Go there. Oh, there you are.
You're all wet. Yeah.
I must be wet to let you talk me into things like this.
Where's the monster? Oh, he's out there somewhere.
There he is. Look.
Oh, blast. Why didn't you get it?
I've got 1. Never mind.
That'll have to do. Right, though.
Go get it, boy. What do you take me for?
A water spaniel. Go on.
Hi, I got one. I got one.
Have you? Yes, I have.
It's a throat.
Smells like a smoke Throat.
Oh, get him a little darling. Hello and welcome to Goon Pod.
And this week we're tackling a British comedy film from 1961,
which is sort of a pop exploitation film, but not
really it, it's barely a a comedy film really.
No, I'm, I'm being too hard. It's, it's full of faces, which
is something we all like, in particular my 2 guests.
This week it is Gary and Tilt. Hello.
Oh. To give you your full names,
Gary, Roger and Tilt A Riser hosts, presenters, creators of
the Sitcom Club and Jaffa Cakes for Proust.
Once in future, podcasters. They they are on, I mean a
they're on an extended. Hiatus you could say, but there
are plans. We do manage 1A year, yes.
Yeah, yeah. So.
Almost, yeah. There are there are plans in the
works till, although not for us. To Yeah, there are.
To our former body. I'm outside at the moment and
it's a very, it's, it's a bright, sunshiny day.
Like, you know, because the California.
Yeah. Last time you were on with me,
it was what was it? It was man about the man about
the house film. Yes, indeed, and and Andrew was
with us then as well. Yes, and that was that was that
was fine fun. And because you 2 are
potentially looking to relaunch the sitcom club or or some form
of it, this could be a bit of practice for you get back into
the the the the saddle. Well, the plan is, is that we're
going to try and record at least three before we release
anything. My hope is that we can do maybe
6 shows and just call that sort of a mini series.
OK, and today we are talking about the 1961 film starring
Adam Faith and it's called What a Whopper.
That's as much as I can remember of the themes you.
It's an annoying theme tune tilt, I said.
It's not really a pop film, but you.
You, you were on the verge of saying it's not even a film.
You were going like, hold on. Martin Scorsese talks about the
Marvel Cinematic Universe. I'm not that bad.
But I, yeah, you said while we
were watching this the other day that it has the the film, it has
the skin of a rock'n'roll film. What?
What did you mean by that? Well, it's about a bunch of
young people who decide to go on a madcap scheme and try and it's
it's just got that vibe. And of course, one of them is
Adam Fit, an actual pop singer. It just struck me as, and if you
can think of any actual examples, because what?
Well, now I'm seeing it in my mind's complex.
It's just that thing of, oh, we, you know, effectively it's we,
we should, we could put on the show right here, kind of a bunch
of young people are together. A song is sung.
Only one song in this. That's why I said it's the skin,
but not that because it's they're not playing a band and
music isn't at the heart of it. But I'm thinking like, remember
when we watched the Ghost Ghost Gear?
And that was like a madcap scheme of putting on a festival
at a stately home? With ghosts.
Yes, and it's just got that whole thing, but there's only
one song sung within the film and then there's the theme tune
and that's it. So I'd, I'd be curious to know.
I, I tried to do a little research, but I wasn't able to
turn up much. So I'm just wondering, it's
like, were there like 4 or five songs in this and we just ended
up with one? So let's think, well, you know,
Adam Faith's acting is so spectacular, we should give him
the space to act and not have to sing all the time.
Let let us we will talk later about his him in a sporran.
Can I just Yeah, Gary, I just, I just want to not know about.
No, Yeah, we'll come to to stereotypes in in due course.
I just want to point out one thing.
You may already have this in your notes, but when you
mentioned that there was all these young people getting up to
all their, you know, ideas and what have you.
Terrence Longdon I think was 38 at the time.
He was, yeah, I looked that up. He was.
Blimey, how old was Charles Hawtrey?
70 He's never changed, has he? He's always looked the same.
Charles, Oh my God. Charles Hawtrey was let me walk
this out. He was 47.
Right. But he's not, he's not playing
with the young people. He's playing a Bohemian.
But he's loving a commune. Yeah, but that's what I said.
If if you if you hang about these kinds of spaces where
there are young bohemians, there's there's always at least
one guy and there's a couple of guys or gals who haven't haven't
put that behind them and are still living that kind of
lifestyle. Now pardon me, I'm inspired.
Buzz off right now here. My missus would be very
interested when I tell her I met a painter.
Not just a painter, a flicking painter.
Gary, do you think that this film, due to the stereotypes and
whatnot, do you think that it caused a huge spike in
membership of the SNP at the time?
I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm sorry to say that I really haven't done a lot
of research in regards to the correlation between the box
office takings of Wasa Whopper and membership of the SNP. 2nd
1961. They didn't teach red.
Full oversight on my part. Now, OK, here's the thing,
right? Because you know, the Loch Ness
Monster, yes, well, I'm not from the area.
It's Loch has the Internet. It's what?
Loch MV. Yeah, well, well, you say that,
but OK, Loch Ness. But it's not like some of us
sighters might think, oh, Scotland's famous for Loch Ness
Monster way. And like, everybody celebrates
and has a day off every year to celebrate it.
It's just, no, we just heard about this thing and we just
sort of thought, Oh yeah, that's bullshit, isn't it?
Can we say bullshit on this on this podcast?
So yeah, we just always assumed that it was just a swizz.
And yeah, it's not something that's generally associated with
with national pride. I don't think there are any
lines in Flower of Scotland about Nessie, for example.
It's not really something that there's a big.
Feature Gary Gary conflict, you know, but you have to be upfront
about this. You're from the Bonnie, Bonnie
Banks. OK, Now I'm, you know, is there,
is there a bit of is there a bit of tension here between OK, now
I'm getting concerned. Tyler, Tyler, you're the chair
of this recording, and I'm getting concerned that that Till
is exhibiting racialist tendencies here.
Yeah. What?
No, I'm talking about, I'm talking about intranational
tensions, not international tensions.
Yeah. And let's face it, Gary, you
know, you know that I am actually more Scottish than you.
Yeah, Well, OK again. Well, I have drunk Buckfest.
I've drunk Buckfast. Have you come on?
OK, well, I haven't. Haven't really.
I've I've no I've had a snifter of El Dorado, but that's
practically the same thing. Yeah.
I have £0.50 cheaper than I have Italian heritage.
There is nothing more Scottish than Italian heritage.
What was that? What was that?
I've been to the Edinburgh Tattoo, an Edinburgh a minute.
Yes, well, I could get a tattoo if I wanted to.
Boom, boom. But no, right.
Can I just quickly take a wee deviation?
I'm going to mention something here that that you may both
react to and say, yeah, we do about that.
Of course we knew about that. What are you telling us this
for? It's like I'm about to say, did
you notice Spike Mulligan was in a group called the Goons once.
But OK, I was looking up Charles Hartree's aid.
Here OK. And what did you, I don't know
what you think I was. I don't know what you thought I
was going to say there, but it was just the.
Pause. It wasn't intentional, no.
OK. Charles Hartree is described as
an actor, a director and a cinematographer.
And the latter 2 had me intrigued and I'm sort of
thinking, OK, where's that coming from?
And I looked this up and Charles Hawtree does actually have two
directors credits to his name and he also has a
cinematographer credit to his name.
And the latter is a 75 minute film called What Do We Do Now?
And it was produced in 1945 and it was written by George A
Cooper. Blimey.
Wow. Now how do we not know about
this? Does it exist is the question.
Oh, I don't know about that. I mean, I'm just going to have a
look and see. Are there any reviews for it?
Doesn't look like anybody's written their reviews, which
suggests that it might not be doing the rounds anytime soon.
And it features Edmundo Ross. Oh, who worked with Ray
Ellington? Yes, at.
One point. Charles Hodges other director's
credit is a 1945 film called Dumbdora Discovers Tobacco.
That's interesting. That must be like a general word
because Dumbdora I think was a name that was often used in the
clues on match game. Right.
Match match game which was blankety blank.
Which was yes. Yeah.
Right came to the UK via Australia.
If only somebody could do a little in depth podcast about
the law of Match game, Blankety blank and blankety blanks.
Strokes beard Jaffa cakes for Proust.
We did indeed we did. I think it was a was it?
No, it wasn't A2 parter, but oh was it anyway.
We, we, we definitely had an Australian guest and an American
guest to help us go through all this in depth law.
Does cinematography extend to taking cinefilm footage of Irish
navvies? You're flat.
There is a joke I could make about DP but.
Anyway, let me let me bring it back round to the point.
There will be people out there, I'm sure, who have never never
seen, certainly possibly never heard of what a whopper.
So I'm I'm just going to give a summary of, of the film just to
put people in the picture, not nothing too elaborate, no
spoilers as such. We have teen idol at the time,
Adam Faith, who plays Tony Blake.
And Tony Blake is a struggling writer.
He's written a book about the Loch Ness Monster which he can't
get published as public interest in the legend has waned and he
faces eviction from the flat he shares with as, as you said,
some bohemian arty types including Charles Hawtry and
also his friend, his best friend Vernon, who is 38 year old
Terrence London and Vernon's fiance Charlie, played by Carol
Leslie, presumably because Liz Fraser was unavailable.
And Tony decides to revive Nessie Fever by photographing a
couple of inner tubes lash to a plank of wood floating in the
Serpentine, and then travels up to Loch Ness itself with friends
in tow, intending to pass off the photo as proof of the
monster's existence and thus generate media interest.
And in keen yet Kailide pursuit is Charlie's father Freddie
Frinton, someone who's clearly never heard the old adage that
less is more. Heroes arrive at a hotel on the
banks of Loch Ness and embark upon their preparations.
Sir James is a revelation in this picture with his dazzling
performance at Sir James. He plays Wiley hotel barman
Harry Sutton, Simon poacher and arse slapper and Harry's always
trying to keep one step ahead of the local polis.
That's what you call them up there, isn't it, Gary?
Oh, either polis. Yeah, who are they?
Terry Scott and Gordon Rollings, and the film climaxes with Tony
and co's scheme being exposed and then beating a hasty retreat
in a boat. And without spoiling anything at
this point, we then see the entire film's budget on the
screen with special effects. So life like those 1961
audiences were likely being stretchered out of cinemas.
He'll be exposed to tell you exposed.
And why are we doing this on Goon Pod?
Because Spike is in it. Not for long, but Spike is in
it. Sadly, he's not playing a comedy
Scotsman, but he's what is he, a Serpentine bum?
I guess we'll come to him a little bit later.
So chaps, we've already sort of started talking about it.
Well, we've talked about Charles Hawtry.
What are your opening thoughts on the film itself?
Well, can I just mention one character that you didn't allude
to, which is JoJo, played by Lloyd Record, because I'm always
interested in the flotsam trivia and little bits of British
television culture. Lloyd Record is one of the
participants in the first interracial kiss that we know of
on British television and the second and the third.
So the the famous 19 six that that I think it was like 1959,
two in 1959, one in like 1961 or two.
So the the one that had been the previously famous one, which was
on Emergency War 10 in 1964 is not, is not the first British
interracial case on British television, but it does have the
distinction of being the first interracial case on British
television that we know of not involving Lloyd Records.
He he should have gone over to America and Captain Kirk could
have kissed him. When I found out about that, it
was in my imagination that he just had ATV show where he just,
you know. I could pack us up.
Yeah, you know, and taking us into into the news, we've got
Lloyd record kisses this week. Here's Kitty Boyle.
Can I also just mention one of the character as well as Posty?
That's his name. And of course, it's Wilfred
Bramble. No better winds stir the air,
and as I look towards the black waters, I saw it.
It's terrible. Head rising slowly, I'm turning
towards me. It's jaws open.
What was that? The deal?
Is it heaven help? It sounded terrible fierce.
You don't think it was the he have heard the Loch Ness
Monster? Jimmy, I need a drink.
We all do, and I'm paying, and that's something else that
hasn't been heard before. I, I, I, I didn't think his, his
Scottish accent was all that bad.
I think till you you thought it was a bit.
I don't know. Yes, some of them bothered me,
but they didn't bother you. And I'm, you know, I'm willing
to. Well hang on, I know Wilfred
wasn't born and bred Scott but and obviously obviously said
James but he didn't even attempt an exit.
But were the were the others not?
Oh well Terry Scott wasn't either was he?
But isn't everyone else? I think God, Rawlings was the
one that really bothered me the most.
I don't know his, his sounded like, you know, the when
Americans do Scottish accents. Yeah.
But you, Gary, when we're watching this, when, when
Wilfred Bramble turns up, what did you did you say?
Did you offer a counterfactual like the offer with Adam Faith
instead of Barry H Corbett? Oh.
God, yes, that's right. Yeah, I suggested.
Well, I think that the way that I phrased it was imagine if Adam
Faith had played the part of Harold in the offer.
It would have been bloody awful. It would have been.
And I, I, I maintain that and I don't know if we ever got as far
as maybe recasting Wilford Ramble, but no, it's a kind of
thing you could imagine happening because it still
happens today. Of course, you get it all the
time where pop stars or somebody who's you know, in the in in
popular culture that particular week or month or year, whatever
it may be. Then they try the hand acting
and they get a part and something and those kind of
things that they tend to date films much more than than really
anything else about them. If it wasn't for the fact that
if Adam Faith wasn't in this, it would just be another
run-of-the-mill comedy of this era, wouldn't be particularly
memorable. It would be the kind of thing
that would turn up every now and then.
You'd think, oh, yeah, there's a James film that I haven't seen
yet or something like that. But yeah, you get these little
oddities where it's like, OK, yeah, this person is the hottest
property right now on the music scene or whatever it may be.
And yeah, there they are. Now they've got a starting
vehicle, but with those kind of films you tend to then have a
lot of support from seasoned actors to do the sort of the
heavy lifting. Well, it's what it's what they
did with the Hard Day's Night because they they weren't sure
if it was going to work or not with The Beatles.
Thankfully it did, but they they had it stuffed with people like
Wilfred Bramble, Norman Rossington to take up the heavy
lifting if they needed to. Yes.
Really, the the the thing that I took away from it is Philip
Larkin was wrong. Sexual intercourse definitely
seems to exist sometime prior to 1963, because this film's a
little bit it's. A bit near end.
Particularly the the excuses to have the French girl constantly
appearing in her underwear. But that that's what they in
films around this time, it was obligatory for the girls to
strip down to the barren knickers.
I mean, you have your your other series on Patreon where you look
at British films without Doo. Maybe we should look at Passport
to Shame, which is a searing indictment of the vice scene in
London and therefore absolutely must, as a matter of obligation
to the moral good of the population of 1950s Britain,
absolutely must feature Diana Doors wandering around in
Askanti for a bit. Quite.
Just, you know, yeah. But you say that you.
Say I tell you what, there's a lot of movie posters from this
tie where there's a girl there in stockings and suspenders on
the poster, regardless of whether such a thing appears in
the film. Well, the the the the audience
they're trying to attract. Yeah, just just the thing I get
watching, so watching like 50s films, there was there was a
sexual revolution happening in the 50s.
It just so happens that the one that came in the 60s was that
much bigger that people kind of forgot it.
But yeah, you, if you plow through as many British films
from the 50s as I do, you start to see, yeah, the, the, the
sexual mores are changing. A pace They may discuss it and
they may allude to it, but they never do it in the 1950s.
Well, they. Yeah, but they never do it in
this either, do they? Because implication isn't there.
Because you've got Terence Longdon, who I think looks like
a young Tommy Cockles with his with his hair in his glasses.
And what's his relationship is? He's engaged to to Carol Leslie,
but he's terrified of anything. He's terrified of being in the
same room alone with her. Yes.
Until towards the end, he just, he says something like, I've
just noticed that you're. Quite.
That's a grand old tradition, isn't it though?
Sexually frightened men are something you get quite a bit in
British comedy, didn't we? We discussed that last time,
didn't we? About in Man House.
Where you man? Doug Fisher?
Yeah, Doug Fisher, who's always, you know, putting that boat and
what have you. And then when they they need to
get the signatures for the petition and there's the pardon
expression, raving nympho, you know, across the way.
He doesn't want to go in there because it's like, yeah, hang
on, this is role reversal. She's she's, you know, up for.
Well, no, because no, I don't know about Larry.
I think it's Robin who doesn't want to go in there, even though
half an hour earlier he's been trying to get his leg over with
with Chrissy. And if you, if you remember,
Robin only wanted it with Chrissy if she didn't want it,
which was a bit problematic, but yeah.
And then you've got this raving nympho who's obviously up all
night with Peter Sellier and turning away Boy Scouts and
things. Thank God.
She turns away the Boy Scouts. I could have gone.
Yeah, like so. Anyway, enough of all this
filth. I am pleased to say there is
actually an authentic Scotsman in Water Whopper.
OK. Harold Beron.
Oh yes. Harold Beron's born 19 O3 in
Glasgow. I particularly remember him from
his appearances in The Prisoner. What does he do in the prisoner?
I'm sure he's in more than one episode, but he's in.
He's particularly in the episode Free for All, the election
episode in which he's a reporter for the Telly Hoe, whose voice
has been replaced by Peter Swanik.
I carry this stuff around in my head.
I can't remember my Social Security number, which is a
vital piece of information here in the US.
But can you remember Harold Beron's Social Security number?
It was a long time ago. It was 1.
But we should also mention Arch Archie Duncan, of course.
Sorry, go on. Is he not?
Is he not a genuine Scott? Archie Duncan.
Quite possibly, yes. He, I'm pretty sure he yeah,
yeah, he is because he was Little John in Robin Hood, not
in every episode of Robin Hood, because he was injured making an
episode of Robin Hood, was temporarily replaced, and then
came back after having been paid a whole bunch of damages for I
think a horse got loose or something.
And he was Inspector Lestrade or Lestrade, I can't remember which
pronunciation they go with in the Ronald Howard Howard, Marion
Crawford, Sherlock Holmes from 1954.
And we we saw him in a very important person recently with
James Robertson. Justice.
Yes, oh boy. James Robertson, Justice who
overstated his Scottish roots. Yes, so we could get the gig of
opening Scottish. Television indeed, yeah.
Oh, really? Look at this family tree.
Not single Italian I'm sure. We do have at least two other
authentic Scots in this film, Molly Weir of course, and.
Well, she. Yeah, because she, she she
catches sight of young Tommy Cockles Cockles, isn't she?
Yes. Yes, indeed.
And of course, Fife Robertson, hey.
I'm standing here. Well, for the teenagers there,
we have another Scott who can't really do the accent.
Who's that then? Terry Scott.
I hope this isn't a wild goose chase.
Ah well, you'll see there. Where they were here, I smelt
them with my own nose. Don't you idiot?
I only wish I had a higher rank so I could demote you.
Tilt Terry Nation wrote the script for this, although Jeremy
Lloyd came up with the concept, didn't he?
And Trevor? Peacock, Trevor.
Peacock that we see briefly at the beginning.
But so Terry Nation was writing for Hancock around this time.
Is that right? He was 63.
ATV Series. Oh, right.
OK. Yeah, I don't know when, when, I
don't know when exactly termination started working for
Hancock. But I mean, his complaint was
that he was writing material that Hancock wasn't using.
So he was trying to write, you know, 1960s material.
And Hancock was still doing his George Arles impression, which I
mean, of course, that's where you get the term one for the
teenagers. Yeah, that, yeah.
Which is itself now a one for the teenagers Rep.
There's already this. There's real echoes of the Rebel
in this film due to the the large sculpture that takes up
the whole flat. Charles Hawtrey what?
What purpose does he serve in this film?
I think in as much as his name's on it, his name's got a certain
cache, OK? I'm going to say that there's
that one scene with him and Fabia Drake where through a
hilarious set of misunderstandings, he, Fabia
Drake plays the mother of Charlie and there's a there's a
misunderstanding of have we mentioned the hearse?
No, we haven't mentioned the hearse, right?
Let's go for the hearse first. All right.
So OK. They need a car.
They need a car that's right. They've got 50 NECA, I believe.
Is that going to buy a Rolls Royce horse?
I don't. I don't think it's going to
stretch to that, is it? I get the impression they've
been trying to get rid of that thing.
So yeah, it's a Rolls Royce, but it's a Rolls Royce hearse, and
it's become something of a white elephant to the car dealership.
That's my head cannon. We do have a couple of other
names in here who are only in it really quite briefly, as well as
Spike, of course. Clive Dunn is in there early on.
Yeah. And I maybe, maybe I'm trying to
think of his name and it's actually in front of me.
Lance Percival. Lance Percival Yes, yes, yeah,
Clive. Let's go to Clive Dunn, another
old man part. Does he ever?
Did he ever play anything else than old men?
I'm really struggling to play a young version of Corporal Jones
in some flashbacks. Right.
Oh, he's he's he's playing his own age in the magic Christian.
And of course he was on he was working with benting, wasn't he
on It's a square world. So there must have been a few
occasions when he was when he didn't have to put on the.
It's it's interesting though. So he gets, he gets a finger off
his he, he gets backed up and he ends up landing on the fingers
of the giant statue that's taking up three floors of the
Bohemian Commune. And of course it's it's the
symbol of victory. But the way we see those fingers
instead of the V for victory, it just looks like they're the same
to you, which is what life says to finger salute and get that
again. That's like I, I don't think 10
years earlier that would have been permitted.
No, it should have been. I almost want to say it, and I'm
not entirely sure the ground on which I stand, but I almost want
to say this is kind of a post bolting Brothers vibe.
Yep. I can't be sure, but I I get the
feeling that their productions, their their comedies were a
little bit more near to the knock.
Off earthy, yeah, you've got you've got same kid in I'm a
right Jack who's got that terrible stutter and starts to
say you stupid clot. Why don't you tell him to go
photograph something worth seeing?
Yeah, Clive Dunn falling down the stairs.
I felt like the dramatic impact of Martin Balsam falling down
the stairs a year earlier in Psycho.
It wasn't quite as effective. It wasn't quite as effective.
In which film? Yeah, it's psycho.
OK, yeah, a couple of notable uncredited appearances in this
as well. The aforementioned Trevor
Peacock. Yes.
How they are and Amanda Barry as well.
I didn't see Amanda Barry. Where was she?
She was in Chelsea Girl. Oh, right, because right at the
beginning. Oh yeah, because you mentioned
the bumping into a fabulous couple of birds.
Saw a couple of fabulous birds on the Kings, right?
Yeah. Do you think what's his name?
Vern Terence Longdon. Young Tommy Cockles.
Because he's he's he's into sort of music on crat, isn't he?
He's doing all these electronic he's.
Got his own little radiophonic workshop I was.
Just going to say, is he like a male Delia Derbyshire do you
think? I mean, the radiophonic workshop
already existed, so I'm guessing that you know, that that he
couldn't get his foot in the door there.
Or maybe he's working up to it. You were saying, by the way, we
we talked about the hearse, but before that you were talking
about the reason why Charles Hawtree should be in the film is
is because of Charles. There's, there's, there's just
that scene where the gang have driven off in their hearse and
Charlie's mother's asking where Charlie is.
And I don't know if she's actually seen the hearse.
And Charles Hawtree models his ideas up and gives her the
impression that her daughter has died.
Hilarious. And I just think Charles Hawtree
is is not the only actor who could have sold that.
But he's really good for that, that kind of misunderstanding.
There are many other actors who would not have sold that quite
as well. He does that same purpose.
He's got that very distinctive thing he does when he talks.
He's if he's, if he's addressing another character, he's talking
to someone else. He's looking at them.
But the moment he stops talking, he turns his head, stares
straight ahead, Doesn't he? I think he can't bear to
maintain eye contact with them. I know.
Yes, I know what you mean. Yeah.
I've hadn't thought of that before, but yes, yeah.
Should we talk about Spike? Because Spike's in this quite
early on. He's a, he's a tramp who is.
So the, the whole concept, the sorry, the whole conceit is that
in order for Tony's book to find a publisher, they need to, they
need to revive interest in the Loch Ness Monster.
So they decide they decide to create a fake one and float it
in the Serpentine and take a photograph and go up to Scotland
and blah blah blah. So they go to the Serpentine. 1
morning about 5:30 and there's spike fishing.
Good morning, Sir. I suppose you realize the park
isn't open yet. Yes.
Well, in that case, I'm afraid I shall have to ask you to leave
now. Go on then.
What do you mean ask me to leave?
Would you kindly leave the park now?
I will not leave this park. No care for a word?
No, thanks. I'm trying to give them up.
The clock tipped, you know. Look.
How long are you going to stay here?
Just long enough to catch a few rainbow trout for me.
Breakfast. Trout in the Serpentine.
Of course there's trout from the Serpentine, but they're kind of
little devils. When you pull them out, they
look like Roach. But they can't fool me.
Ha ha, ha. Oh, no.
But they can't disguise themselves.
And why not, may I ask? Well, what can they look?
Can you disguise yourself? Of course.
But they're fish. Of course they're fish.
That's why they're in the water, swimming around.
Swim, swim, swimming. Swim in the Serpentine, that's
why. Getting back to the fact that
Terry Nation wrote this, and I don't think it was really his
decision, but sometimes Spike's delivery goes into Dalek style,
doesn't it? When he's shouting about the
fish, Yeah. Now you did mention earlier on
Tyler what film we discussed last time we were here and we've
got a link here, haven't we? Of course Spike's in it.
Yes, it's like to start being Spike for a few minutes.
That's true, yeah. Yes, I kind of like to imagine
that maybe he's not playing a tramp, he's just playing Spike.
He's smoking around on the Serpentine, just waiting for
some Charlie to come along. And he can run rings around it.
It's interesting to look to things like, do you remember
when Holmes people were hilarious and we called them
tramps? And also, Freddie Frinton is a
desperate alcoholic who also drink drives.
Yes, Freddie Frinton. You couldn't make this foot.
You couldn't make that film today.
I thought you were going to go Kenneth Connor there, Tyler, a
pain in the arse. No, you couldn't make that film
today because it's 9:10 in the evening.
It's. Too late to start.
Hey, that's a really good point you just brought up there till
unwittingly, I might add. But of course, the the print
that we saw of this, and I don't know if this is the same for the
the print that that renown have on talking pictures or whatever
it may be, but it's got that funny business.
Again, another link with man about the house.
This is all coming back to the last film.
We've got multiple scenes where they are looking at the window
and it's night time. And then from the other point of
view, it's broad daylight. Yes.
And people keep stumbling over Dylan Thomas, who's trying to
have it away with some lass in the bushes.
Courting couples courting Another thing you don't get in
coffee. No.
Dogging now, but it is this. This, this frequent, frequently
scenes like that, isn't it that when they're looking at the
window and they're sort of shouting to Terrence London, you
know, careful because you can't see where the hell you're going.
And then next thing you see is him.
And it's basically like it's, you know, 10:00 in the bloody
morning. There have been cases of films
with different night shooting that have had somebody at the
lab go, oh, hang on a minute, this is a bit underexposed.
I'll fix that. So we don't know if if 1961
audiences saw it like, you know, in Plan 9 from Outer Space
Vision, just two shots from the same scene being in complete
different times of day. Oh look, a lizard.
That's my point there. I finished it.
You've just got. Distracted by the lizard?
You've just seen a lizard? Yeah.
OK. They're just everywhere here.
OK, OK. Was that the lizard?
Let's talk about Sid in this Sid James.
Sid being Sid, as I said in my intro, it's just he's on.
He's on, on the make, of course, because it's Sid James behind
the bar. And when we were watching this,
I'm not sure if it's you or Tilt Gary, one of you said that
someone had said that if Sid James had lived longer, he'd
have ended up landlord of the Queen Victoria.
I think that was Vince Powell who said that in Heroes of
Comedy, but Sid James. Yeah, it's interesting.
I can't, I don't know. I can't see it myself.
He he probably would have been too old for that role by the
time that that he then just came along.
But I could see it. I suppose I could more sort of
see it if you mess around with the timeline, if you had Sid in
this era here, yeah, you could see him in that role.
And I presume it would be more sort of light hearted, more sort
of Dave the barman, but. Yeah, but he wouldn't be going
up to dot Cotton and slapping her on the arse again.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like he does in this bill.
Just give me two minutes with chat GPTI will make it happen.
Till you you claim that Sid is the Paul Weddington of dirty old
men. What does that mean?
Oh, just because famously in in yes Minister and yes Prime
Minister, there was certain not getting scripts saying.
Paul doesn't have to say this line if he doesn't want to
because they knew how expressive he could be.
And yeah, the, the, I can't remember what's what, what
started that. I think maybe some some surprise
that Sid didn't go something. And he said he doesn't need to.
He's got his, his face can go crawl.
We have a sound. Yeah, I think there are at least
two films in which Sid plays an American well.
Carry on, cowboy. And I can't, I can't remember
one of them because I only saw a brief clip of it in the
succession of other clips, but he plays Benki the gangster in
Joe Macbeth, which is Macbeth reworked as a gangster film, and
of course plays Benki's ghost. Oh, OK, Does some in Carry On
Cowboy? Does Charles Hawtry put on an
American accent? I don't think he does.
Oh no, because he's playing the Indian chief, isn't he?
There you go. So he's just hello, ow now,
Gary. I just want to load an overview.
I've seen a film with the other Charles Hawtry, the earlier
Charles Hawtry. Well before he regenerated.
Before George Hartree decided it was a good idea to nick his name
and try and pretend he was related is.
That what he did, yeah, worked out for.
Him Charles Hawtree's Charles Hawtree's real name was George
Hartree, and he shared that Charles Hawtree liked to imply
that he was related to the other famous actor Charles Hawtree,
who I saw in a message from Mars.
Hang on, are we, are we doing like an episode of Mythbusters
here? Because you're telling me that
Charles Hawtry's name wasn't Charles Hawtry?
You're telling me this is all on Wikipedia?
This is not a Scotsman even like open Scottish television, for
goodness sake. So Sid James wasn't a Cotton, he
was a South African. He's in an episode of the
aforementioned Robin Hood. Robin Hood.
Robin Hood, they say different Robin Hood I can't, I can't
remember right. Robin, Robin Hood.
Whereas in the US people say Robin Hood different emphasis.
It's yes, since in an episode of Robin Hood, Robin Hood riding
through the Glen and he gets through yes, yeah.
And he's friends. And there's just one bit where
they get one over on the sheriff or something and they run off.
And as they run off, she said, God, you almost made it, Sid
for. The moment it looks as if you've
worn out, you're welcome. You better come to Sherwood with
me. I take back what I said.
What was that? But you should have more respect
for danger. Said James played Robin Hood.
Did he? And then carry on again
Christmas. Carry on again, Christmas.
Was he in the the tights and all?
Going to say, was he in the nip? Yes.
No, he's he's in the film Regalia.
But it's a fairly broad interpretation of the role, as
you may expect. Can I just defend Adam Fit's
acting after this film in Budgie?
Because I've got Yeah, he's he's yeah, he is great In Budgie.
He wasn't a trained actor. And I have read reports that Ian
Cuthbertson used to sort of have to bite his lip because he found
it difficult to rehearse. I I was talking about this while
watching the film. I compared him to what what had
been said about Mickey Dolan's as a drummer.
I said Mickey couldn't repeat the triumph if he did a really
good take. And they said, OK, let's get one
more down. It might be all over the place
in the second take or slightly offer.
He couldn't do it again. He was too instinctive.
And I get the feeling that Adam Faith, you know, might be giving
a different line delivery every, every time because it wasn't in
his training. Oh, I mean, you know, there was
there was a shift. I think there was a certain
school of acting that kind of clashed with some of the more
loose the schools that came up subsequent to the 50s and 60s.
Yeah, I mean, he's all right. He's all right in this.
He's a bit bit wooden and it's a it quite matter when he hears
that song on the radio. This and the singer, I think he
describes the singer as a great knit, but it's obviously Adam
Faith. Himself.
Well, did you know it's what the the singer's name was?
No Eden Charity. Hope, faith and charity.
Right, OK. And of course, the Garden of
Eden residents of Adam. Yeah.
Very. So, yeah, we've got, we've got a
diegetic bit of music. So he sings along with the song
that he's playing on the radio, but he sings the harmony part.
That's weird. You.
Should you should try that on Mrs. Adams put a song on and
then start singing harmony part and then he's just lightly go.
What are you? Are you training for something?
Fetch me went up the bracket. If I'm if I'm quiet at the
moment, it's because I am currently researching whether
every episode of the host that Jack built actually was
broadcast. And oh, we did watch an episode
of that. I think Tilt.
I don't think you were all that fussed about it.
I didn't mind it. I thought it was all right.
But yeah, I think, I mean, Danton Faith I think died within
a year of of it being made, but I don't think there were any
plans. I.
Remember that? Who was in that apart from him?
Gillian Tailforth, Yeah. And Kelly Bright, who of course,
has now been done. He's in there and was in the
best program ever made. Teabag.
Hey, I had to get it in there somewhere.
Yeah, I, I chiefly knew him, I guess from Love Hurts, although
I don't think I ever saw a single second of that program.
But it was always being, it's always, it seemed to be always
on the TV. It's.
Always on, Wasn't it on Fridays? Every Friday, forever.
And I was always on the cover of the Radio Times as well.
Oh God, yeah, yeah. Gary, I think we touched on this
at the beginning, but did you? I know you wouldn't have, but
I'm going to. I'm duty bound to ask you when
they arrive in Scotland, when they when they pass the Scotland
sign, there's the sound of bagpipes and then there's
there's obviously other sort of stereotypical shenanigans.
Were were you at all offended, Gary, by any of this?
No, no. It's not Even so much that I
wasn't offended by it. I don't even necessarily
register it. No, I'm not looking at it and
thinking, oh, I better have an opinion about this.
It, it's just, it's just there. It's not something at all that
that I'm really conscious of. And I mean, because, you know, I
grew up in the era of, you know, Russ Abbott, CU Jimmy and what
have you. And it was just, it was just a
thing. It was just just, you know what,
what, what some comedians did so.
Russ Abbott can't have done that badly because he was on an STV.
Hulk money. Show yes, he was.
Yeah, No, he was. He was.
So obviously he was. Somewhat embraced by Scotland.
Oh, no, absolutely. WhatsApp was CEO Jimmy was very
popular in, in in Scotland. But I, yeah, I'm just, it's not
really Gary and the something that I'm, I'm really that, that
conscious of, I think till I think you're more conscious of
it than I am. Well, Gary and yeah, Gary and I
have a have an ongoing argument as to whether Scots is a
legitimate language. Well, I think we've established
this. It was It was written by a man
in Baltimore some years ago, so. What?
No, it's, it's Scots. I think he didn't codify it or
something, but Scots is Scots and English are as as, as like
Portuguese and Spanish. They're very similar.
There's huge crossovers, but there's also different bits.
I mean, Gary, you you've used the verb bridge, which I can
assure you does not exist in English.
Well, you you brinch in. Yes.
You just get Yeah, but that's that's not that's not an English
verb. What does that mean?
Brinch in means that you sort of you go into something head
first, you know, to hell with the consequences.
You brinch in. Yeah.
And of course I've got strumash, of course, which could, which
could be related because that could be the, the effects of
somebody brinching in. Then you have a right old
strumash, a Barney in a fight scrap.
OK, OK. I think I'm more sort of used to
it because my family used to nearly quite a quite a time in
the 80s. Our summer holiday would be in
Scotland, so I would notice the difference a great deal more
like, ah, right now I'm in Scotland, I'm surrounded by
Scottish culture and I can see the bits that stick out.
And I'm not like Yorkshire culture.
They like to think they're mean. Don't know the half of it.
I should, by the way, I should expand on on on what I was
alluding to there a minute ago. There was a story doing the
rounds about five years ago that almost every single article on
Scots that was on Wikipedia was written by the same person, an
American teenager. I don't know if this is
factually accurate or not, but that was the the rumor that was
doing the rounds. In this film, what do you
because I I found the central 4 lead characters.
You've got Adam Faith, you've got Terence Longdon, Carol
Leslie and a another the the French girl.
I do a disservice. What's what's her name?
She. Was called Marie Falls, which is
kind of. They they none of them do fast
very well, do they? And I found that that all the
stuff that was getting locked out of the the room and all the
salmon stuff. That almost felt like a genre
change. I mean, suppose there's farcical
elements to the shifting of the, ah, the shifting of the fish.
Now that's the thing. So Sid James and the man in
charge of the hotel are involved in a salmon poaching peddling
operation, and they mistakenly believe that Adam Faith is the
contact that's been that's come up from the smoke to get these
salmon off of them. So they put the salmon in the
back of his purse. Gordon Superman, 3 Rawlings
spots these salmon and being a policeman, he goes off and tells
his Sergeant, Terry Scott, who comes over.
And of course, whenever you leave a location to tell the
police that there's something at a location, it will not be
there. Absolutely.
Those are the rules, yes. And these salmon are the most
remarkable salmon in the world because they leave no trace of
any olfactory evidence that they were there and.
Gordon's got a hooter on him, isn't he?
Yeah, they open the back of the hearse.
There's no salmon there, and Terry Scott's like, you're
wasting my time and all this guy, it's like, come on, take a
deep breath. Unless they both have a
nosemere. What's that?
Is that inability to smell? It's the absence of yeah.
Is it not specifically the inability to smell fish,
specifically salmon? Salmon.
Which which, let's face it, would be better than the the
ability to only smell fish even when there's none there.
That would be horrible. And anyway, the salmon get
shifted into the back of Freddie Frinton's car.
When, when, when Sid James and the and the hotel owner are
fetching this, you can tell that they're rubber.
Oh yeah, they just, they just did this.
But it's then like, that is fantastic that there's so many
rubber salmon available to makers of British films, all
films in Britain. And you know, that you can
actually phone up a prop warehouse and say, yeah, have
you got, yeah, I need this many rubber fish.
No salmon. Yes salmon, please.
Two dozen at least, though. No, don't.
Don't toss in a couple of perch. It's all salmon, for God's sake.
You're not the only prop warehouse in town.
I don't think I could distinguish a salmon from a
perch from being honest. Well.
That's because you're not a properties man for a great
British film company. I'm sure if you you know, if
you've applied for that job and got it, that'd be probably day
one. No, your prop fish I.
Wouldn't get it though because of my lack of knowledge of what
distinguishes a perch from a salmon.
No, I think it, I think it's their responsibility to teach.
You. Oh, is it?
Yeah. Toss you in at the deep end of
day one. Would this film have been
immeasurably better without Freddie Frinton?
I say yes. That's right, just familiar
yourself. Anyway, I don't like policemen.
You know what, I think they didn't get the best out of
Freddie Frinton, right? I found, I found Freddie Frinton
likeable, but he wasn't really doing anything other than
drinking and being, you know, slightly vulgar.
They did the old Anything you may say will be taken down in
Evidence City with trousers. You just seem to be spend the
whole the whole film either drinking, staggering or running
being pursued. I mean it, it sort of flashed
across my brain at one point that this film didn't have to be
about young people, didn't even necessarily have to be about
artists, because the central character is a writer.
You know, who's trying, I think. Hasn't he written a book about
the Loch Ness? Monster.
Yeah, yeah. And it's he can't get a
publisher for it because no one's interested in the Loch
Ness Monster. Because at one point I thought
you could actually have made this film with Sid James in the
Adam Faith part. You don't put him in the beatnik
commute, but he's a writer who's right on his offers.
And you could go from there and you could have Freddie Frinton
as the landlord. I was going to say, I mean, he's
too old for the the role as portrayed by Adam Faith, but I
was going to say for that role, Leslie Phillips, yes, because he
would be ideal as like a knife scoundrel who was trying to put
one over these idiot locals as he would see them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Terry Scott and and Gordon
Rollings, do they, do they work well together?
Do we feel as a as a double act almost?
When they're on the screen, that that's when it makes me think
that this is actually a Children's Film Foundation
feature, because that's what it feels like quite often.
Gordon Robbins occasionally sort of strayed into a slightly stand
Laurel ish performance and I was wondered if they were sort of
trying to tell him to lean into that.
Like he thought, you know, if if if they'd if they'd had a
moment, they might have thought, yeah, let's get let's get Terry
and Gordon to do a Laurel and Hardy thing.
Wouldn't have really achieved a great deal, but it would have.
It would have been. I think as you pointed out,
interesting till when we were watching this film.
Unfortunately, Teddy Scott doesn't use his Children's Film
Foundation catch phrase. Which is.
Till do you want to deliver the? Line, I'm not swearing.
I'm not swearing on a podcast. My mum might be listening to
this OK. So there is What is the film?
Which one is it? I know it's Ben and Cribbins and
Teddy Scott. Oh is it 1 involving a ghost?
Probably because many of them did so.
Yeah, supposedly Teddy Scott annoyed with Bennett Cribbins
character. Shows you fucking great Nana.
What? And.
CFF. Well, yeah.
And we've we've, that is what it sounds like and I've listened to
it many times. We should point out Full
disclosure that we have occasionally been wrong about
supposedly coarse language in children's film foundation
features previously. Was that wankers or something?
Yes, yeah, which actually started to be wing gum.
And of course, Edwin Richfield in Trippers Day.
Yeah, I don't think we can repeat that one.
It was thugs. That was the word.
That was the word he was actually saying.
Yeah, sorry. I've got, I've just taken
delivery of some Eccles cakes. Hey, it sounds.
Like you've got a crate off them for God's sake, you use the
crowbar to get them open. It's a normal Amazon box.
I'm just I'm not going to put them and there just in case I
suddenly feel faint during the recording, I'm going to nibble
on the the echo cake. Now I'm going to imagine that
Johnny Vivian has got into this crate somehow, and when you open
it, he's going to surprise you when he jumps out and reveals
that he's eaten all the Echo's cake.
Yeah, that would be the worst, yeah.
I'm going to keep all this in tilt to piss you off.
I don't doubt you're going to keep it all in.
There's a bit where Vernon is. Vernon has has rigged up this,
what was it tape recorder? Oh yes, yes, so, so yes.
As part of his music concrete experiments, one of the things
they find he comes out with involving Carol Leslie's bottom
when she sits on some valves. In a certain way, it creates
this unearthly roaring sound, which they think, hey, we could
use that for the sound of the Loch Ness Monster.
Tragically, it was, you know, I mean, Doctor Who didn't even
exist yet, but it was also way too early for the first
appearance of the Loch Ness Monster and Doctor Who, which
was in terror of the Zygons. Was it wrong of me to think, you
know, when they're, when they're playing the roaring sound of the
Loch Ness Monster around the Loch and you've got Terry Scott
and Gordon Rollins and they're, they're out and about looking
for whoever. And Terry Scott suddenly says he
needs to get back to the station and he sort of waddles off.
Now, I'm assuming it's because of I'm assuming it's because
it's meant to be because he's scared of the sound of the
monster. But his face told me that he's
desperate for a shit. No, I thought, maybe he's
waddling off because Bladder had decided to take immediate,
decisive action to quote to quote Richie and Eddie.
What should we do now? Shit out of pants?
No, I've already done that. I could have been a line between
Teddy and Gordon, damn it. The end of this film, Gary, do
you want to describe the ending? I mean, they get, they get.
Well, you've got Adam Faith who dresses up as a Scotsman to try
and throw off yes. He does Hamish Mcsoran, yes.
He almost gets Hamish, doesn't he?
Yeah, he was so close, so close to, to, to, to, you know, hood
winking them. Who are you?
Do you know know me? No.
Hakim Hamish Mcspoten. I've come to put this place on
the map. Have you heard of the Tory play?
Brilliant young man with a marvellous breed.
Aki, give me the idea. What idea?
To make this place into a tourist centre.
Tourists, millions of them, coming to see the Beastie.
Aki can see it new. We'll have a 30 story hotel
about there. As is often the case in films
such as this, then when they find out, oh, Adam, it's Adam
Faith from TV's budgie. Damn it, we've been, we've been,
you know, Hornswoggle. Then he, they run after him.
And in that scene, they are about not even arm's length.
They're like closer than that. And then in the very next scene,
he is about two miles from so he runs bloody fast.
He really should have been in the Olympics.
And before you know it, him. And is it him and Carol Shelley,
or is it? Mali.
The French. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see.
It doesn't take long, but but Marie, I'm trying to do the
French are there, I'm trying. So that's also why I'm saying
Loch is because I'm trying, I'm trying to get as many, I'm
trying to learn different languages.
I'm trying to learn German. So I need to be able to do a
good sound and they also have to thing.
So Marie. Yeah.
Marie falls in love with Adam Fairs very quickly.
Well, or does he get the feeling that he's he's a he's a hunky
catch? Of the day he is.
My late wife watched Budgie before she knew anything about
his pop career and found it hilarious the idea that Budgie
was an actual pop star. She just, she she got it fixed
there Mike. Because Budgie's a a loser and
also a really, really genuinely dreadful human being.
Which is so. It's again why I wouldn't defend
Adam. Fair.
That show is watchable and the central character is evil.
Certainly completely immoral and occasionally drifting off into
actual villainy, but it stays watchable and you don't
necessarily want the character to be killed at the end of every
episode despite how terrible he is.
But you, you were saying he, he, he escapes in a boat with Marie.
Marie. Yes.
Yeah, and there's, there's, there's the, the whole, the
whole town is the the en masse, waving their fists angrily.
Well, here's the thing. What was Why were they angry at
him? Because because, yeah, he'd he'd
earlier, earlier on the Serpentine, he tried to fake a
sighting of the monster by building, you know, an Essie
thing and, and setting off a smoke bomb and trying to
photograph it, making, you know, hoping that it'll look like.
The surgeon's photograph is what's known as the most famous
photographic example of the monster, which has been
littered, not just deboned. Somebody involved in the taking
of said, yeah, it was a fake. It was all because somebody was
trying to take revenge on the Daily Mail.
Really. Yeah, some somebody had fallen
for an earlier hoax and the Daily Mail made fun of him, so
he thought he would get back at them by sending them a
persuasive photograph of the monster.
Let me have a look. Sergeant's photograph attributed
to Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist.
Mr. Weatherall. I can't.
I can't find his. I'm looking.
I'm just looking at the Wikipedia page.
Wetherill had been publicly ridiculed by his employer, the
Daily Mail, after he found Nessie footprints that turned
out to be a hoax. To get revenge on the Mail,
Wetherill perpetrated the hoax with his Co conspirator Sperling
sculpture specialist Ian Colin Marmaduke Weatherall, his son,
himself a future actor who bought the material for the fake
and Maurice Chambers and ensured this is a movie in of itself.
This is the better version of what a whopper it.
Is I mean. What you could do with a
character called Ian Colin Marmaduke Weatherall.
So yeah, so. So he's got, he's already got
the fake Nessie kit. So he's got the idea of, of
putting it on the Loch and taking, taking some evidence.
But everybody's got the same idea because they're trying to
turn the whole town into a tourist attraction.
And there is, there is a, a Loch Loch Ness Monster Centre near
the Loch. And I've been there, and I found
the experience deeply, deeply troubling.
Killed some time all. Right, OK.
So yeah, everybody so, so the, the, the whole thing is just
like a mess of, of fake monsters.
Gary, did you want to? Did you want to take it to the
end? I I think we should leave people
on a cliffhanger. Surely miss it to yourself,
Tyler, you're on the chair for this.
So. Well, all I'll say is that I was
I was with the film right up the the last 30 seconds and then the
ending really took me out of it. But no, if Teddy Scott did not
shut himself out of there, he definitely would have done no.
So, so without giving too much away, the last voice you hear is
if my ears don't deceive me, is Adam Faith.
Is it? Yes, speaking deeper and
sounding a bit like Bernard Breslow.
Yes, it's it's, it's a, it's an ending not not unlike the ending
to The Naked Truth of Peter Sellers.
Yes, yeah, that, that could be a whole.
I can't remember the ending of that film.
That could be a whole little sub genre of its own films where the
the ending or I'm going to I'm going to say towards the ending
as well, because I'm going to include carry on camping in that
as well. Like there's one little scene
that just completely takes you. Yes, and you think Oh shit I
forgot about this bit. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So we won't, we won't spoil it because there will be people
that probably want to seek this film out and we've done a really
good job of, of selling it to you, I'm sure.
We should also mention that Richard Wattis inexplicably does
not appear in this film, which is a massive oversight for any
British like let's see here. There is a there's a distinctive
absence of Richard Wattis in this.
And Frank Thornton what? What part should he have played?
It doesn't matter, just just give him a pardon.
Should he have played Charlie's mother?
The The thing is, is that if you put if you put women's clothes
in a wig on Richard Wattis, you get John Sanderson.
He could have played 5 Robertson.
Yes, because I'm standing here. My name's Fife Robertson.
You have FUD. But yeah, I'll so you, we, we've
got that one concession to realism.
They've got Fife Robertson, who absolutely would be the person
that they'd send to cover that story in 1961.
If OK, here's the thing. If I'm if I'm living out in the
sticks and in a nice little cottage and I'm knocked up in
the middle of the night by 4 young people seeking shelter,
why am I going to let one of them get into bed with me?
Because they're not Campbell's. That's very true.
See that that might be, that might be the, the most sort of
outrageous stereotype, this whole thing that, that.
So Archie Duncan plays a man who is called MacDonald, not
Campbell. And he once he establishes that
Adam Faith and friends are not Campbell's, he, yeah, he just
lets them stand. He lets Adam Faith sleep with
him. But even in his sleep, Archie
Duncan is sort of shouting about Campbell's.
Whatever you're doing, stop it. We're leaving.
I think it did mention when we were watching this that it could
have easily been half an hour. Oh yeah.
Just this could be like a little sort of not called not a comedy
Playhouse with the intention of making it into a series, but it
could have been like a little half an hour frippery and of.
Course the other thing it is there is no connection between
this film and the earlier film. What a carve up.
Although I believe that there was some attempt to make this to
to form some sort of series of films with what A yeah.
OK. There was a a newspaper article
saying first it was carry on and now it's what a regular pictures
goers will realise, of course, that in the first instance I'm
referring to the carry on series of comedies.
Now it seems there is to be a similar series, but with a
difference under the what are banner and it says it goes on to
say about what a carve up and then it says the second what a
whopper has taken the floor at Pinewood produced by a a
producer Teddy Joseph, starring Adam Faith, etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera. But yeah, there's no that
obviously didn't take off and there wasn't.
There's no connection other than the the the 1st 2 words really
isn't there. The same thing happened with the
Kramer Versus franchise. They stopped after Warmth.
Thanks again to Tilton Gary, I love those guys.
They gave me my first start in podcasting and influenced me
immeasurably. So please do check out the
Sitcom Club and Jeffrey Cakes for Proust if you like this
show. I think you'll love those shows.
OK, just as a coder And following on from the brief
mention earlier about What a Whopper being considered
erroneously as a sequel to the film, What a Carve Up Whopper
has has had a weird sort of literary afterlife, albeit very
slight. So in 1994 the the writer
Jonathan Coe wrote a novel which borrowed the title from What A
Carve Up the film and I read the novel soon after publication,
and I've enjoyed reading it on a number of occasions since.
It's a slightly farcical satire on British life as embodied by
the dreadful Windshaw family, whose lust for power takes some
of them into the upper echelons of the media, the arms trade,
agriculture, food production, the arts, even the health
service. And the novel had nothing to do
with the plot of the film of the same name, although the film
actually is referenced and Jonathan Ko said that it was one
of those films that he caught by accident when it was shown on TV
one afternoon. Anyway, 20 years later, Jonathan
Ko published a sort of follow up to What a Carve Up called #11
and #11 comprises 5 parts with interconnected plot lines and
multiple points of view, and one of these parts is called What a
Whopper. There's a character, Roger, who
is a specialist in what he calls paranoid fiction, and he
dismisses the idea that What a Whopper is a sequel to the 1961
film, What a Carve Up, simply because two of the same actors
are in it, said James and Adam Faith.
But he also he also has an interesting train of thought.
I'll just read this. Sequels which are not really
sequels. Sequels where the relationship
to the original is oblique, slippery actually.
I wish I'd mentioned this to the lads because I'm sure that I've
had something interesting to say about that.
Never mind, we ran out of time now.
Roger's one sentence description of the film was fairly damning.
Lame British comedy about a bunch of beatniks who travelled
to Loch Ness to build a model of the monster, which isn't
technically true, but never mind.
One of my one of my regrets is that when I interviewed Jonathan
Koe in 2022, I didn't talk to him more about what to carve up,
but it was mentioned briefly and he did indeed drop Whopper into
the conversation. He wrongly cast Spike Milligan
as a part keeper rather than a tramp, but I let him off for
that. What A cover is obviously taken
from the name of a Sid James film, Kenneth Connor film, which
I think you saw on TV in 1990 or something, didn't you?
And you just kind of. Squirrel that away for future
use. Yeah, that's right.
It it it was followed by a terrible kind of semi sequel
called What a Whopper Oh yeah, which features Spike Milligan as
a part keeper. So there you go, what a whopper
is worth a watch and occasionally pops up on Talking
Pictures TV. So keep your eyes peeled to the
schedules like those locals gathered around Loch Ness hoping
to catch a glimpse of Adam Faith's monster.
Well, it sounds wrong, doesn't it?
But anyway, you know what I mean.
Thanks for listening, I will see you again next week.
Bye. Oh, what a weapon.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What a whopper.
One thing you're going to come across it.
What a whopper. What a load and lie.
Hey, you told a lie when you told me you bothered me.
Please tell me why it took me out of my misery.
You could've told me the truth to get rid of me.
You told a load and lie.