Hello children, Hello boys and girls.
I am keeper Stuart Granger. All the beach.
I welcoming you to the Chisletan Zoo where today we have some
wonderful little animals for you to see.
There is one of them now, in fact, that is Rita, the Bantam
cockrel. Is it male or female cockrel?
We don't know. We're having a scientist look
into him about that. Over there.
We have Dick the flightless hedgehog.
Hello, and welcome to Goon Pod, or as Sooty would say, my name
is Tyler Adams. And this time we're looking back
at some classic children's television, mostly from the
1980s, in which Spike Milligan popped up here and there, TV
shows such as Super Grand, The Sooty Show, Pop's program and
Jack Anori. And joining me is returning
guest Chris Diamond, Sconer Diamond.
Apologies for the accent, listeners.
So it's. Yeah.
So Chris and I have a fun and at times rambling chat and Chris,
Chris especially laments the passing of such inventive and
creative children's television programming.
As you know, we used to get back then.
So you know, but we cover a lot of ground.
So I hope you enjoy the chat. What would you want to stop?
Should we Should we kick off with Super Grand?
Yeah. Because I sort of have a history
with Supergran. Right.
Go on. When I know, when I say history,
what I mean is I used to watch it.
Or you had you hadn't been plotting this downfall or
anything. I thought it was right.
Here's the thing. Of course I would have been
what, 12-13 when I saw it I guess.
Yeah, I was 10. Yeah.
In my head, I I thought it was much more sophisticated than it
actually was. I don't know.
I had it as like really good special effects and quite a
quite a decent budget. But based on the episode that I
watched for this, not not not necessarily the case.
Well, at the time it's a bit like, you know, people who
complain about or like Michael Grade nearly swore there about
complaining about the special effects on Doctor Who in the
eighth in the 80s and how badly they compared to Star Wars.
I'm like, oh, you think it's it's you know, obviously you've
got you see it in its contemporary setting.
But then even if you look at it comparatively, considering
nobody makes children programs or if they do that, there's
certainly no of the sort of scale of the the penetration, if
you put it like that badly chosen one as they were then.
So I remember, I mean, I vividly remember Super grand beginning
because it was such a big deal. In fact, I even remember the
very night that it began because it was Sunday.
No, I've got it says here on my little note that it was the 20th
of January 1985. I haven't checked to see if
that's a Sunday because of course regional variations may
occur. But let's presume that what if
said last Sunday would be so because it's a very snowy day
that early 1985. And we were out at the park near
us sledging. And we made sure that we got
home so that we could get our get back, get a bath and get
time to watch Super grand because it was like everywhere
it was. It was going to be that Titanic
production and, and also because a lot, a lot of kids, including,
I don't know if I had it on my sisterhood, but we certainly had
a couple of super grand books because the Lords of kids had
super grand books. Forrest Wilson.
Yeah, yeah. So I mean, I'm not saying it's a
sort of, you know, Harry Potter painted again, penetrated, you
know, the level of cultural. But then I don't think Forrest
Wilson was it ever became a horrible Internet troll either.
But but but it was, you know, so loads of kids had them, you
know, like there was a whole break sort of collection of
books at the time, Like, you know, all kids seem to have like
the worst witch and rolled out books and things like that.
But you know, back with kids books.
See, I had, I had when I was where I was growing up.
We had our own homegrown hero, if you like kids TV.
Well, kids, you call it like a graphic novel, I suppose,
although they didn't call it that in the mid 80s.
Yeah, there was this. There was this illustrated kids
book called Terry and the Gun Runners about this, I guess sort
of. So what was it?
Written by Marjorie Taylor Green.
Not quite though. It was about this, this young
marry lad who gets involved with these gun runners, some some
shady characters. And it was adapted for
television around 85 I think, right?
And I've mentioned it quite a few times on Goon Pod because
they bought a cross to play the lead villain, none other than
Michael Benting. Oh God, really?
Wow, that's amazing. Should help.
So he was he was my that was, you know, that was our
equivalent, I suppose, to something like super grand or or
whatever short term. But so when we knew that TV
series was being made, there was such excitement.
But anyway, that's that's by the by.
But but Super Grand had everything that you wanted at
the time. As I say, I was 10 at the time.
So it had a great theme song, you know, Billy Corley's theme
song. It had animated titles
automatically. Amazing.
You know, I had a big build up, a sort of Fraggles are coming
level of excitement, yes, you know, and everything until you
actually saw it and then it was all right.
I mean, it was bad. It was just, it was all right.
So by the way, we are talking about in a particular episode,
we are going to talk about Supergran in general, but we are
also going to focus on a particular episode because it is
a it has a very special guest in the shape of Spike Milligan,
obviously, and he and he appears in this episode super grand and
the missing hissing, which I was I've just looked at that.
That went out on April the 14th 85 and I've got the time tease
listing and that was on a Sunday.
So sandwiched in between here we go something called hotel and
bullseye. Well.
There's a line up for you. Was it before Bullseye?
It was immediately before Bullseye, yeah.
Right, right in the groovy slot. And then heart to heart.
Then highway with Sir Harry Secombe and.
Gloucester see that the bath time.
But sorry, I interrupted you there.
But yeah, I mean, the other thing, right?
I in my head, I just my memory obviously, because I wasn't
paying close attention and I haven't really thought about
super grand in the last 40 years.
But I had it in my head that it was actually set in some
indeterminate Scottish village or town.
Yeah, that's. Not is it?
No, that's the that was, that was the thing actually, that
even at the time I remember I was thinking this is about weird
because it's made by time tease. It's basically said, well, I
mean, everybody say I, you know, forgive my philological
shortcomings, but it sounds like it's based on Newcastle or
certainly in the Geordie hinterland.
Yeah, the body is the scanner Campbell who's couldn't be more
Scottish. She's basically Charlie Engel.
Yes. I knew and of course super grand
is and it's you know, is this get bagpipe using stuff, but
everybody else in that's a Jordy it's and at the time it seemed
even then it seemed like why is everybody talking like that?
So that doesn't that kind of doesn't help with the with the
purchase. But when you're a kid, you just
accept these kind of things like over whatever town she lives in
in Scotland or talk like that for some reason.
It could be anywhere. It could be in the Kingdom,
could be in the Borders, who knows, Could be in the Western
Isles, because these places might as well have been New
Zealand for some. Yeah, so good, Goodrin.
You're the the titular character.
Yeah, she just died last year. So I believe 98 years old and
she looked ancient then. Yeah, yeah.
But I think that was probably one of those when you consider
she was 98 last year, then she was under 15, late mentally 50s.
Of course. Yes, of course.
Which is the sort of equivalent of, you know, that favorite, you
know, the fact that when on the buses started, Blakey was
younger than I am now. And Reg Manny was 52 or
something, wasn't. It.
Yeah, yeah, just the terrible, the terrible thing I just
realized of ideas that in a couple of a few weeks time I'll
be the same age that Wilfred Bramley wasn't Cocoon.
I've passed that point mate. Oh, I've passed.
That point. Too bad, too bad.
So anyway, yeah, so but I mean, it's funny because super
grounding references people say in Northern like super ground
and all that dead processed. I mean that people would say,
you know, you still hear people saying, oh, there's super grad
over there, but I'm not sure that I'm not sure the actual
program itself, you know, lives in people's minds.
It's one of those things where, you know, the reference point is
where like it's like, you know, all of you on the buses.
It's long lived people's memory of the of the actual program
itself. Yeah, although somebody's
lobbying to get somebody's written a script for a film
version of Super Grand I. Think though, that I think
there's that's one of those things that they were talking
about since the TV program. Right.
I'm sure there was like, chat about it on and off, probably by
the people who own the rights to, you know.
Is is Annette Crosby too old now to play?
Yeah. The thing is and broken Britain,
our super grand could have been a fairies, frankly, if you
listen to the Daily Mail, for example, but you know, yes, yes,
I'm sure you could come up with that reason.
You get the, you get the Daily Express nominating Angela
Rayner, something like that. Yeah.
And our stolen houses. Weird shoes.
Yeah, shop to. Right, so scanner cap.
So Ian Cuthbertson, obviously a legendary actor, both the
television stage film. I, I know him principally,
mentioned Charlie and I, I, I always think of him principally,
although he's not in it very much in the the film version of
the Railway Children, of course. Of course, Yeah, of course I
believe in varies. Heartbreaking.
Daddy, my daddy. He's a great actor and I always
sort of refer to quite what was like if you're sort of Scottish
and you go abroad when you used to do that sort of thing.
I always feel that to be understood.
You either go or to talk. You either go one of two ways.
You either go sort of Johnny BA, which is like, how you doing, or
Ian Catherson was sort of Charlie.
And they're like, oh, yeah. Just to be Margarita, if you
don't mind, sweetheart. But he is one of those actors
that just seemed to be around, you know, obviously he'd be
there. Oh, God.
Now, see, I can't remember the name that TV series would have
played the, the, the Sullivan's Law, Sutherland's Law.
Yeah, which was like quite a whale.
New Year's quite a help. And he was in, how could be said
everything, you know, And he was guest starred and everything.
And they need a very famous stroke.
No. Yeah, it was, you know, because,
you know, somebody falls, quite somebody's famous fault.
I'll never be like, oh, stroke, but a stroke.
And he became sort of a spokesperson for for that kind
of thing. So I mean, he was well seeped
into the the popular culture of Scotland, probably in England
and Wales or the rest of the UK. Our UK is probably Charlie Endor
would be the thing that he was emotional for or Budgie
effectively. What?
Yeah, What does Scanner mean? If you're scanned or you could
be, you could be scanned, which is that you're fed up.
You're like put off suddenly you can be scanned off a person that
or like it's a if he that's the start.
Undoubtedly, you're probably just scanned off between eggs by
eating too many of them, and a scanner is a person who's just a
bad guy. Yeah.
And all-purpose, yes, yeah, it's.
Right, so this episode with Spike, I mean, OK, the plot of
this particular episode super grand in the missing hissing
Well, the Skynet, Campbell's chasing a winning lottery
ticket, which is lost by a gust of wind and it ends up going
down to the sewer and all all over.
Mrs. Petunia Preston is missing Cyril the snake, which is
actually an old vacuum cleaner hose.
Yeah, which? Is, which is something that
you've not told for a while. Immediately.
No, No. And now she can't perform at the
Orphans Tea Party and there's a lot of orphans in Jesmond or
wherever this wherever this is set.
Yeah, it's like there's been a like an Aberfan sort of event
locally, like it has been some sort of regional war with
Cumberland. No, that there's a so there's a
few a few problems with this block, right or this setup.
First of all, aforementioned snake is not a snake, which
you're not told until after the draw pictures of.
Have you seen a snake with a snake on it?
Doesn't say. Have you seen a snake that's
made a Hoover tube? Doesn't say that.
So that's that. Second of all, it's kind of
Campbell and his band of Jordy sidekicks for some reason have
the cup of tea in the canteen of this place.
And as you say that the the one in tech, about 10,000 lbs at the
time, which would have probably bought you, I don't know, a
house, car, a holiday on Concord, didn't you know, left
you enough money to buy brace cashiers or something and it
blows out the window and then super grand for some reason
decides this is a terrible thing that's going to follow.
Why? It's just the one out.
It's just got a lot of ticket. He lost.
He's trying to find it was it was pretty well.
He's not obtaining Vadnais. Well, is she?
Is she always? Is she always giving in the
skunk eye? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
She's well, you know, she's always trying to foil his
dastardly clients. There's just not a dastardly
client. If she did, he's feeling hard
about it. She's going to help him give a
boom. Brain been me.
We're going to go now, but to the chiseled tip and hurry.
What are you off doing such a hurry?
Push off the old man's bag. What's that thing?
She's contraption that she's. Yeah, so and it must have been
one of the who's the first episode this when she gets hit
by the Professor Black's magic ray that turns her into super
grand. And then he produces like a
series of machines and, you know, devices that she exploits
in our well, just not efforts to bomb up.
It's got it's got a gamble whether he deserves it or not.
And one of them is a sort of flying bake.
And actually, when the when this single came out of a for the
theme to Bellicorn was there theme tune.
It was a picture desk. If you remember those Oh yes,
for the young a record, there's a flat thing you put in a
machine that played music and the picture desk was it was
made-up of a picture and the picture desk was enormous.
It was a single, but it was enormous and it was a huge cut
of heart on this bike thing. It's incredibly unwieldy so that
if you had like a dancer or something, it wouldn't go right
because it was like the size of a of a 12 inch Oh.
Geez, did a plate. Yeah, if you have a huge it can.
We had that now, something to give it my dad.
So anyway, that's what she's sort of the incredibly unwieldy
thing, which is like one of those things like his, you know,
I'm sure it soars through the sky so high, you know, but it
doesn't do very well on the ground, No.
And then? That's that single.
By the way, that single did really well in in New Zealand.
And that well here. In my head I want to say my in
my memory it charts it was in the top 10.
Although, right, or and then New Zealand.
Oh yeah. All right.
Well, that's the Top 40 here. Yeah.
OK, we. Didn't have a lot of writing.
But yeah, I mean, it was, it was.
It's a fun song, although it's quite problematic nowadays.
Yeah. You know she makes them look
like a bunch of fairies is probably not the best.
Yeah, I was thinking about that. I was looking at the lyrics here
actually. You know, I, I genuinely haven't
looked, but I could probably tell you where they were, but
I'm not going. Does United Dairy still exist?
No, the bill existed then. It's one of those things we have
the person doing who's writing the song is making references
that matter to matters the name from being a kid.
Yes. Which means it's a reference for
the 50s, you know, like, what is it?
Stand back Superman, Batman, Spider man?
No, Stand back Superman, Ice man, Ice man, Spider man Batman
and Robin 2. The one that cause the raucous
with BA Baracus. And I've got a match for you.
Yeah, she makes him look like a bunch of fetishes.
Got more ball than United Deities?
Give a show your father look how you're super grand she's.
About. Looking at her and then there's
a medley where he goes she's this is the best was the best
bet and this was what was annoying.
There wasn't the program because on the record that then when
she's a serious granny, it's called a super Gran, a serious
granny, super grand. She'll do the things that you
never saw your granny do. Cut to Ian covers and going is
there nothing that she can you do.
Then there was a saxophone break.
Of course it was the 80s. Well, better than the program.
What are the other things? I always thought was weird, but
it was the guy that plays the professor Bill Shine, who was
like a BET player in films for probably since the war.
And even as a kid I remember thinking that should be Leslie
Phillips. It looked like he should be
Leslie Phillips, but and it's you know, anyway, I don't know.
That was different by that was Leslie Phelps was appearing in
Whoops with my trousers and. Yes.
The alarm, rough ear and buckinghead.
Yeah, but that made Leslie Phillips would go on in the 90s
to appear in some of the worst sitcoms ever.
Well, he he appeared in that terrible it was it honey for
tea? Yes, which was not funny.
Apart from him, he was great. No, he wasn't.
Oh, he was great. In it is the Mooney Buster
playing the piano and all that. I'm usually so they had it for
about two minutes every episode. He wasn't that.
He was in the same years and he was in the House of Winds.
Was that the House of Windsor? Of course it's cold.
I don't know what's that. Hang on a minute, honey for tea
had tear a bloody Felicity Kendall doing an awful American
accent. Yeah, and it.
Went and it went on for ages. Honey for tea.
Well, no, it was only one. Was it 2 series or one series?
Oh, was it Christ? It felt like it went on forever.
Right. Yeah, he was in.
He was in House of Windsor the same year.
No idea what that is. Writer Principal Writer Russell
T Davis. Oh, it didn't have a proper
ending then. Warren Clark and Leslie Phillips
headed up the cast. Oh, that no is ringing a very
vague bell. How many episodes?
6 episodes, series. But you know, that's back we
were talking about before that was back when you used to have a
sitcom. See for what?
Then what? Try another one.
Absolutely. We watched me and some friends
watched a bunch of sitcoms the other night.
Just old ones. Oh happy band.
Which the budget for that must have been astronomical.
Yeah. Just the the the the number of
cast and the outfits and the all the paraphernalia and all sorts.
Potter, the Alpha Lo. Yeah, that's that's that's a
disappointment for a shoot. It sounds like it's going to be
a stereo. It's not really.
No, well, it's Roy Clark. Just really and tell you what I
watched I've never heard of before. 1 Series, 1984 Five The
Hallo Goodbye Man starring Ian Lavender.
Right. Good.
Never heard of that. It's a vaguely familiar, but I
don't I mean to remember. I watched the other night an
episode, the first episode of I didn't know you cared, I.
Heard that pardon. Which is which is an amazing
cast. Oh yeah.
Yeah, it's just it's and you know, it's not funny, but I
thought but it's not. I mean, Robin Bailey, John
Comer, Liz Smith, Stephen Ray, you know, yeah, it's a great
cast, but and it's quite a nice setup, but it's part, it's that
whole up North Manor, which the women that are really in charge,
you will certainly. It's just a nice problem, you
know? It's just the last of some of
wine. Yeah.
By any other name really isn't. It.
Yeah. Well, that's John Coleman.
Yeah, crossover. Of course, yeah, yeah.
Anyway, right OK, I wrote this down.
Watching this episode of Super Grand and.
It. Could have knocked me down with
a feather scanner. Campbell refers frequently.
Not just the ones, but frequently refers to.
As the old minge bag, why don't you invent your own business,
your minge bag? I don't believe they didn't all
know what they were. Saying yeah.
And it has this weird structure where there's the voice over,
you know, as if it's like a serial, you know, like a
Republic serial or something like, you know, like a Dunoit
thriller or, or a bad version of Blade Runner.
Well, you know, there's this narration and it's like Scanner
Campbell when his motley crew went on to the mainstream to try
the post box. Yeah, I can see them doing that.
What is this audio description? It's it's, it's got that thing
that kids programs tend to, I don't know if they still have,
but that real sort of heistened reality.
But they don't make kids programs anymore, so they don't.
Know No, I was. I was actually quite disgusted,
genuinely disgusted by the the scenes in the sewer.
Oh, they are horrible with a shit flopping in front of that
poor guy. Yeah.
Roy Evans. God love them.
It was really disgusting. Which I I I I probably thought
was hilarious at the time. Hello.
Is that the Chiselton Sewage Authority?
Hello. I don't really probably see
around the rest. Right.
Yeah. I'm afraid I've lost something.
Incredibly. Well, not very valuable.
I told them you're suicidy. Oh yeah, the chiseled in High
Street suit to be precise. I should have placed him.
I knew the face. I couldn't place him.
Well, he's a sort of Jewel Gladwin, kind of, you know, I'm
sure he was, and I'm sure he was somebody's pure blood husband.
And Last of the Summer Wine. Well, he I looked him out and
sure enough, I knew him. Principally he was he appeared
in the first series of the of the Blackadder, which is which
I'm very fond of right playing. Playing a shit covered peasant
basically. He came a long way.
And he was, and right he was in MASH.
Oh, that's right. I'd I'd looked that up as well
and I'm sorry. He was in the episode of MASH.
I wondered whether he was training for orderly.
The trade orderly. Orderly Little of the MASH
401-4077 yeah, it's so that yeah, that was it was rotten.
And then of course there's a lot of failure pointless running
around. You know, it's something I
always hate that you know, or we just about get in the blows away
and like really. Yeah.
And then of course you get to. And then suddenly the sneakers
introduced. Are you like, what?
Are we still after the ticket? Now we're after the reward for a
snake that's a that's a handbrake tunnel on the plot.
Well, they should be concentrating their their
efforts on the on the ticket. Concentrating grand it is 10
grand. She's not giving you 10 grand
for I know prove apart or even if it was a real snake.
Yeah, and of course, we get to the zoo.
And this is where we meet Spike. Yeah, we meet Spike and his full
fancy Fred, a working man voice making bizarre references.
Probably improved. I think improv He refers to a
hair brush that's just just been dropped in one of the cages as
Dick Flight, a flightless hedgehog.
And he has. I had expected them to have a
zookeeper hat with a huge sighting zoo or something on it
and instead he has like a sort of a animal print headband
because it's on safari. Yeah, with his little mustache,
Hitler mustache. Yeah.
And and he refers to himself as he says, this is where I think
it's improvised because he says I am keep, I am keeper.
And then he thinks Stuart Grainger.
Up there is a a Sparrow, unnamed because he's an intruder in here
and that animal is a Belgian blue called Solobud.
And then somehow the fake snake is in the zoo.
I mean, I only watched it and I don't know what happened and.
There's some sort of mix up with the basket.
You mean there's a scene of confusion that would have been
easily explained? Absolutely.
I know. Happens every week.
I've written down one of the lines in this.
I'm assuming Spike's character must have shouted this follow
Brenda's knickers and I don't. I don't remember that.
Yeah.
I mean, there's not a lot to say about this.
I mean, it ends, it culminates, I mean spikes in it for about
5-10 minutes. Yeah, well, even all mics. 5
minutes total maybe? Absolutely, and it culminates in
some sort of comeuppance for Scanner Campbell and his Notley
crew. Well, yeah, they get the Tucker
and then Super Grand steals off them and gets into the bloody
orphans. 10 grand. Well, this will be for the
rodents for the next step. Oh, wait a minute.
It's not like like when you like to donate a bit of us.
No, I'm just going to steal it off you.
What are what are orphans going to spend it on, really?
I mean, in 1985, God knows. Space hoppers, Lolo balls.
No, it's bizarre. I was just like, you've
literally stolen all of them. He didn't steal the tickle off
somebody, but definitely they've been stolen off.
Somebody if one of the kids. Said one and and won the apple
and he'd stolen the ticket and, and he's been.
Publicly degraded. He's had to degrade himself in
public by performing a Morris dance.
Yeah. Oh God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Touching the back of the man.
About that. Apparently Spike enjoyed filming
this so much. That he became a Newcastle.
United season ticket holder right up until his death,
apparently. That's fantastic.
They put, they clearly had them for one day, Yeah, you know, and
he might be travelled up, you know, but but that was the back
of the day at the time where they would like, you know, pay
your fear up, put you up in a nicer tail, whatever, send you
back, do you nice. Yeah.
There was a proper job. And that's the sort of when you
look at the the number of serious actors and well known
people, well cared faces who appeared in children's dramas in
the 80s, especially the monthly 80s.
And, you know, you would look for why, Why are they appearing
in that? Well, it's a proper job.
Yeah, you. Know they're working.
Actors bit of a jolly I. Suppose and easy work if you.
Look at the number of films, for example, that were being made in
1984 and in 1985. There's no many, no, the only
ones of any nor things like, you know, produced and made in
Britain are things like well, you laughter, private function
and in 1984 and things like that.
But, you know, clockwise. That we covered clockwise.
But you know the majority, there's not much going on.
So you take the work, you take the work you can get, you do.
Chris, what I'm going to do OK, there's there's been there's you
know, there's such a long list of famous household names in in
many, many different fields, not just acting, but in sport and
music as well, who have appeared as special guests in super
grand. I'm not going to read them all
out. What I'm going to do, I'm going
to read you 5 or 6 or 7 or 8, right?
I want. You to tell me?
One of them never appeared. Oh, right, OK, right when.
You tell me which. Which one you think never
appeared in Super Grand, right? OK.
John Gielgud I'm not actually
sure about. That I know.
Right. Derek Deadman, Right?
Would he have? Appeared in Super Grand.
Do you think he'd be very? He'd be very.
Busy with never between. Well, that's true, yeah.
And he was filming Ballshot around this time as well.
Yeah, just. Just off of Trade bandits, Yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah. Lulu, your high Kells finest I
really handle because I obviously metal.
Mickey had finished a few years earlier, so she was probably
available. She was always saying yeah.
She's got. Chihuahua food to pay for.
George Best. George Best.
What would be the attraction of three Caters and George Bears?
I'll whisper this one. Rolf Harris, are we?
Led to Are we led to? Mention Rolf Harris these days.
I think for the IT was just a. It was just a.
Fact. We've just got to face it.
OK. John Otway.
John Otway, right? OK.
Marry, marry Melvin. People do all that, Barry
lending money. He was in Ghost in the.
Noonday sun He was indeed. How many?
How many they? Needed a vicar.
Did they did a comedy Vicar? Willy Thorne and and and finally
Patsy Rowlands, right? OK, which one of them didn't?
Appear which? Which?
Which one? That is so hard and I'm sort of
welling it down, but I genuinely don't know and I'm going to say,
God, it's either Murray, Melvin or who were the last couple,
Billy Thorne? Willy Thorne.
And Patsy Rowlands, 1985 well. We thought I'm going for money,
Melvin. Not probably wrong.
I bet you steady, Deadman. No, you're wrong, Murray.
Melvin. Appeared playing a playing a
character called Neville Mintz. No, the one that didn't appear
was Rolf Harris. Oh, there you go, show.
It. Oh well, but But no, Rolf Harris
wasn't in it, but Gary Glitter certainly was.
Oh, you can. He won't.
Ken Campbell was in it, of course It was great.
Ken Campbell. Paul Shane.
Leslie Phillips was in it as well.
Was he? Leslie Phillips.
Yeah. Was he very noble, Bill Shane?
Pat Coombs, of course. Billy Connolly.
I seem to remember Billy Connolly being in it.
Wasn't it more than once? Wasn't Ricky Fulton in it?
Yes, he was. Yes, there you go.
Melvin Hayes, Bernard Cribbins, Oh, Charles Hawtree and Patrick
Troughton. Both of them.
It was their last acting gig. I knew that because that's one
of that's that one of the very few facts that I knew about
Super Grand is that it was Charles Hawtree's last.
And for a long time I thought it was that that weird clip of them
just as Dracula and run around. I.
Think it may have been super grand?
When was that? When was that, that TV interview
that he did where he was clearly pissed as a fart?
Yeah, so much more delicately than I would have when he comes
out and sort of points that the interviewers have to say, oh,
it's you. Was that around this time?
Well, I suppose. It must have been he must have
he must have run out of money by bed heads deal.
God love them so. OK.
So I think needed that, needed that, Charles.
House Sherry Money. I want to talk about so, so
Spike was in that, obviously, and I want to just run through
some of the show. There's another show I want to
talk about in more detail, but unfortunately that Spike was a
guest star, which was the Sooty Show.
OK, sadly, and I've tried, I've tried so, so hard to track down
a copy of the, the episode that he was in from 1986.
Yeah, called Suto. Suto.
Grams. Yeah, they must believe White.
Don't bother. And they're asked for that
stuff, are they? No lost.
Copter who episodes. Were over it, yeah, but I want
to come back to Sooty. Because I want to spend some
time talking about Sooty and I want to try and imagine what
that episode would be like. Could we lose the bottom
episodes of? Doctor Who?
Oh, controversial. Should he was?
It's funny thing, isn't it city? Because so in fact, Isabella,
Doctor Who, it's like, who's your city?
Is it Heidi Corbett? Is it Matthew Corbett or the new
guy, Richard? Richard Cadell.
Who? I desperately wanted to know if
he was related to Simon Cadell. Apparently I don't see that as
no. It's a shame.
I was using this guy. They do a lot there's a lot you
get a lot of social media city, which which is great, which
brightens your day if it ever pops up and and and the
Hailmouth of social media watching city climbing stairs.
There is sweet brother claiming stairs as a fireman.
Is is when you see his feet or his legs.
But you don't anytime. Any you know you know I I have a
very hard and fast food you should never see, for example,
Muppets legs no. Just just kills them.
No the map the. Map movie was wrong in so many
ways. That's just that thing with them
on. The bikes, No, that, no, no, no.
I mean, it's very impressive, but it's not right.
On the other hand, sweet anytime.
The great thing about Sweep, who is of course the single greatest
fictional character ever created.
Comedy character ever created, can I claim?
Is that that you're always clever enough never to show
sweep in full, running inside it's waist and above, cut to
little legs going, which is just so funny.
And then he's climbing up climbing.
Up the ladder to the diving board.
You see the legs. Oh, that's another.
Day. It's just hysterical sweepers
just so and inherently funny. It's just fantastically funny
city. I would come and go on a Sue can
write it, yeah. But.
But I like. The I like.
The the I mean, Harry Corbett is of clearly was a lovely person.
It was very sweet and that all about my everybody and all that.
But the whole setcoms thing that Matthew Corbett used to do, I
love that. I still love it when you see the
clips that crop up every now and again of them cleaning the band
or tie of a bath or something. It's just hilarious.
Sweep. Sweep.
Just calm down. Stop it.
Stop, stop, stop. It's his way of getting rid of
excess energy, Matthew. Also his way of giving me a
dizzy spell. Sue.
Oh, yes. So she says the reason that
Sweep is so excited is because I've allowed Swoop, swap and
swipe to stay the night. Somebody knocking at the door.
Well, it's certainly been a busy day for you, hasn't it?
Sweet. This is brilliant.
You want to wave to your family? Well, off you go.
I'm sure Matthew does mine. Be my guest, mate.
Go on. Say goodbye.
Say hello. Oh, hang on.
This rookie coming back. Just mate.
Come on in. Something.
Who on earth was it at the door? You're ever so excited?
Well, tell us who it was, because the suspense is killing
me. Oh, don't tell me.
It's probably Princess Diana again.
Is it calling round? She never warned me.
Anyway, whoever it is, it must be pretty important that you
are. Yes, I'm sure you are.
But it just up in here. Who are you?
Your Sweep's dad. And this is Sweep's mom sweeping
up the whole of your family here.
Not quite. What do you mean, not quite?
There's these other brothers. What do you mean, these other
brothers? How many brothers are there?
There's another seven in the litter.
Well, there's already enough people here.
It's a shame they couldn't make it, isn't it?
They can. But who's that?
There's another brother there. Hang on a minute.
Somebody else hit you know what? So you better come to sleep in
my room. The place is kind of sweet to
goodness it other than I'm coming.
Anybody says it's just a weird I I used to watch city.
As a kid, religiously. Oh well, why we love there's.
Something the matter? With you if you don't.
Know if you could like it? Yeah, we all love sweet.
Sweet was the one. Amazing, amazing.
Matthew was certainly my my. City.
I don't know what. Do we call them my city owner?
Yeah, companion. I don't know.
Where I live, by the way, where I live, I'm not going to name
the name. The village you live now you
live in a. Village.
Wow, it's not you. Stuck in son, one day you.
Live in a big town? It's not really.
A village anymore, but anyway, it's they still they persist in
calling it a village right. But we've we've had we have we
have at least that I can think of four famous people that live
in or around. OK.
Although, all right, OK. And it used to be.
It used to be. And he's still around.
I still sometimes knock into him in Sainsbury's, Ian Brown from
the Stone Roses. Right, Right.
Muttering. About Japanese war crimes, more
often than not. Do you believe it used to be?
Obviously, he's dead now. Jimmy Corkill from Brookie.
He used to live around here, right?
OK, there is a point to this, Chris.
Dean Sullivan. Is that Dean Sullivan?
Dean Sullivan, That's right. And.
I think, I think, am I right in thinking, did he not used to
live with Fred the weatherman? Did he?
I think he did, Fred. Tolbert I.
Think he did. I think Dean, sorry, sorry.
Can we just can we just take a little step aside?
You for sight? Yeah.
Dean Sullivan lived as in cohabited.
Oh, yes. With Fred Tolbert.
I die. Die, die, die.
Don't know what to say about that.
That's that's possibly the story of the year.
Yeah. Well, that was that.
I, I think, I think that's true. If it's not true, then I I
apologise to Fred Tolbitt. Let's say that.
Let's just run with her. Yeah.
Where were we? So, yeah.
So anyway, the point I was making, so we had we had Dean
Sullivan, the guy that used to be in Coronation Street is now
in Emmerdale, whose name I can't remember, see him all the time.
And, and up until COVID, we had Matthew Corbett, right?
Oh yeah, he took. He took.
Very. Poorly, didn't he?
Yeah, COVID. Yeah, he lived alongside the.
The canal that runs through the village in a very nice house.
Very nice house. Well, you should hope so.
Used to. See him and wave.
At him, although his real name is.
It's not Matthew. It's something else.
Peter. Peter, that was it.
Yes, did you see when he waved back?
That he left his hand and so he was on his hand and he fell away
with city, That would be great. Or even better, if he could
produce sweep and then like fletching the vacay with sweep,
that would be even better. You ever see that episode of
Knowing Me, Knowing You where Partridge is interviewing that
former photocopy repairman who's become a Hollywood and.
He wants to put it all behind and he says can you?
Can you I? Challenge you to fix this
photocopy. And he momentarily he's back,
he's back. He's back in the vibe with it.
And then he says, I don't do this shit anymore.
I can just imagine. Imagine Matthew Corbett being
the same as Sooty. What do you think?
It was like Gordon Murray and he had like a big bonfire.
Pardon everything, although. I'm considering he's sold the
franchise to your man Cadell for £1,000,000.
I would be. I would be much it.
Doesn't seem that doesn't mean that I just sold them a suited
doll. For Hoffa, the the.
The the sooty name though, Surely it's worth more than a
million, I'd have thought. I'm not an IP lawyer, but the
the. Why I like the Matthew?
Corbett, because you get that. I'm obviously I've only seen
like archive clips and all that of Harry Corbett doing the city,
but it's you know, like it's quite sweet and you know, he's
rubbing his eyes and but I know that.
But I much prefer the sort of an Arctic, you know, to, you know,
the squatty garden and ultra violence.
Absolutely, which is which is way more funny.
I love this so show. It's a fantastic show and I also
had great, great stars. Yeah, and.
And so sotograms, we don't we we haven't seen it.
We've seen a very brief clip of it.
Yeah, Yeah. But the, the, the, the synopsis
is that Sweep has singing lessons for his new career.
In Suti's latest singing sotograms venture, Matthew and
Sue help laugh it already. Matthew and Sue help.
By making birthday cakes with plenty of cream in them and
guess Spike Milligan is at the receiving end of all this wild
activity. So what What do we imagine
happened then? The the some sort of calamity
occurred. Well, it's sadly.
It's sadly finished with at least Matthew was with a cream
cake in his face. Hopefully.
Spike Yes. With the cream cake in the face.
Although probably with spanking blackface on 1st and then just
sit in the sweep rather in the back, try to sing.
You know, voodoo lady. We built this city.
I imagine, I imagine sweet no is like Les from a cranberry Lee
just. Squeaking that it's.
A shit business. Shit business?
Yeah, really, really bad with a with a suitcase.
Full of tapes. Yeah.
Yeah, Polishing something. Polishes in Browns floor,
probably around the corner, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. But.
You could imagine. You could see why.
Yeah, you could see why Spike would love being involved in all
this. Be him.
Yes, with the Vert. You can imagine appealing to
his. His.
Identified. There was an ITV as well, sweet
enough to engage with the BBC, Yes, who had done them out of
the two series expected to have every year.
Oh. Yes.
He never talked about that though.
No, it's very subtle. But pretty discreet, Edith, what
do you reckon? I mean, you, you said that Sweep
is the greatest comedy character ever.
Spike. Do you think Spike would have
recognized that? I don't know.
And the the. Clips I've seen over talking
about it, there's a documentary on YouTube about about city and
he sort of interacts with the with the with suited himself
while wearing a proper like AQ series nose of course.
But I'd like to think that he identified with with sweep.
But I don't know usually, you know what Malika could get
really sentimental about stuff. They certainly never mentioned
Sue. What is it?
There was Sue. And of course there was Scampi.
Is that his name? Scampi.
Yeah. But this like.
Little schoolboy outfit on travelling.
That's right. Was he?
The product of some sort of sexual relations between Suti
and Sioux? No, because was he not?
I think he was Suti's nephew. Was he?
Also. Vocally challenged, right?
So you know. The familial setups were what
about weird but. I think sweet.
Was supposed to be sweet, not meant to be like his brother or
something. I was never quite sure what the
relationship was. I like to think that they were
friends in the army. Sooty and sweet.
Yeah, like they did the National Service.
Together, yeah, And then? As Sooty got more.
Famous sweet just turned up one day with tiny look you like
you'd see his legs, just his legs.
With the bottom of we. Suitcases coming up the path.
And you just stand there and go. You know, with, you know, like
with Eric Walker, you like overcoat and hat on.
Not done much since. Since we left, it's Aiden.
Yeah, you know. Do you don't Remember Me from?
Said the Alka beer. I was like, oh, we'll come.
In and then he just never moved out yeah, that's what I.
Like to think what? What relation is soot?
To Sooty. Is she not his girlfriend then?
Is she just some? Well, I mean, I always.
I always, I always presume that she was just some sort of yeah,
relative who was just there to try and pass on everybody's
chips. Hector.
Yeah, sooty and sweep. Yeah, well, not Hector Roden,
not the old. Hector of course, one of the one
of the best uses of sooty and sweep is in the phenomenal a
sequence of the public government and good Israel.
OK. Yeah, we are.
We're we're. We stay up a public government
and use the nationwide stats and Michael Barrett in brilliant
form. There's the new Prime Minister
city. It's Jay wherever there's no
what's that city they they go to try and stop at the cabinets
there that's sitting sweet and sour and Andy Pandy.
They're all there around the table and and when they tried to
grab them. He was not your old Hector.
Hector comes flying across the room.
He gives you have got the chance to just cabaret.
But when he's got his neck. Oh, it's just yes, yes, yeah.
Absolutely phenomenal comedy. Michael Barrett was in quite a
few. Episodes of The Goodies.
He was in them. Yeah, but they they.
Loved news readers, Yeah, but do you remember?
Do you remember the episode called Punky Business where they
they're, they're about three years too late for Punk, but.
But but. Michael Barrett plays a punk
news reader. Right here's the news.
Today's Festival of Light rally. Lord Longford made a statement
on the moral decline of this country in support of this Mary
White House. Mr. Timbrook, today's stage to
protest on behalf of the League of Shiny Shoe Wearers, please
maintain standards. Hunkies off.
The uncouth keep Britain's shoes shiny MPs who were at the time
discussing employment were disturbed by the outrageous
disruption. The sky at night.
I mean, cities, one of those funny things, isn't it?
We're like, I would be really interested to know if kids
nowadays actually know who city is.
And I wonder if it's if the people who actually know who
city doesn't like it when it appears on social media
essentially not just people like me.
You know, when people of my age are people fortying up.
But is is certainly. Not still a going concern, No,
no, Absolutely, yeah. Absolutely is, you know, but it
must be so difficult because the platform is gone, you know,
children's program, children's ITV, the Brim Cup, it's all
gone. And, and that's one of the
things that I find so fascinating about a program like
Super Grand, as well as that the sheer effort and budget and
production, which now you're looking back on it, people must
think is amazingly anachronistic and wasteful or stupid.
Yeah, Yeah. Because.
No, but just nobody. Bothers with it anymore.
I mean, I, I know there are programs for children though,
but they're all like everything though is a sort of ghetto when
the EPG of Nickelodeon or Carbon Network or whatever, ketchup,
God knows. And you know, when the iPlayer
has a section for kids and other CBBS and CBBC know that fine,
but it's not part of everybody's language.
You know, like you're never going to get, you know, Rigsby
saying that he's annoyed he's messed the magic roundabout ever
again. It's just not part of
everybody's life in the same way.
There was kids are kids. Are watching for the hardcore
pornography on streaming? Services, well, I'm sure, I'm
sure the parental controls and police prevent all of that.
I sound like a. Angry letter writer to the Daily
Mail. I came home and my 4.
Year old son was watching a large man shoving an Ottoman up
his ass. Why all?
Why?
An ultimate I just used to watch.
Rolf Harris and Jimmy Savile, what's wrong?
Right. I'm looking at some of the other
shows that kid shows, ostensibly kid shows or programs that
Milligan was involved with. OK.
And we just just run through these and touch them a little
bit maybe. But he was in 11 episodes of
Jack and Lori, of course. Of course he was.
Of course. He was.
Reading things like Bed Jelly, the Witch, which was of course
his his, his own his. Own conflict of interest, which
was a brilliant. Brilliant story and help.
I'm a prisoner in a toothpaste factory.
Right Is that is. That a Charlie in the Chocolate
Factory prequel? I'm not sure.
Who's right? I know Tim Worthington, former
guest, goes on about that quite a bit.
He's very keen on that despite reading that.
So but Jacanori again, I didn't, we didn't get Jacanori when I
was growing up. Why did you not?
No such a donor. I know I mean.
I've seen like episodes since you know, what's the who's the
who's the quintessential Jacanori?
Well, the most. The most.
Prolific Jacanori storyteller is Bernard Cribbins, of course.
Yeah, he didn't. Act like a.
I think 114 episodes, unfortunately not 111 episodes.
So you can do that or no, he was a little joke, but I but the
one, the person I wanted, the two people that I always wanted
when it was Jack and Audit, although I would watched it were
Willie Rushton and Kenneth Hogan's obviously.
Oh, yes, of course, yeah. Because Kenneth Robbins was
just. Phenomenal act phenomenal actor,
so invested in it and you just know he'd landed.
He was not read the offer daily, but you know, and I love Jack
note it's great. Jack Rick May was pretty good.
Yeah, he was fantastic. Because I'm just so into it.
And that's why I find it so weird.
You know, people say, you know these when you do the bedtime
story thing on CBeebies and they have like Tom Hardy and people
like that and they say, Michael, are all these big stars doing
that? Well, yeah, we used to do that
as well. I used to Add all the time,
although Tom Hardy is very good at it anyway.
Right. So spike it, it turns up on both
the multi coloured swap shop and Tiswas.
Oh yeah? Well, here, yeah.
You've got to figure out what to bear.
Tiswas right. A blackface, famously in 79 The
Muppet Show, which we have talked about Yes, yes we.
Have. Well, I've talked about had an
episode of Goon Pot on it basically.
But so the story with that is that he kind of petitioned the
producers of The Muppet Show and sort of said he put himself up
to be a guest, Lou guest. What have I word with you, Lou?
All my life. All right, Spike, for him sake.
He was, he just thought he was, he said.
I think he said something along the lines of I am the perfect
guest star for this, for this show.
Fortunately, in many ways he was right.
Fortunately, after sailors had been on.
By any chance? Yeah, I think so.
Yes, it was. And he's a he's a force of
nature on that show. Doesn't all work, doesn't all
work shortcut. There's no blackface, I don't
think. Kind of hard to believe.
But we won't dwell on The Muppet Show.
You you a fan generally of the The original Muppet Show?
Oh, absolutely yeah. Oh.
It's great. I always I always find it much
again. I often wonder what kids now
think about it, because you're used to seeing The Muppets now
either in films or in sort of social media sketch and sketches
and things where they often work very well.
But the Of course, the the The Muppet Show was a.
A sort of parody of a variety show, like a theatre variety
show. Which, of course, what means
nothing to kids, No. You know, let alone go to the
theatre. Never mind, you know, like so
and they're often saying that sing an old music called songs
and you know, you know it just and you've got the old things
like that. Like the the the cane coming out
to yank off the lousy comedian. Yeah, absolutely.
So the. The rate, the sort of cultural
reference points are sort of lost.
So, but I mean, maybe it doesn't make any difference.
I when I was a kid, I just, I thought it was sort of like a
parody of the good old days, you know, because that was the
opposition that it looked most like.
No, that looks like, it's not like I knew what variety was,
you know, when I was eight or five.
But you know, you thought, all right, well, I kind of recognize
what this is. And you knew the songs because
people sang, you know, you still have those kind of songs every
now and again. But, you know, I'd really like
to. But I'm more of a Muppet move
film person, I have to say. OK, I do happen.
To know that there's quite a number, I think.
I think I might be wrong, but I think we're talking double
figures here. Podcast dedicated to The
Muppets. Oh God, yeah, yeah.
Quite a number. And, and obviously they cover
the the original Muppet Show and I think most of them are
American podcast. So I struggled.
To think what they would. Have made when they're
discussing the episodes, for example the episode when Bruce
Bruce Forsythe. Because how much when Bruce he
was like they were trying to break him into America, you
know, and he did the he did a show in Broadway, like a one man
show in Broadway, and he had you to obviously Sammy Davis junior
doing this PR from scene. This guy, he's the most
incredible entertainer course. And of course, died a death
because, you know, they had some difference between.
So I'm sure that must have been ADFC Liz Leslie Lou, what
probably is agents. Yeah, but yeah, it must.
Have it must have. Seemed a bit weird but then for
us know that we were the pain not in the UK certainly went the
pain consideration for the for the production.
You know there are a lot of people on that wouldn't have
made very much sense to to us. Yeah, I'm trying to think.
Well, I mean if you had a six year old.
And and lived in Glasgow. Rita Merino.
It doesn't really make it mean very much to you.
A Milton Bell. Yeah, well, exactly.
I'm Milty. Milty.
It's that's really alarming guy. He just pleased to see me.
Like I say that that kind of. But yeah, you know, you could
see the Milligan scene, The Muppets and thinking this is
where I need to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, of course Chris Lagam turns up, doesn't even 1
episode. Yeah.
Oh dear, there's a theme been running through our
conversation. Tonight we've been talking about
what people that. That's because we've been
talking about British entertainment.
That's true. That's true.
OK, now I never.
Obviously I became aware of it after moving to this country,
but again, didn't make it to the Kiwi shores.
Spike appeared in an episode of #73 in 1985.
Did he indeed? Yes, tell me about number. 73
What was that? You know, I wasn't a great
number. 73 fan, right? I didn't mind it because you
watched it when it was on, but I couldn't quite get my head
around it because you know, the time we're kind of more used to
like Swap Shop and Saturday Superstorm, things like that, or
even the Saturday show, which all me avoiding things.
And because #73 of this sort of, you know, the premise of the
House Nanny Ethel and Door and you know, the setting or the
Jewel glove and all that. I'll enjoy it much more if you
look back on it now, you know, if you watch clips over or bits
of it and YouTube now. But I was It's Sandy Toxwick,
isn't it? Yeah, Sandy Toxwick was an.
Ethel, I don't know why, because she must have been about 19.
Yeah. And there was dawn that lassie
can't remember, she ended up she now ended up winning an Oscar.
You know she would used. To be a Tutu, roller skate, I'm
sure she, I'm sure. That she made her she won an.
Oscar for short for a short film Who We Told Me and Number. 73
Remember Dawn? I didn't.
I didn't watch it. All right.
Unaware of it. Oh, sorry, sorry.
Right. OK.
I thought you. Meant I.
Think it. Was in super no right so there
was an Ethel, but there was a a young lass in a very tall blonde
hair and she wished to cut by on roller skates.
DAW Dawn. Ah Dawn.
I really don't remember very much.
More about other than that, except that years later she won
an Oscar to people. When that's done from #73 All
right, all right, fair enough. OK, OK.
The Pushpa Capaldi's won one. She can win.
Yeah, did. He did he win it for Kafka's
Dick or something? I know that's Ellen Bennett.
No, it was. The IT was.
It was like the Kafka, something to do with.
It the strange. Childhood of friends?
Kafka or something? Which I God forbid me.
God help me, I've never actually seen him.
Should probably be. Spike, Was it an episode of
Pop's program or how do I remember that vividly?
Because I watched Pop's program every week.
Talk about real programs. Yeah, I watched.
Pop program for. Years never understood what was
supposed to be going on, what was pop, where was he?
How did they relate to everything else in the program?
But it was an incredible amount sort of melange of items and
things and people fall in bets. I will when it was.
But I mean, I really liked it because I watched every week and
you know, and then I remember Milligan being on it because
that time I was in the the goons and everything.
Hello I am in. Head, oh, Head.
Heard now. You've heard of them like dogs
hate got them. Sometimes they bite them under
head and sometimes at least what a.
Now I did used to watch the. I mean Spike, Spike's daughter
is Co creator of this animated series called The Ratties.
Which spike? Narrated.
That was fun. Again, I watched bits of it at
the time. I've not watched it for this
because you know, but it was all right.
But the family Ness wasn't it kind of in I was.
Well, it was. It was a bit.
More anarchic than the the families.
And when the artist came along, I was like just a bit too old
for it, you know, a little bit too old for that kind of thing.
But I do remember it. I remember as being part I love.
I remember principally the great theme to it, which I was, yeah,
theme tune, and that sort of a stifled laughter narration.
That he used to do because. He was most of it, yes, But I
remember it being part of a sort of a number of animated programs
at the time that had sort of weirdly anachronistic narrators
because there was one called for a Mess, which was an Afghan home
called What a Mess, which was Frank Muir.
There was stop it and tidy up Which?
Was true carrot one called. Stop and one called tidy up,
which was Wargan. And yeah.
I know I thought it was pure star fan of one of the and
although the granddaddy of them all was probably Trapdoor.
Which was probably the first. One which is phenomenal with
Willie Ruston. Oh.
Have you never seen Trapdoor? No, get yourself.
To YouTube. I mean, I would recommend you
just stop talking to me now. Go and do it.
Right, they were only. Like 5, they were like 5 or 10
minutes long. They used to be on in that slot.
There was a children's TV slot at like ITV like about half five
or five, half five and they just like a little 10 minute thing to
make up the rest of, you know, the slot from whatever else was
on. Yeah.
And. It was like.
Claymation, and it was a little dumpy character called Bert.
Oh, and a skull called Bony. And he walked in a castle.
With who? And he produced, and he was the
housekeeper and cook for what was called the thing upstairs,
which you never saw. It was just this booming voice
that we'd go. Bert, where's my dinner?
And then they would just smash up worms and things and put them
in the ball. And there was a trap door in the
floor. Occasionally it would open and
things would come out over that. She used to have to beat down
with a speck. And it was.
It also had a great engine somewhere in the dark.
And nasty regions. Where nobody goes stands an
ancient cusp. Deep within this dank and
uninviting place lives Burke. Hello, overworked servant of the
thing upstairs. But that's nothing.
Compared to the horrors that lurk beneath the trap door.
For there is always something down there in the dark.
Waiting to come out. Don't you open that trap door.
You're a fool. Let's.
Get there. Stay away from that.
Hi yourself to YouTube to see it was soon as you get a chance.
So the point being that. The world, the world was sort of
a a number of I animated in one respect or other with comedy
legend, you know, or you know, broadcasting legend voices
attached to of of which the Ratis was of which the Ratis was
one. But then going back.
The Mr. Men series was Arthur Lowe, isn't it?
And yeah, of course Michael Horton was Paddington what a lot
of Mr. Men there are. Well, crib.
Oh, you didn't crib. Oh, you did the Wombles, didn't
he? Yeah, yeah, I love the.
Wombles. I wonder why there's no womble.
Film in production. Maybe you can't.
Maybe you can't be wombling for a wombling free.
OK, that's a good point if. They ever tried to remake The
Wombles? Well, they brought the Wombles
back a while by Elizabeth Beresford, I think before she
died. They did the sort of number of
episodes and exactly the same way that they did them before.
All right. I'm not sure they I'm seeing
recently because it was probably there a year ago.
I guarantee you the time between the original Wombles and the
thing I'm talking about is a way shorter period before the reboot
and no. But yeah.
Yeah, but it must be, It must be true for our resurgence.
The wobbles were great about. 20 years ago, maybe less than that,
I stumbled by accident upon an episode of the new Basil Brush
show or something. Oh yeah, from.
The early. Noughties they would have been,
and it was awful. I mean, I loved Basil Brush back
in the day. It was awful.
Different voice. Yeah, bit like they decided, oh,
let's base Basil Brush on Poochie from The Simpsons kind
of thing, you know? He's gone back to his own
planet. Yeah, it's it's, you know, there
are, I suppose there are things that just stare.
They exist in their own time. But.
But the Wombles surely are even more relevant than they ever
wear. Yes.
Oh. Yes, but.
Yeah, the the the spike would spike would have.
Approved of the Wombles the the message that they were Oh, I'm
sure he did. I'm sure he.
Sure he did, although and because they don't procreate as
well as not adding to the population problem, that's true,
do they not? How do they?
Well, I would hope not, because there was.
Like the E of them and only one of them was Madam surely.
Thank you. Do any cooking?
No wonder Bulgaria had that. Glasses and a stick so they
always used to think. About The Smurfs, I thought
there's something wrong there. Can't quite put my finger up
they're. Making their return in some new
film. Oh dear, they.
Do they do keep on and? I like The Smurfs when there was
a very small child like The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.
It's quite trippy and fun, but it's kind of weird the more you
think about it. Yeah.
So just just to wind up. Now I've never seen just Spike
was again voice over, I believe in a a cartoon I think called
the Great Bon in the early 90s. All right, right with.
With Benteen, apparently. As well, I had moved on to a
different. Kind of great Bon.
Oh, me too. And and.
And a series called Wolves, Witches and Giants.
Oh no, I remember that. In the mid 90s I remember
wolves. Watches and.
Giants, that was when there was that sort of a resurgence of
things like the big nights. And because they were, they were
trying to all these companies were trying to get off on the
Cartoon Network and everything. Then there was like, you know,
when you had like the power of the Puff girls and Dexter's Lab
and all that. Oh yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so you had that animation sort.
Of bust in the sort of mid to the late 90s.
So there was there was obviously a lot of work around which was
actually green use for for all the voice over people and some
of them and some of them are very good.
Dentist lab was fantastic program.
Can't save, seen it. Oh, it's great.
But of course, by that time, Spake was really winded down.
He got to the sort of dawdery stage of his post heart attack,
a thing where he wasn't like snappy snappy a Spake anymore.
Yes, he was. It slowed down.
Absolutely slowed down. Yeah, really it.
Kept on bringing books so you know like no books yeah I've got
those sort of books upstairs that I go for presence of you
like the baby look on this big Millington black PA accord
despite milling which I play fine yeah they're nice to look
at but that's a. Bit you'd never find they're.
Nice to have, but the last, the last books of his that I think
the last book of his that I laughed out loud.
That was the loonie. I just was about to say the
loony. Which is hysterically funny.
I must revisit it. In fact, we could.
Maybe one day, Chris, we could do oh, that would be funny,
because I. I remember I read it as we only
comes in like 50 years so which is like the perfect time to read
it. I'd have been the same, I know.
I I just find. It hysterically funny.
Yes, I just 'cause. I I.
I used to bust out laughing to myself on the bus just seeing
the legally Hills tea growing area of East of East India,
which was the line that he'd learned out of the book, the one
book that you had and just kept on seeing as the only fact that
you knew, which I thought was hysterical.
I must. Reread it, I haven't read it
since I was a teenager. I'll have to get it.
I love that book. I'm.
Sure, it's. I'm sure it's problematic, but
anyway, it doesn't matter. So it's funny.
It's funny though, when. I wonder this is a bit of a
diversion as well. Don't let me do that.
But I wonder how much this sort of.
I'm not and I'm not. But honestly, I'm not going in
getting into the whole and I don't want to.
I mean, I'm not avoiding it, you know, I don't want to be one of
these. So cancellations terrible.
You can't bring back comedy. No, that shit, Yeah.
But. You know, you feel there's a
sort of a cyclical thing, you know, when it was like all
political correctness or you can't see anything, that then
you'd just go. Then there's the rebound.
And then then everyone settles down.
Yeah. And you go from you can't see
anything, you can't get on the telly if you if you can't tell
jokes about the Irish or whatever.
Yeah. And then, of course, it just
settles down. And it's just you're not people
are just aren't being horrible on telly.
You know, it's like you just not tell horrible jokes about
people. And then of course, we've been
through all this sort of a cancellation thing and which is
just people just being told naughty be decks.
And I wonder if that's going to pay this sort of air.
But we know that the world is actually now that Americans
adopted A Leninist economic policy and there are bigger
things to worry about. And the only way to deal with a
lot of it is to is to laugh at it and it will settle back down
and not reset because that's not a good thing.
I don't think you know, But you know, there just be no, just
don't tell nasty jokes about people who you know.
Just learn again to punch up and don't punch down.
Which is what political greatness was in the 1st place.
It wouldn't surprise me. Just based on what you're
saying, they wouldn't surprise me if the entire 8 series of
Rolf's Animal Hospital and People Like Us turn up on
Netflix. Jim will fix it and.
We'll get back if. We can reopen rolls back to
club, yes. Oh dear God.
I did. I mean, people like us it.
Was great though, wasn't it? Yeah.
I mean it was yeah, that.
But that's just kind of my point.
It's like we're not good. I'm not suggesting that anybody
goes back to saying we go back to situations as of course you
just put repeats the jumbo fixer on the telly.
It's been, you know, it's all. Been very controversial for a
long time, exactly the same way as it was 40 years ago.
It all settled down and people just got in with their waves.
It'll happen again because there are things to worry about,
absolutely. Any sort of concluding thoughts
about spikes, kids, television appearances or any any
conclusions that you can draw what I think is.
Interesting looking back on that stage of or not that stage of
his career, but that strand of his career is that he was
clearly far more amenable to taking part and those things
than a lot of other things. And when you compare like for
example, some chat show appearances or a some of his
other personal appearances or another fact, whatever.
We've mentioned the previous of our multi level MLM style chants
that he could be very headless if you got me the right mood.
If he was fine. If he wasn't, it would just make
a trillion disappoint. Yeah.
But that clearly wasn't something.
That he did when he was engaged, you know, fully engaged with a
piano, the kids program because he he he liked engaging with
kids, sly jokes, whatever. But you like kids, you like
being funny, you like being silly and funny.
And he obviously found it very fleeing.
And obviously clearly that's you can do a didn't know if you like
and you could drop it. You're not going to pay
something then not use them. And it's actually just quite
nice to see him enjoying being a part of something, an annoying,
ironic way. You're lucky, but appear, play.
Like, sometimes you would appear on, you know, like the Saturday
Night Roadshow, for example. But then sometimes you would be
built to appear on it. And then he wouldn't be on it
because he was just in a bad way, or he was just a bad mood
or he'd falling over the wavements or something, you
know, that sort of thing. Yeah.
But and then that was when.
You were late. Was it going to be late?
We've had that conversation. Didn't we about embarrassing
your? Goddessing charts your
appearances or or or whatever. But but but what's interesting
it is to leave the timelines next to each other and then in
the meantime, he's voicing the right ease and he's peeing on
super ground and he's taken, you know what he's going on in, you
know, pops program. But he's perfectly happy.
There's no pressure on him. He doesn't have to prove himself
to anybody. He just has to be silly and just
and it's actually sort of young Milligan.
It says, you know, he's he's coming without all of the
baggage that he'd packed up at the previous 30 years.
And that's which is actually just really nice to see.
And it's much better to watch Spank Milligan on super Gran or
pops program than it is to watch him on late night line up or
something or some terrible poetry reading that he's decided
to do is an alternative Christmas night program.
So yeah, whatever. Yes, I'd much rather see him,
you know, talking about being Zookie for Stuart Crazy.
So and and and that was and that way.
It's actually just nice that you did all these things because
it's it proves it proves to to fans and but also to non fans
that it could just be sort of silly and daft.
I know they just say that's why it is, is memory lingers because
it's like when Bill Cotton said to Roy Castle, you know, like
there's no point, you know, if you're doing all this stuff and
it's it's European on varieties. No, that's fine.
But I can give you a kids program and you'll have a career
for the rest of your life because all the kids will love
you and you'll carry for the rest of their lives.
Which is exactly what happened with Record Breakers.
Another example of a program for kids with phenomenal production
values, which is the other lesson from this discussion,
which is I just wish that we still directed resources and
things like that. Thanks again to Chris.
He'll be. Joining me again very shortly on
Goon Pod Film Club to talk about the 90s film Funny Bones
starring Lee Evans, Oliver Platt and Jerry Lewis.
Go to patreon.com/goon Pod and I'll be back next week with
another edition of Normal Goon Pod.
Until then, bye bye everybody, bye bye.