. 893 00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:14,040 He does. You just accept Spike looking 894 00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:17,240 smart. Yeah, rattle with bullet holes. 895 00:54:17,240 --> 00:54:19,840 But other than that. Yeah, that's right. 896 00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:23,920 But no, lots of you can jokes. Yeah, just as to the texture of 897 00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:25,800 I think, doesn't it? It's not just. 898 00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:29,480 I mean, it's mostly, but it's not just a standalone sketch 899 00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:33,400 show where nothing, it's all in Mirrigan world. 900 00:54:33,840 --> 00:54:36,200 The whole thing takes place in the Milligan universe, the 901 00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,970 Milligan Extended Universe. So it does. 902 00:54:40,010 --> 00:54:46,290 It has all his preoccupations so that so it does live in this 903 00:54:46,570 --> 00:54:53,650 faded Post Empire Post Swinging London, kind of rather ugly and 904 00:54:53,650 --> 00:54:56,770 grubby and ragged version of Britain. 905 00:54:57,210 --> 00:54:58,170 Yes. Yeah. 906 00:54:58,250 --> 00:55:01,930 We'll come to that as well. So many Union jacks it would 907 00:55:02,090 --> 00:55:05,250 they could they could play this on GB news. 908 00:55:05,810 --> 00:55:09,970 Go down a treat. Can you imagine if Spike was 909 00:55:09,970 --> 00:55:13,930 alive today? He'd have great fun GB news. 910 00:55:14,210 --> 00:55:17,730 Well, yeah, you'd hope so, yeah. I mean, he'd probably go on it 911 00:55:17,730 --> 00:55:19,170 because he wouldn't know not to, but. 912 00:55:19,490 --> 00:55:26,690 No. Like please K is for Kuwait as 913 00:55:26,690 --> 00:55:27,930 in the country in the Middle East. 914 00:55:28,310 --> 00:55:33,710 But the television series Q8 began in 1979. 915 00:55:35,830 --> 00:55:40,310 The credits for Q8 Don't the characters of Q8 then form into 916 00:55:40,310 --> 00:55:44,430 Arabic characters, spelling out the word Q8AS in the country. 917 00:55:44,430 --> 00:55:45,910 Is that right? I can't. 918 00:55:46,230 --> 00:55:49,030 I know it definitely spells out the word Q8I can't remember if 919 00:55:49,030 --> 00:55:50,390 it's in Arabic characters or not. 920 00:55:50,910 --> 00:55:52,350 I'm not. Yeah, Yeah. 921 00:55:52,350 --> 00:55:54,270 There's a lot of information in one of these episodes. 922 00:55:54,470 --> 00:55:56,030 A lot of input. Yeah. 923 00:55:56,480 --> 00:55:58,400 And I just, I was looking for something else. 924 00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:00,520 I was thinking what can K be? What can K be? 925 00:56:00,520 --> 00:56:05,160 That's all Q8 that would do. So let's move swiftly on, shall 926 00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:10,720 we? Al is for labor exchanges, which 927 00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:12,800 another of Spike's favorite topic. 928 00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:15,880 Favorite locale, location for sketches and sequences. 929 00:56:15,880 --> 00:56:17,040 It goes right back to the Goon Show. 930 00:56:19,720 --> 00:56:21,800 Now there's only, I think there's to my mind, there's only 931 00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:24,520 one sketch from the shows that we watched that was set in a 932 00:56:24,520 --> 00:56:26,120 labor exchange, which was the Mayfair. 933 00:56:26,530 --> 00:56:32,730 Labor exchange in Q7 and you've got rather lordly Robert 934 00:56:32,730 --> 00:56:36,090 Dawning, who haven't mentioned yet who was a regular around 935 00:56:36,090 --> 00:56:39,930 this time, the rather chunky fellow. 936 00:56:40,770 --> 00:56:43,250 You got Robert Dawning, you've got John D Collins, who was 937 00:56:43,250 --> 00:56:46,090 later to go on to be one of the British airmen in Aloelo. 938 00:56:46,650 --> 00:56:48,970 And he was a That's where the name sounds familiar. 939 00:56:49,650 --> 00:56:52,810 Yeah, he he was. He was also one of the Arabs in 940 00:56:52,810 --> 00:56:55,500 the. Arabs buying up London Sketch 941 00:56:56,620 --> 00:56:58,940 You've got John D Collins. You've also got John Bluthal as 942 00:56:58,980 --> 00:57:04,420 I think he's like a Hari Krishna and Spike or Yogi or something 943 00:57:05,380 --> 00:57:10,060 like Gandhi, sort of. Yeah, he's bald headed and is. 944 00:57:10,620 --> 00:57:14,700 Meditating or something? Yes, And it's it's a little bit 945 00:57:14,700 --> 00:57:16,780 of political satire because it's all about the Tories 946 00:57:16,900 --> 00:57:19,740 exaggerating the unemployment figures of the then Labour 947 00:57:19,740 --> 00:57:22,230 government. Yes, that was an interesting 948 00:57:22,230 --> 00:57:24,430 sketch because this is the whole the whole beginning of that 949 00:57:24,510 --> 00:57:28,830 episode is to do with the, I presume, upcoming election. 950 00:57:30,510 --> 00:57:33,630 And it's difficult to, I couldn't quite tell Spike's 951 00:57:33,630 --> 00:57:37,070 position on it because I I'm not for an instant going to say 952 00:57:37,070 --> 00:57:40,670 Spike was a Tory. I don't think he was but I but 953 00:57:40,990 --> 00:57:43,030 of course they had a Labour government at the time and 954 00:57:43,030 --> 00:57:44,510 people are always going to be a bit. 955 00:57:46,170 --> 00:57:51,090 I mean I'm not I I'm not first enough in historical party 956 00:57:51,090 --> 00:57:54,810 politics to know how competent the Labour government of the 70s 957 00:57:54,810 --> 00:57:57,130 was. But I I do sense that the 70s 958 00:57:57,130 --> 00:58:01,450 wasn't a particularly happy time for people and you're always 959 00:58:01,450 --> 00:58:04,130 going to be a bit down on the sitting government anyway and 960 00:58:04,130 --> 00:58:06,250 they're going to be more ripe for satire. 961 00:58:07,290 --> 00:58:11,850 So I think there was quite a bit of poking of the the sitting 962 00:58:11,850 --> 00:58:15,630 Labour government in some of these sketches which for this 963 00:58:15,630 --> 00:58:18,830 this far end of having to the amount of Tory government that 964 00:58:18,830 --> 00:58:21,350 we've been through, it sits differently. 965 00:58:21,350 --> 00:58:23,510 It sits oddly, it's a bit uncomfortable. 966 00:58:24,070 --> 00:58:26,310 But at the same time you can understand the fact that they 967 00:58:26,310 --> 00:58:29,110 they're in a completely different, you know, they've 968 00:58:29,110 --> 00:58:31,190 just been through the 70s with a very different set of 969 00:58:31,190 --> 00:58:36,350 politicians and very different. I think, I think it's a similar 970 00:58:36,350 --> 00:58:40,800 thing with Eric Morcombe who said that he was he, he was a 971 00:58:40,800 --> 00:58:44,080 big fan of Margaret Thatcher during the 70s and he said, you 972 00:58:44,080 --> 00:58:46,360 know, he's he's looking forward to Maggie coming in. 973 00:58:48,160 --> 00:58:53,600 So whether he was actually outright Tory or whether he was 974 00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:55,880 just like, I'm a bit fed up of this current government. 975 00:58:55,880 --> 00:58:57,320 It's going to be nice to have a new one. 976 00:58:58,080 --> 00:59:03,200 I'm not sure Yeah which how much of column A and how much column 977 00:59:03,200 --> 00:59:07,590 B that was for Eric Morcombe but certainly been watching this in 978 00:59:07,670 --> 00:59:10,590 in the context that we have in Britain at the moment. 979 00:59:10,710 --> 00:59:14,990 It's it it felt slightly not uncomfortable but it just it 980 00:59:14,990 --> 00:59:18,550 just sat a bit differently and it didn't didn't quite didn't 981 00:59:18,550 --> 00:59:21,710 quite hit the same as it would have back in the 70s. 982 00:59:22,510 --> 00:59:25,190 And I think there's also the particular, the labor exchange 983 00:59:25,190 --> 00:59:28,550 sketch as well. Like what? 984 00:59:28,550 --> 00:59:31,190 What point was he making? Is he having a dig at unemployed 985 00:59:31,190 --> 00:59:33,560 people? I don't know. 986 00:59:33,880 --> 00:59:37,400 Again, it's another thing that at the moment would feel in poor 987 00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:39,480 taste. It would, yeah. 988 00:59:39,760 --> 00:59:42,360 Yes. It's because of, you know, it's 989 00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:47,040 40 Watt five years ago. The the context is not 990 00:59:47,040 --> 00:59:50,120 completely lost, but it is. It's a long time ago, century 991 00:59:50,520 --> 00:59:53,200 just about, yeah. But it was, yes. 992 00:59:53,720 --> 00:59:56,560 I think one of the things that's interesting about watching these 993 00:59:56,560 --> 00:59:59,320 things I do, I do retro tube podcasts. 994 00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:01,620 So I. Obviously just old TV of that 995 01:00:01,620 --> 01:00:05,620 ear in general but but something that has that kind of satire to 996 01:00:05,660 --> 01:00:08,700 it or attempts at satire. I don't I'm not sure satire is 997 01:00:08,700 --> 01:00:12,780 spike strongest suit. I think his weaker sketches tend 998 01:00:12,780 --> 01:00:16,300 to be the satirical ones in this but it's certainly interested 999 01:00:16,300 --> 01:00:18,660 like they're interesting historical documents of what 1000 01:00:18,940 --> 01:00:22,220 what the people what the satirical preoccupations were at 1001 01:00:22,220 --> 01:00:24,860 the time. So that's it's it's fascinating, 1002 01:00:24,860 --> 01:00:27,180 if not necessarily always hilarious. 1003 01:00:27,900 --> 01:00:32,670 OK, M. Is for Monty Python, so okay. 1004 01:00:32,670 --> 01:00:36,710 So the director of Q5 was in, McNaughton said earlier, and he 1005 01:00:36,710 --> 01:00:39,670 would then go on to bring the Pythons to TV. 1006 01:00:40,350 --> 01:00:45,470 So Q5 went out less than six months before Flying Circus 1007 01:00:45,470 --> 01:00:47,510 began. And you know, everyone knows the 1008 01:00:47,510 --> 01:00:50,590 story about how the Python said that Spikes got in before us 1009 01:00:51,030 --> 01:00:53,630 and. And how, how much you know he 1010 01:00:53,630 --> 01:00:57,070 was doing what they envisaged Flying Circus to be. 1011 01:00:57,610 --> 01:01:02,570 With the sketches that just stop and whatnot. 1012 01:01:03,890 --> 01:01:06,770 But you read the Wikipedia article on cue, and half of it, 1013 01:01:06,850 --> 01:01:10,970 I swear, is the Python's perspective of cue. 1014 01:01:10,970 --> 01:01:11,890 You know what I mean? Really. 1015 01:01:12,010 --> 01:01:15,410 Okay seems to be, yeah. So I don't want to dwell on 1016 01:01:15,410 --> 01:01:18,490 Monte Python, of course, because that's, you know, that's another 1017 01:01:18,490 --> 01:01:21,930 podcast, I think. But I wanted to just to ask you 1018 01:01:21,930 --> 01:01:25,050 because I've written down a few. Any sketches? 1019 01:01:26,400 --> 01:01:30,960 Or sequences in the shows that we watched that could have been 1020 01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:35,320 Python or could have easily fitted into you know 1/2 hour 1021 01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:38,680 Flying Circus episode. Well, I did I must admit while 1022 01:01:38,680 --> 01:01:42,880 watching it, Certainly the first couple, the Cube 5 and Q6 cuz 1023 01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:45,560 they were more or less immediately either side of 1024 01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:47,960 Python the TV show. So one was just before and the 1025 01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,640 Q5 was just before and Q6 was just after I think. 1026 01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:54,280 Yes, I just just have to say that, yeah, absolutely. 1027 01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:58,760 Because Q5 was 69 Q 6 didn't start till 75, yes, that's 1028 01:01:58,760 --> 01:02:00,960 right. So that's so Python fitted 1029 01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:04,840 exactly 5 and finished 74. I think the C4 was 74, so it 1030 01:02:04,840 --> 01:02:08,760 fitted exactly in between the first two series of Q. 1031 01:02:08,760 --> 01:02:11,880 So it's pre Python And post Python immediately. 1032 01:02:12,200 --> 01:02:14,880 So I did for those first two have a bit of an eye on whether 1033 01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:20,540 he he seemed whether you could tell that Q5 was influential and 1034 01:02:20,540 --> 01:02:24,140 Q6 was influenced and I don't think I could particularly, but 1035 01:02:24,140 --> 01:02:29,260 there were definitely sketches that I think could have been 1036 01:02:29,260 --> 01:02:33,540 Python ones. My thoughts on the difference 1037 01:02:33,540 --> 01:02:37,740 because they actually they are quite different and I think the 1038 01:02:37,740 --> 01:02:43,420 big difference between them is that you is gag based whereas 1039 01:02:43,420 --> 01:02:46,590 Python is ideas based. So Python doesn't really have 1040 01:02:46,590 --> 01:02:49,190 many gags as such. It's all about like here's a 1041 01:02:49,190 --> 01:02:53,470 funny situation and we'll play the situation out and awful go 1042 01:02:53,470 --> 01:02:56,470 off on a weird and wildtangent but it won't. 1043 01:02:56,990 --> 01:03:00,790 Spike tends to have a situation with a labor exchange or it 1044 01:03:00,790 --> 01:03:03,910 crafts or in a travel agent and that's going to be where we're 1045 01:03:03,910 --> 01:03:08,470 going to put a whole lot of gags where Python is like here's one 1046 01:03:08,470 --> 01:03:12,150 idea. Here's a juxtaposing no there's 1047 01:03:12,230 --> 01:03:16,390 a the contrasting idea or you know something that makes this 1048 01:03:16,430 --> 01:03:18,590 unusual. And then we're going to play 1049 01:03:18,590 --> 01:03:22,350 these two things off each other and see where where this takes 1050 01:03:22,350 --> 01:03:24,510 us. Whether we have, if we have to 1051 01:03:24,510 --> 01:03:26,870 change it and have a lumberjack coming in or something like 1052 01:03:26,870 --> 01:03:31,150 that, then that so be it. And I think also the other big 1053 01:03:31,150 --> 01:03:36,270 difference is that the Pythons play their character straight. 1054 01:03:36,910 --> 01:03:41,350 So this is relative, obviously, but even the characters who 1055 01:03:41,790 --> 01:03:46,510 yeah, who talk like this, hello, you know Mr. Purdy, whatever his 1056 01:03:46,510 --> 01:03:54,190 name is, yes, Mr. Proline. Mr. Yes, he's still utterly 1057 01:03:54,190 --> 01:03:59,190 sincere within his own reality. All of these Python characters, 1058 01:03:59,190 --> 01:04:02,270 however panto and weird and wacky they are, they totally 1059 01:04:02,270 --> 01:04:06,110 believe in their own reality. Whereas spikes characters, 1060 01:04:06,110 --> 01:04:10,520 they're always Spike and John Bluthal and whoever else mugging 1061 01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:14,000 a camera and cracking up and not really taking it seriously. 1062 01:04:14,000 --> 01:04:18,680 Like the the sketch about do we still stand up for the national 1063 01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:21,280 anthem? The the main presenter of that 1064 01:04:21,280 --> 01:04:26,160 that Spike plays could have been because he's sort of written as 1065 01:04:26,160 --> 01:04:31,240 a satire on people who believe that we should still stand for 1066 01:04:31,240 --> 01:04:33,160 the national anthem. And he does sort of. 1067 01:04:33,240 --> 01:04:35,360 I can't remember exactly what he talks about, but there's some 1068 01:04:35,360 --> 01:04:39,030 instances of things that's like the the slight examples of 1069 01:04:39,070 --> 01:04:42,190 modern moral decay, because we don't still stand for the 1070 01:04:42,190 --> 01:04:44,470 national anthem, but because it's Spike playing it, it's 1071 01:04:44,470 --> 01:04:48,230 mainly mainly just Spike doing Spike things rather than that 1072 01:04:48,230 --> 01:04:53,630 character. So that for me is the big 1073 01:04:53,630 --> 01:04:55,950 difference. So I think there's not actually 1074 01:04:55,950 --> 01:05:01,240 that much crossover, but I can certainly see the the Cockanese, 1075 01:05:01,840 --> 01:05:06,440 the logical sketch, anything that has like a core idea to it. 1076 01:05:06,680 --> 01:05:08,360 Exactly. I was gonna say that the David 1077 01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:13,480 Attenberg Cockanese extended sketch, cuz that has really very 1078 01:05:13,480 --> 01:05:15,840 few gags. It is mainly the idea that he's 1079 01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:17,080 playing with. It's the idea on. 1080 01:05:17,080 --> 01:05:21,480 It goes on for 10 minutes. It really outstays as welcome. 1081 01:05:21,480 --> 01:05:24,760 That's good. There was a couple of television 1082 01:05:24,760 --> 01:05:29,800 game show parodies, yes, maybe could have, you know. 1083 01:05:30,460 --> 01:05:35,580 Rewritten by Palin and Jones could have turned up. 1084 01:05:36,260 --> 01:05:37,580 Beat the beat the dock, the dock. 1085 01:05:37,700 --> 01:05:40,460 Yes, beat the dock. Beat the dock and where does it 1086 01:05:40,460 --> 01:05:43,420 hurt? Yes, they're very Python. 1087 01:05:43,860 --> 01:05:46,740 Yeah. And also notice in Q5 did you 1088 01:05:46,740 --> 01:05:50,580 notice there was 1 gag and then you saw some tinted stock 1089 01:05:50,580 --> 01:05:53,060 footage of an audience. Yes I wrote that down. 1090 01:05:53,060 --> 01:05:57,180 Yes, this is the pre Python. Yeah, it's not the it's not the 1091 01:05:57,180 --> 01:06:02,420 WI, but it's very, very close. Yeah, but I did notice also in 1092 01:06:02,420 --> 01:06:07,260 one of the post Python series that they use the Now, what's it 1093 01:06:07,260 --> 01:06:11,900 called that piece of music? The Devil's Gallop by Charles. 1094 01:06:11,900 --> 01:06:13,700 Williams, The Dick. Spartan Music. 1095 01:06:14,100 --> 01:06:17,460 Yeah, Yeah, which is I think a Python favorite. 1096 01:06:17,460 --> 01:06:19,660 But that also crops up in a later cue. 1097 01:06:20,370 --> 01:06:24,290 Well, I think that Dick Barton Devil's Gallop is in the Spanish 1098 01:06:24,290 --> 01:06:27,090 Inquisition episode. Think so? 1099 01:06:28,650 --> 01:06:29,890 Think so. What's the name? 1100 01:06:29,890 --> 01:06:32,730 It's a Cardinal Fang. It might be. 1101 01:06:32,730 --> 01:06:36,450 It just seems like I associate it more than more with Python 1102 01:06:36,450 --> 01:06:38,210 than anything. That piece of music. 1103 01:06:38,290 --> 01:06:43,010 Yeah, the Monty Python music. But you say about the David 1104 01:06:43,010 --> 01:06:45,090 Attenborough extended that 10 minute sketch. 1105 01:06:45,530 --> 01:06:46,490 It is. It is. 1106 01:06:47,160 --> 01:06:50,600 It proceeds at a leisurely pace, unlike a lot of cue. 1107 01:06:50,840 --> 01:06:55,600 Yes. It's not mad and frenetic. 1108 01:06:55,760 --> 01:06:57,240 Yeah. I think he's still definitely 1109 01:06:57,240 --> 01:07:00,960 finding his feet in terms of actually what he's the tone that 1110 01:07:00,960 --> 01:07:03,000 the show has because it's by the. 1111 01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:07,440 Because I like the central idea of we're going to do an 1112 01:07:07,440 --> 01:07:10,800 anthropological documentary about this lost tribe of 1113 01:07:10,800 --> 01:07:14,680 Cockneys and it's all going to be about the the Cockney people 1114 01:07:14,680 --> 01:07:17,320 and that sort of thing. But it does morph just into 1115 01:07:17,320 --> 01:07:21,920 general London commuters. And it goes on for 10 or 11 1116 01:07:21,920 --> 01:07:26,040 minutes and by minute 8 or 9. I'm thinking Spike, I've got the 1117 01:07:26,040 --> 01:07:28,280 idea because it doesn't really develop. 1118 01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:32,760 It doesn't go anywhere beyond just going and you know hear 1119 01:07:32,760 --> 01:07:35,520 these great underground pits that women are not allowed. 1120 01:07:35,520 --> 01:07:37,840 Oh, it's the gents toilets. Well done. 1121 01:07:38,880 --> 01:07:43,650 The one bit I did really like though was I think was it John 1122 01:07:43,650 --> 01:07:46,610 Bluthal and Peter Jones as the Fish and Chipman? 1123 01:07:47,010 --> 01:07:48,890 David Lodge? David Lodge, Yes. 1124 01:07:48,890 --> 01:07:52,050 I wrote that down as David Lodge was cracking in that, yes. 1125 01:07:53,010 --> 01:07:57,570 Can you ask the hunter what he is doing? 1126 01:07:59,170 --> 01:08:03,820 Certainly, I'll cry here, Eric. This is going to kill you. 1127 01:08:04,580 --> 01:08:06,100 Go on, tell us. I can't wait. 1128 01:08:06,420 --> 01:08:09,900 This geiseria wants to know what you're doing. 1129 01:08:10,300 --> 01:08:14,660 Well, I'm frying bleeding fish and I he says he's frying 1130 01:08:14,820 --> 01:08:19,510 bleeding fish. Feeding fish you can tell it's a 1131 01:08:19,510 --> 01:08:22,990 right bloody job and all because shot the ape was coming here off 1132 01:08:22,990 --> 01:08:26,590 boats after this asking for a piece of rock to escape £6.00 of 1133 01:08:26,590 --> 01:08:30,550 chips and give you a £20 note to pay for it makes me bloody spit, 1134 01:08:34,990 --> 01:08:38,830 he says. The gods are angry, Yeah, that 1135 01:08:38,830 --> 01:08:41,710 that was a good a good moment where it is actually playing 1136 01:08:41,710 --> 01:08:44,350 with the idea. So it's he's not just talking to 1137 01:08:44,819 --> 01:08:48,340 2 fish and chip men and they're baffled by this TV presenter one 1138 01:08:48,340 --> 01:08:51,899 of them is actually translating what he's saying to the other 1139 01:08:51,899 --> 01:08:56,779 guy and so it does feel like one of those 19 those horribly. 1140 01:08:56,779 --> 01:08:58,660 Patrick you don't that's one thing you don't get on telly 1141 01:08:58,660 --> 01:09:01,340 anymore is is anthropological documentaries. 1142 01:09:01,700 --> 01:09:06,979 We don't do that to tribes people these days but so that's 1143 01:09:06,979 --> 01:09:11,500 cut. That is another sort of time 1144 01:09:11,500 --> 01:09:15,520 capsule of of the past is these the things that you would have 1145 01:09:15,520 --> 01:09:17,960 on TV back then. So it's it's spoofing something 1146 01:09:17,960 --> 01:09:20,000 that's entirely gone from television. 1147 01:09:20,399 --> 01:09:23,359 But that's one of those moments that was played nicely and it 1148 01:09:23,359 --> 01:09:28,720 was a nice idea that generally, Oh my goodness, bikes, dogs. 1149 01:09:29,040 --> 01:09:30,920 I know, I know that. I've got it. 1150 01:09:31,279 --> 01:09:37,359 Enough already? Yeah, OK N is for newsreader 1151 01:09:37,359 --> 01:09:39,560 Spike. This is Thatcher last week 1152 01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:43,120 opened a mixed school and asked how the sexes were segregated. 1153 01:09:43,450 --> 01:09:45,210 The headmaster said. If you must know, we go around 1154 01:09:45,210 --> 01:09:46,729 with a crowbar and prize them apart. 1155 01:09:48,649 --> 01:09:54,450 Yeah, from Q, was it Q6 onwards, I think he would have begin it 1156 01:09:54,450 --> 01:09:59,130 would sort of top and tail the show with Spike at the at a news 1157 01:09:59,130 --> 01:10:03,210 desk as it were just telling hoary old gags they're hard and 1158 01:10:03,210 --> 01:10:05,090 criminals and the like. I know. 1159 01:10:06,610 --> 01:10:09,250 I felt that it was a bit beneath him, really. 1160 01:10:09,250 --> 01:10:13,300 Like it was lamentable. It was because it was 1161 01:10:13,300 --> 01:10:17,460 essentially the same. Is this pre 2 Ronnie's? 1162 01:10:17,500 --> 01:10:19,220 I'm my 2 Ronnie's knowledge is not. 1163 01:10:19,300 --> 01:10:23,740 Yeah well now two Ronnie's was certainly well in in in into its 1164 01:10:24,420 --> 01:10:27,420 probably third or fourth series by the so so he's just taking 1165 01:10:27,420 --> 01:10:29,260 the two Ronnie's idea of just pretty much. 1166 01:10:29,380 --> 01:10:32,100 You'd read it with with jokes but they're worse jokes than the 1167 01:10:32,100 --> 01:10:34,100 two Ronnie's jokes and I'm not a two Ronnie's fan. 1168 01:10:34,100 --> 01:10:38,180 I know this might get me thrown from the from the train of 1169 01:10:39,250 --> 01:10:42,330 Archive TV appreciation, but I've never really found The Two 1170 01:10:42,330 --> 01:10:48,650 Ronnies particularly funny. If I'm being entirely honest, I 1171 01:10:48,650 --> 01:10:53,610 probably like about half of the Two Ronnies, if that, because I 1172 01:10:53,610 --> 01:10:56,530 don't like the news reading bit. I don't like Barbara Dixon. 1173 01:10:56,810 --> 01:11:00,090 I don't like Ronnie in the big chair talking about the 1174 01:11:00,090 --> 01:11:03,530 producers cocktail party. I don't like the musical bit at 1175 01:11:03,530 --> 01:11:05,410 the end. I like the serials often. 1176 01:11:05,570 --> 01:11:07,330 I like the serials. Yeah, I like the weird. 1177 01:11:07,910 --> 01:11:11,990 Yeah, where they turned. And Phantom and I do like the 1178 01:11:12,030 --> 01:11:15,590 Ronnie B sketches often when it's him doing sort of verbal 1179 01:11:16,350 --> 01:11:20,350 gymnastics. But a lot of it now, a lot of it 1180 01:11:20,350 --> 01:11:27,230 is laughing at knockers. As is this show I've never like 1181 01:11:27,350 --> 01:11:29,990 when I was little. And still to this day, I don't 1182 01:11:29,990 --> 01:11:33,270 find women's bosoms funny. I don't know what they're all 1183 01:11:33,270 --> 01:11:35,550 laughing at. Why are women's Bosoms funny? 1184 01:11:36,950 --> 01:11:40,600 Yeah. OK, it's a comedy staple of the 1185 01:11:40,600 --> 01:11:43,400 70s and early 80s. There's scantily clad women and 1186 01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:49,080 I I don't get the joke. I know they like looking like I 1187 01:11:49,080 --> 01:11:50,520 know why she's there because they want to look. 1188 01:11:50,520 --> 01:11:52,120 But why is it? Also, why is it funny? 1189 01:11:52,520 --> 01:11:53,680 Why are they always laughing at it? 1190 01:11:54,600 --> 01:11:56,480 But anyway, sorry, I've just that was a rant. 1191 01:11:57,120 --> 01:12:00,760 OK, I've been waiting 45 years to get that off my chest. 1192 01:12:01,000 --> 01:12:06,400 Hey, second second chest reference and then we must leave 1193 01:12:06,400 --> 01:12:09,390 it for part one. Next week we're back with part 1194 01:12:09,390 --> 01:12:13,390 2O2Z, and we also talked about the time that Spike met the 1195 01:12:13,470 --> 01:12:16,190 happiest man in popular music, Van Morrison. 1196 01:12:16,550 --> 01:12:20,230 Don't miss it folks, and check out all past episodes in the 1197 01:12:20,230 --> 01:12:23,750 archive if you haven't already. Milligan fans in particular may 1198 01:12:23,750 --> 01:12:27,390 be interested in a show we did recently on Adolf Hitler. 1199 01:12:27,390 --> 01:12:30,790 My part in his downfall? Anywho, see you next week. 1200 01:12:30,950 --> 01:12:32,030 Take care. Bye.