You hear me? Right.
Can you tell us where Studios 3? Years straight up there and look
at the stock on Trent and ask again.
I think you're very funny and you really make.
Me laugh, I'm sure. Actually, he doesn't want to
know about that. Hello, and welcome to Game Pod.
Well, it's three years since the 1st edition of Game Pod, and I
never thought it'd get this far. I figured maybe eight people
would listen to it, if I'm lucky.
But now, 150 episodes in, literally thousands of people
have listened to Game Pod and I I'm thrilled to bits, and I owe
it all to you lot who who have listened to it and supported the
show. And there's still so much left
to cover. It'll be a while until I reach
that barrel of scraping stage of glancing across at the memory
stick with all the episodes of the Melting Pot on it, but you
never know. That day may come so many fun
shows and great guests and new friends, and Goonpot has been
such a tonic for me and really helped me work through some
stuff. And I like how it has evolved so
that we often just talk about great comedy in general, you
know, with nothing to do with the goons.
But of course they'll always be there in the background.
So because it's kind of a a landmark episode, I thought I'd
be a little bit indulgent and record an episode with three
friends, two of whom really helped me make my first
faltering steps into podcasting, and the other who has shown how
podcasts can actually change lives.
And all three of them have been an inspiration.
So I hope you enjoy the conversation.
If you could identify yourself, say hello.
So we've got, we've got Andrew. Hi, I'm Andrew Hickey.
I do a podcast called The History of Rock Music in 500
Songs and I'm going to have the least to say about anybody here.
Thank you, Andrew. Gary.
Good evening. Yes, I'm Gary.
My full time gig is in the commercial television sector,
but also I'm a founder member with Tilt of the Sitcom Club
currently on hiatus and possibly making a a glorious comeback
soon. And until he's stolen your
Thunder there, I fear that. Yeah, that's fine.
I'm tilted. I Sir, I'm the I don't, I don't
say that I'm the most talented member of the sitcom club, but
I'm definitely in the top two. Another podcast that we also did
was called Jaffa Kicks of Prus and that was everything that
wasn't sitcoms but was still British culture of the mid to
late 20th century. That might well make a comeback
because I'm talking to you through a very expensive, very
high quality microphone. So podcasting might be back on
for me because I had terrible year last year I.
Don't. Think I need to burden people
with what happened, but. I very much got microphone envy.
So yeah, Gary, Tilt, Andrew and I regularly.
We sit down. We will watch movies, we'll
watch old TV, we'll listen to music sometimes generally just
we get together and and and NASA for a couple of hours every
week. And just thought it would be
quite nice to bring that to Goombod in the shape of a
conversation about a film which is is very much in Tilton Gary's
wheelhouse and as he's already indicated not so much in
Andrews. But it's it's a film which
qualifies for Goombod by virtue of the fact it has about I
didn't. I didn't time it.
Maybe a minute and a half of Spike Milligan, do you think?
Somewhere around that, yeah. But it's it's memorable.
It's a memorable minute and a half.
Whatever heard that before? Tyler, can I can I just briefly
set the scene for this because just just as we were I was
looking up some bits and pieces. I want to establish the the
release date of the film and spotted one of the IMDb reviews
I think was better than that any of us could very broad comedy
involving strip poker, monopoly and laxatives.
Now what else is there to say? I mean that that that's it,
isn't it? In the in the order.
That is absolutely good. There we go.
We see, see, I would have, I would have gone further.
I would have called it an unflinching examination of the
human condition. With some knob.
Jokes, and also some good old fashioned sexual frustration, of
course. Well, it is Britain in the
1970s. Andrew, I mean, I don't know if
the theme song was, I don't know, by oh, Vashti Bunyan or
Kevin Ayers. You might have something to say
about that maybe. I don't know.
No, I mean the the the theme song was was not.
It's not inspiring is it? Although it has stuck in my in
my head for the two days since, so it's not.
So much whether it's a good or a bad song, and it's just that it
doesn't really set you up for 90 minutes of fun.
No. It's a theme for more serious
film. Yeah, it.
Sounds like the theme tune to Do you.
Have you ever seen I Start Counting?
No. Oh, it's not quite as good as
that theme, but I'm not saying it's a bad song.
But yeah, it's it's setting you up for a I'm calling little
thing. Yeah, it it it it should be the
theme tune for, right? I don't know.
Something like by the family way or something, something like
that. A slightly slightly
melancholic's comedy drama with the emphasis on the drama, you
know? And yeah, not, not at all for a
farce with with with a strip poker scene in the middle, no.
I mean it. It suffers by comparison because
Man Up at the House has one of the greatest TV themes by Johnny
Hawkes, which is just a. Belter, Do you think the film
would have been better if it had, you know, the rising damp
film theme tune? Oh, so I I I think that's a real
hip twitcher toe Tapper. I really like that.
Do you not like it till? No, I'm just thinking that of
the sitcom movies, I think it's only Dad's Army and Are You
Being Served? That has the same theme Tune
isn't? It please Sir, has a smidgen of
the original theme tune, but but no more than, I don't know, 10
seconds worth or whatever. The IE being served theme is
completely overhauled, isn't it? Isn't it funky version?
Yeah, but it's it's a version of the same, the same melody, isn't
it? Right.
OK, fair enough. The Porridge film, Doesn't that
begin with Harry Nelson without Yes.
Yeah. That must have cost a bit.
Not so, Not so much, but not so much.
Back then, you know it, it wasn't, it wasn't particularly
difficult to get the licensing rights, the big puppets and the
way it is now. You know, you you, you'd see
that kind of song used in all sorts of things, particularly
since the publishing rights will have been to the members of
Badfinger who wrote that, who were not exactly loaded because
they wrote no other big hits other than that song.
So I can't imagine, I can't imagine it being too expensive
to use. I mean, thinking about a film, I
just guessed it on another podcast talking about Son of
Dracula that had without you in it and that.
And that must have cost less, That must have cost less to make
than the porridge film. Although of course it didn't
have Nelson starring in it. But still, you know, it's it
can't have been huge, hugely expensive to get the sync rights
for. Andrew Porridge, of course, is
ITC. So does that, does that help in
any way? I mean, is that like a nice
conduit to, I don't know, ATV music or anything like?
That that might, That might actually, yes, that might well
be the case. I don't know if Badfinger were
published by ATV Music, but it would make sense that they were
because they were signed to Apple and all all the
connections would be there. I don't know who published
Badfinger songwriting, but it would that that suddenly makes
it make a little bit more sense. Yeah.
Because you've got the whole loo grade owning ATV music thing,
yeah? I'll be very impressed if you or
Tilk can squeeze in a reference to Van Dyke Parks during this
chat. I had no plans to, but now
you've said it, I'm going to have a good thing.
Yeah. I'm just wishing that Harry
Nelson had just written a song, especially for Porridge.
He's he's one of the people I think would be qualified to come
up with something. Absolutely.
It would have been great for it, I think.
I think it would have fit very well, yeah.
How would he how would he adapt the the the original porridge
theme tune which which isn't a theme tune, it's just Ronnie
Barker sentencing Norman Stanley.
Fletcher. No, nothing.
Quite possibly. Sing that.
I mean Nelson sang the theme tune for the end of Ski Doo,
didn't he? Which, which is just reading out
the credits. So OK, I've.
Always had it easy with a man about the place steaming up the
mirror. When I'm making up my face,
it's. Just a friend, a helping hand, a
ready willing. Smile.
We all watched this film. When was it the other?
Night. Yeah.
Day before yesterday, Yeah. It happened to be Richard
O'sullivan's 80th birthday. Very appropriate.
The Man About the House, the TV series Now, Gary, until you've
covered Man About the House twice on the sitcom club,
haven't you? Yes, the the first time I had a
bit of a crisis about it because I didn't think there was hellish
much I could say around it. And that's not because it's a
bad series at all. It really is a fairly reliable
put it on and you will enjoy yourself for 25 minutes.
It's just that I couldn't think there wasn't any.
The phrase I sometimes used was knobbly bits, the word there
aren't any knobbly bits around it.
It's a gank delivery system with a fairly simple premise.
By the way, if there are any listeners tuning in, tuning in,
how old am I? From the US?
Just a quick explanation, man. About the House is the British
series that in the US became Three's Company.
However, it's worth pointing out that in Man about the house
robbing trips, pretending to be gay doesn't last.
Crissy. Tells the Ropers that he's gay
at the end of the first episode, and he establishes that he isn't
at the beginning of the 2nd. Yeah, that's right.
And it does it. It continues in Three's company,
doesn't it? All through the run, yeah.
You seem to spend a lot of Was it the first, the first episode
you did on Men about the house? You were very exercised by the
pronunciation of the director of Napoleon.
Not really, Scott I Bill Gaunt. I think it might be the second
one actually. Yes, yes.
I think we actually ended up we ended up watching Napoleon
because of the pronunciation of Avalon.
In pronunciation, Gary, yes, the one of our arguments no.
No, this this is back to Flacid and Flacid again, yes.
Yeah, it's pronounced flex it well.
How many people? How many people use flexes in an
everyday conversation? It's.
Funny in that way, though it's funnier.
Flex. It is funnier than flaccid.
Yeah. Gary, didn't you get?
I think I'm sure you've got Jenny Agathur and Jenny Hanley
mixed up as. Well, I did, yes.
Yes, this is true. That's not the most embarrassing
mix up that I've made. I think there's one involving,
yeah, a film and maybe another film sort of similar name.
We're well into the conversation before you realize people.
No. Well.
It's once the conversation about Barry Lyndon before I realized
that Harry was talking about Barry McKenzie, which is not a
Kubrick film. It probably does have some cast
members in common though. No, it it doesn't actually,
'cause we talked about this and we went through, we couldn't
find any. We we had, we had this
conversation a few months back and yet we couldn't find anybody
in common. And we looked, yeah.
I don't remember that. Maybe it was one of the times
you went here, but I I remember having this conversation.
Having fun without me? Dare you.
So, Andrew, what about you? I mean, you're slightly younger
than than us. Yeah.
Do you? Did you, do you remember?
Did you watch Man about the House and repeat?
I saw in repeat in like the 80s or 90s odd episodes.
Weirdly, I thought I hadn't watched this film until we were
watching it on Tuesday. And then a bunch of scenes
particularly the strip poker scene.
I, I, I clearly saw saw the film version on TV at some point when
I was a teenager and remembered it as being just an episode of
the TV show. So yeah I'm I'm sort of I I and
obviously we have watched something like 30 episodes but
to get together over the over the last couple of years as
well. So I'm I'm very familiar with it
but not not as familiar as Tilton Gary.
But it's it's it's a series I know.
You know. If you remember the strip poker
scene, Andrew, then it wasn't the central TV version that you
remember seeing. Right.
Oh, do you want to talk about the the TV edit now then?
So we we came into, I don't know how we came into possession of
this. I mean like a lot of the stuff
that we've got like on transmitted pilots and all sorts
of things. Somehow we managed to get hold
of a recording and it was central TV and I think it was
about maybe 1999 something like that.
And it was late at night and they had put out a version of
Man about the house that was missing about almost 15 minutes
in total. It really been.
So I presume this is just for for timing purposes and you did
get some odd edits in it. So like, as we've all alluded to
already, there's a lengthy scene involving Robin trying to
convince Chrissy and Joe to play strip poker and eventually
succeeding. But it backfires course and this
scene doesn't appear in this TV edit, but all the preamble
beforehand does. So Robin is just for some reason
just constantly going on about strip poker and then nothing
comes of it. And I'm sure there are still
some back references to it later on about a scene that we haven't
seen. Yeah, nothing like clumsy
editing. It's like it's like the.
Apple. Which I haven't seen.
Oh, we have to make you watch the apple.
No, I'm. Not watching the apple it.
Is one of the least boring films ever made.
This is. This is true.
It's.
Yes, it's so it's a disco musical from circa 19.
I think it's 1980. Yeah, 80, yeah.
Completely bonkers. It has Laddick Cherbel singing a
reggae song about how to be a master.
And also the ending is a payoff to an introduction that didn't
end up in the film. So the ending is just so
completely out of left field and raises more questions than the
answers. And by the way, without You is
by Apple Publishing. Look on 45 Cat.
Right. Of course.
That makes sense. Yeah, right.
My favorite piece of cock handed editing was when they were
showing in sickness and health on rather plus much missed
channel. And they were editing the the
BBC Half Hour to Commercial TV Half Hour.
There's a scene where Alf mentions that he's got a new
clock radio and Ken Campbell's character in the pub offers to
set it up for him. You know, supposedly being
helpful. And then at the end of the
episode the bloody thing goes off at 3:00 in the morning with
a volume turn to fool on radio, one of the hell it is.
And just waking up the whole damn street.
But the conversation between them and the pub had been cut,
so all it made off look was just incompetent that he didn't know
how to set up radio by himself. They used to cut 3 or 4 minutes
out of every half hour BBC sitcom when I was watching
growing up in New Zealand and which which meant for example
you could be watching an episode of a low and low and the end
credits you have been watching could be characters that you
haven't seen. Yeah, during the episode they've
just been excised. Well, of course we have that
situation with this film, don't we?
Because of the couple of names and the the opening titles that
we don't actually see in the film about these days AM.
Jack Smithers and Rudolf Walker. Yes, better known as Gary.
Well bet, better known as the the Warning neighbors in Lovely
Neighbor. This I mean, I I quite well.
I know I really do enjoy this film, but then it helps because
I really enjoy the TV series. In fact, I would.
I would say that Man About the House is possibly my favorite
sitcom. It's just, it's just I'm not
going to. I hate to use the word comfort
viewing, but it's. Just no, it is.
It's it's a comfortable thing to watch.
It's it it goes back to what Tilt was saying about not having
nobly bits. The the upside of that is there
is nothing abrasive about it. It's very, very, very, very,
very well crafted, very likeable.
You can. You can put it on and just enjoy
yourself. And at no point, at no point are
you going to have to you. You don't.
You don't have to work to enjoy it at all but it but it's still
solidly good. It it's it.
It doesn't talk down to you. It doesn't it doesn't insult
your intelligence, but it but it doesn't make you work for it
either. Yeah.
And also, there's no there's every character I like.
Yeah, and and that's very rare. I I find there's there's often a
character in a sitcom that I just don't like for whatever
reason, but I like all of them, even even Jo.
I mean Jo can be slightly annoying but just because she's
a bit scatty but now in in terms of you know this I this I
consider to be a a successful film sitcom to screen transfer.
What? What?
What would you guys say are the
more successful or the least successful sitcoms to films
well, that period? Well, the the most successful,
the Like Lads film was very good.
We watched that the other month, didn't we?
And that that that worked surprisingly well.
Them not not really as a comedy that that that was quite, quite
bleak and I I quite like the porridge film.
I've not seen that in many years, but I I remember that as
being quite good. And there are, there are some,
there were some sitcom films, which in a strange way they go
on to be sort of the only representation of that
particular sitcom. I mean, I think that the sitcom,
the BBC sitcom That's Your Funeral Now, I think only exists
in its film version. I think the TV series itself was
white. And you get occasionally turning
up films such as, say, Nearest and Dearest, for example, or oh,
what do you call it? Never mind the quality, feel the
width. Which, oh, they're all sort of,
you know, varying degrees of of success at the box office or
whatever. But this business about, I mean,
I'm sure we've spoken about this on plenty podcast before, but
this business about Oh yeah, talking head says in in in clip
show documentary. They always go abroad on
holiday. No, they did that once.
And are you being? And that's it.
I think they might. They don't show us, at least.
One more. Holiday on the buses.
Buses. I will hold in the buses in
Prestatyn. I don't like to think about
that. Are you?
And Duty Free, although that wasn't a feature film, was it?
No. No, that's the whole premise of
the show, isn't it? Thinking about it.
That would be interesting. A duty free feature film in
which they are back home for a bit.
Oh thanks George, could just do with a nice cup of tea.
Oh yeah. Well, there's one in the pot.
I was thinking, Mildred, perhaps we should consider selling it.
What, this? It's all rust and rattles.
No, no, no. I'm in the house.
I'm thinking the money we could make.
George, What good is money if you haven't got your elf?
Oh, I've got me elf. You won't have if you sell my
house. 22 years of marriage. All we've got to show for is our
house, yeah. Well, it wasn't my fault.
I went to the clinic and they said it.
Wasn't my fault. Well, it certainly wasn't mine.
I don't like children. Look, George, you can't hit the
jackpot if you don't put the money in the machine.
We didn't mention it, by the way, but it was something that
caught my eye a moment ago, talking about some various
adaptations. And the strange thing, of
course, is that man about the house, I think we all agree, is
one of the better adaptations. Yes.
And at the other end of the scale, George and Mildred.
What? I really like about this.
This little piece of trivia here spotted George and Mildred was
broadcast on ITV on Christmas Day afternoon, immediately after
the Queen's Christmas message, the implication being that she
introduced it. Well, that's enough for me
anyway. A nice pussy film.
And and with with poor youth of barely cold in the grave, yeah.
Yeah. And it it would had only been
released theatrically, what, three months before.
July of 1980, yeah, right. OK.
Listen, it believed to be like there was a 1-2 punch of George
and Mildred and rising Damp that killed off the British sitcom
film. Yeah, yeah.
And in this film he's 42. Brian Murphy is 42 in this film.
I'm not sure how old George is meant to be, but just just I
just a little bit of a comparison.
So Brian Murphy is 42 in this film.
Picture him in your mindlessness.
The the character of George Roper.
OK Tom Hardy is 46 now. Tom Hiddleston is 43.
Henry Cavill is 41. Brian Murphy is only 42,
although he looks like a child in primary school if you if you
think of Richard Vernon or a guy from Guy From.
Yellow. What's it called?
No, Woodward. Edward Woodward Callen.
What's the guy from Callen called till?
Robert Red. Is it Robert or Ronald Ronald
Red? Ronald Red.
Yes, that's it. Ronald Red, who's only a year
old with them. Edward Woodward.
And yeah, and long paper round, Yeah.
And the thing was Brian Murphy as well.
So George is very thinning on top, which was Brian Murphy's
natural state. So he was happy to to be, you
know, immortalized on film with his natural thinning thatch.
But he wore a wig normally. Is that Is that right?
Yeah, I've seen him in interviews and shows.
I think even Slate is the the early 90s with with a piece, but
I think that probably went by both of the the mid 90s or that
about so when he was in one foot in the grave.
With my favorite episode of Man, Who better blew away?
Yes, Yeah, Yeah. And Gary, when we started
watching this film you it begins with what we can hear.
Someone's having a bath and the camera is slowly panning towards
the bathroom. And Gary, you said because it
was a film, you wondered how many punters were going in
hoping that it was going to be there was going to be a bit more
X-rated action, but it was not to be of well.
Exactly, it is. It's sort of alluding to that
straight away, isn't it? Because obviously this is, this
is the same year as the first of the Confessions films and you
know British cinemas. Is is on its arse or has Robin
asked Chris Arse on the screen or whatever it is?
And yeah, I mean that and that's the best of them because
subcrud. And I've seen most of it, but oh
God, tell what was that one that we watched?
But we didn't watch him with him, obviously, but the one with
Keith Barron and Kenneth Cope. She'll follow you anywhere.
Yeah, that that might have been the absolute pits, but that was
just. I would tell you what the
premise is, but we'd have to do a content warning that gives you
an idea. To tell you what I was, I was
going to ask by the way, here we are, what, half an hour into the
conversation. Andrew.
Yeah, Andrew, let's just take a little digression here.
Tell the listeners what you were up to last night.
Oh yeah. Well, I went to see the band
Tenacious D because they are fans of my podcast and they get
me free tickets and then go on the guest list and stuff.
And they announced from the stage that I am the greatest
podcaster in the world and that everybody should like me and
stuff. That was quite that was quite
nice. So I've been in a rather odd
state today because it's not normally the case that you have
like people who have had their own films announcing to 14,000
seats, sold out arenas that that you are the greatest on earth.
And then I went backstage and Kyle Tenacious DS guitarist,
spent about 19 minutes being a fanboy of me.
And this is this is not my normal life, but it's sort of
been my life. Recently I I seem to be getting
celebrity fans, which which is fun but strange so.
The three of us can relate to that.
Can't we get me in 2 because because you were in Vegas, I do
what a week? Or so, yeah.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Vegas as a guest of Penn
Jillette and that that that was fun as well.
He he was. He's, he's another big fan of
the podcast. I do.
I do have a few very famous fans.
I believe Kevin Bacon gave me a shout out on Instagram one time
that that kind, that kind of thing.
But I I don't really understand this because you know, I I am in
all, in all other respects, I am basically living the same life
as the rest of you, you know, just just doing my podcast for
an audience of us basically. But it seems to have caught on.
So anyway, back to the film I want to talk about.
So Larry is one of my favorite characters.
The character of Larry The Who who I think he turns up in the
in the sitcom What Series 2 is it Gary maybe?
He no, I'm just, I'm wondering, I think he might make an
appearance towards the end of series one.
As well, OK, on and off character, but he more or less
becomes a regular character after a couple of series and he
ends up moving in to the house although he's living.
Is he living in the? Is he living amongst George's
pornography up in the? Yes, because they they they
convert the the, the attic. Yeah.
And they they they, they must be in this film because because he,
he gets involved in the campaign to not have, not have the place
knocked down, doesn't it? Because he because he he'll lose
his home as well. So this this must be set while
he's living, living in the house, yeah?
Do do you? You don't get that impression,
do you? No, no.
But I think, I think they're just assuming that you have that
background knowledge because otherwise he's just, he's just a
random person who turns up occasionally, isn't he?
In this. But yeah, yeah.
I don't, I don't want to dwell on this aspect, but do we, do we
presume that as part of Larry's sort of living arrangements that
maybe yes, he's got a sort of, I don't know, he struck a deal
with George where part of the rent he'll pay in cash and then
the rest he he will pay sort of in kind.
To Mildred. No, no, I still I meant, but
actually yes, considering how this film ends.
George what's the what's the modern day what could called is
that it? Yeah.
So yeah, I mean, oh God, if the
film we got on all 10 minutes, they would be doing it in front
of George and he's on sofa. Yeah, but Arthur, you mean after
the Thames television commissioner who moves in as a
lodger at the end who, because he was.
He was Mildred's old flame during the war, I think.
Was it? Was he?
And of course we've got better recording, haven't we?
Because Mildred's surname in the film is different to her surname
in the series. Yeah, she's asked with in this
maiden name and but it was established in the sitcom that
her surname and maiden name was Trek, Tremble, Mildred.
Which I think is a way you can kind of reconcile it, that if
your surname was trembled, you might lie about it and say it
was Asquith. If it was Mildred Nate Tremble,
possibly her. Possibly her name was originally
Tremble Asquith and she changed the first name.
I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure Tremble and ask
with as a Yorkshire TV cartoon from 1969.
You already you've lambered me here, mate.
Mousetrap and Vicky's for Table 9.
Larry, Larry. No, no, no, no selects.
I want to formage to France. I think this week.
Yeah, and if we're in a Vicarage, Oh yeah, and one ice
cream. Coming up one vanilla.
Oh no, sorry. Can you make that chocolate?
I'll do my best. Abracadabra.
It's not worked here. Coverage in Curry powder.
They won't know the difference. I'd love to go for a Jimmy Cup
hold of that. Hey, And when I come back,
remind me to tell you all about the daffodil.
Oh dear Daffodil. Go there.
A stingy lot of customers in there.
The only tip I've seen all day is this kitchen.
I don't know. I feel a bit sorry for Larry in
this he, I think he he he, well, he he doesn't have a lot to do
in this film. No, no.
Does he? No, he's he's basically not any
you you could, you could edit him out of the film completely
and you wouldn't you wouldn't really notice, you know in in in
the sitcom he's usually the focus of AB plot or quite often
the focus of AB plot. You know, he's, he's there, but
here he's just sort of one, one of the one of the crowd in the
pub and so on, isn't he? He has a few more lines than
other people in the crowd. But yeah, he's on the same level
as, you know, Melvin Hayes's character.
Almost. Melvin Hayes, The Raging
Heterosexual, Yes. That's so just something I
quickly want to mention. Our mutual friend Ian has this
thing called 10% actors, which is an actor who, if they're in
something, the the overall production is going to be 10%
better than it would have been without them.
Yeah, the number of 10% actors in this means that this is 150%
of the film. It couldn't be.
Yeah 'cause even little parts. What?
So yeah, Melvin Hayes is in this as the companion of Michael
Ward. I mean, Michael Ward is always
my heart leaps when I see, oh great, Michael Ward's in this.
We're going to get at least one great performance if nobody else
is doing their best. Well, it's funny you should say
that because last episode I was talking about Casino Royale
1967, and I and I made a point of saying that any film, no
matter how dreadful, is infinitely improved by the
presence, even if it's just a small, you know, walk on part by
the presence of either Bernard Cribbins or John Bluthall.
Yeah. Ideally, both of them, yeah.
And and Casino Royale has that has that honor.
So that those are two, what would you call it, 10%.
Those are 210% actors, aren't they?
Yeah, Blue, blue, swimming cribbins.
Yeah, and this has got like, Aubrey Morrissey's another one,
isn't it? You know, there's some, really.
Oh, yes. Yeah.
Some. Oh, and Maynard.
Yes, the Maynard. Yeah.
Do you want to describe Bill Maynard it?
Well it we see two sides of the character that he plays in this.
We see the the, the, the filthy vest and sucking on a grubby dog
end chef character that he plays and then you and then he
smartens up later on in the film.
I get an impression that there may be there been some sort of
editing of the of the text because it appears there's a
little hint of it. But it appears that Robin has
worked wonders on him because when he goes to work at the
restaurant then yeah, Maynard is the the chef and situ is is very
much yeah. You haven't got time to faff
about in here with cleanliness and and then before you know it,
it's the place is transformed and.
Oh yes, I thought I'd missed something.
No. We never really getting
explanations to this sort of Manny Poppins effect that that
Robin has, yeah. Saying about Larry having not a
lot to do. The same could be said for for
Joe, for Sally Thompson character.
Yes. She doesn't really have a lot.
I mean she she doesn't do a lot on the sitcom, let's face it.
But she's there's a there's a, there's an attempt of a a sort
of AC or AD plot with her and Larry fumbling about in his in
his VW on a park, precariously on a riverbank.
But that's about it really, Kingsley Amos said.
Sally Thompson looks like she was designed by a committee of
sex maniacs. I I think she deserves, no, she
deserves praise because as you said, Joe could be an annoying
character, she could be very irritating.
And Sammy Thompson just makes her likable.
And there's always that thing that certainly at some point
there are jokes in which she indicates that she knows that
she's the idiot. But also Thompson's performance
gives a little sort of just a little edge of knowing thing.
Yeah, I know I'm not that clever.
That's I'm going to speak anyway.
She she's the Peter Talk of the group.
Yes, yes. I was just thinking about
myself. Yes.
Not getting eggs? You like them yesterday?
And the day before? Yeah.
And the day before. I'm beginning to look like an
egg. Listen, it isn't.
Even my turn to cook the breakfast, It's Joes.
Well then why doesn't? Joe Cook it.
She did bacon and sausages. Do you want?
To eat it. Just for change, How about to
mix? Do you like cooking?
We don't. Listen, it's part of the
female's function to. Provide food.
So where do you think these eggs came from?
A rooster. I'm not a male chauvinist.
I think you are. But.
What do you know about it? You're only a woman.
Honestly, I have nothing to do with men if they weren't the
opposite sex. Look.
When are you going to fix the lock on that door?
No, I'll get around to it. I'll tell you what.
Tell you what, I'll put that bolt on that door.
What? Bolt well.
The one from your bedroom door, you know, I can quite easily
unscrew it and. You leave that where it is.
All right, all right. If it gives you the illusion of
safety. Illusion another three feet and
my tunnel is completed. You know they've they've they've
ramped up the is it, is it A2 sided sexual attraction?
I think it is between Robin and Chrissy.
Oh yes, this. This is one of the things that
they get very close to consummating their relationship,
but. They don't get all backwards.
They get they. They get closer than they ever
did in the TV series. Yeah.
And Joe and and Larry come back from the disastrous date,
interrupting Robin. And it seems that like why?
Well you've been interrupted once, Robin.
So that's it. Don't ever mention again.
OK, I'm first mutual attraction. It it it no longer counts
apparently. Tyler, you you may have to
referee here, OK? Because it's going to be in the
nicest possible way. There's going to be slight
disagreement between myself and till here because I'm going to
say till that they actually got closer to, you know, the the
business. I'm doing that that business
when me first just know you can't see it, but you know.
Exactly. Yes.
Yeah. You remember the episode where
there's a mouse running around the house?
Yes, yes. And I mean, Robin is, is, is
inches away from actually, you know, getting into to Chrissy's
bed at that point. OK, that's corrected.
And it's only a rogue mouse trap that catches them in an
unfortunate place that's paid to his endeavour.
No, I I I will bow to your superior knowledge.
Because yeah, when it comes to the text of all these sitcoms,
Gary usually knows more than I do.
Except when it comes to the upper hand.
Now OK, are we going to address this?
Because I don't think the the good I.
Said there was an upper hand that contained a parody, a
partial parody of Quantum Leap. Gary did not believe me.
We found it. We watched it.
And so ever since if I am absolutely, 100% sure and Gary
is saying that that couldn't be the case, I say I invoke the law
of Quantum Leap. I don't think of that gives you
carte blanche to just just say that and win any argument,
although it sort of does. Well, no, it's it's basically
it's it's like this. This is not the case where we
agree to disagree. But why?
Why it might We might have. It means that, right?
Unless there's evidence for Gary's side of the argument.
OK, why can I not? Going to just be.
Why can't I invoke that law when it comes to Warsaw gummage?
I'm saying I'm I'm perfectly willing to believe you, but find
it first. Well.
I don't want to sit because. I've heard people, I've heard
people say the same thing as you, Gary, but it then turned
out that he actually said cow shed.
No, no, no, because because in the context of what I remember,
the word cow shed doesn't make any sense.
Because he couldn't have. Eaten it's in the country, every
other structures. A cow shed, surely.
I'm going to have to do it on. I'm going to have to like time
off and sit and watch every bloody episode of Water Gummage
not find it and think. Or maybe Water Gummage down
under and watch all of that as well and still not find it.
But didn't you? But hang on, Gary, you say it in
the context. Yeah, he he couldn't, he
couldn't have said cow shed. Yeah, like black tilts at every
other building is a cow shed. Nobody.
He wasn't.
There was never any possibility that wasn't going to eat a cow
shed. Always, yeah.
But is it likely in a children's television program to say what
you thought? He said, he said to Aunt Sally,
and he did say it. He said.
I never ate no cow shit. That's what.
He said I never had no cow shed. I mean.
Yeah, that's equally true. Yes, yeah.
Oh, but he means cow shit is what you mean, right?
No, no. What what I think is happening
there is he is saying he has never eaten a cow shed, which is
a perfectly true statement and that is that is what Worzel
Gummidge intends intends it to mean.
Quite possibly it was half intended as a joke, but for for
adult members of the audience to go.
We thought he said something different.
But. Pertwee does have yeah previous
on this in Worzel dummage slipping in Elizabethan swear
words. I think he uses the word swive
at one point. Yeah.
Which is to engage in sexual Congress.
You don't. It might, I don't know.
You might use the Q word which which is which is in The
Avengers assemble. What was that thing we watched
where he said Tits. Oh, that's some sort of, yeah,
that's an industrial sort of promo film, just to be shown to
a bunch of boozy salesman for the new sea.
Anyway, I think we could kind of drift the topic.
The woman he says that to is, and I can't remember her name,
The lead? Diana Weston from.
So all it comes full circle,
yeah. Brilliant American list this The
upper hand was our version of Who's the Boss, Tony.
Who's the Boss? Tony Danson.
Yeah, yeah. I got complaints on On Diamonds
TV Weekly from viewers and certain regions who had just
finished watching Who's the Boss?
And then along comes this British show called The Upper
Hand, which looks faintly familiar.
I've got on my notes here and I'm not sure why I wrote this
down. I'm kind of regretting it now.
I've written It's weird, but I'd like to know what actually
happened during the Ropers honeymoon.
Well, didn't in the series. Didn't they say it was in the
honeymoon was in Dunkirk? Oh, yes.
Was in the film. Did they say battle in front of
us? Was that what they?
Said yeah, Mildred makes some reference to it being a
disaster. Well, that.
That's after George saying he did his duty, isn't it?
Yes. Yeah.
Yes, I mean we've seen, if you, if you've ever seen that,
Smith's single cover, we've seen pictures of young youth, of
Joyce George's punching well above his weight.
Oh yeah. Until if if we did know more
about the honeymoon, do you think that that would have
involved the word flax it at some point?
Yes, quite. Possibly.
Hey, what is this? Hang on, you think it's flex it
it's flaccid? It is flaccid, but till some
reason he's got an old an old. It's really thinks it's flaccid.
Yeah, it's it really is quite a cheese parry pedantic little
point. The the pronunciation has become
flaccid as in that the pronunciation.
But originally the word was and if you one of those kinds of
people and I'd like to play prescriptivist whenever I can
because it's annoying and I like annoying Gary, it's pronounced
flaccid. And the reason I really stand by
this is there's a documentary about Ed Wood which is partially
narrated by Gary Owens. You're not a great voice.
He has, and at one point he says the term.
Flexed rubber octopus. That's.
Like that would not be as funny if he said Placid so.
Yes. I'm going to default back to,
yeah, which is, you know, also things like Gary says data, most
people say data you. See, I when I was a kid, when I
was where I grew up, I used to say, I'm sure I used to say data
as well. But now I say data and I used to
say vitamins, and now I say vitamins.
So I see vitamins, but I would still say data because data is
correct. Right.
You see this vitamins here? So I keep forgetting and using
British idioms. Yeah, I mean vitamins should be
the correct, the correct term because it comes from vital
amines, so. So from the etymology it should
it should be vitamins in the same way that from the
etymology, flaccid or flaccid should be flaccid, flaccid
because it's from Flacco to Latin.
So yeah, for once, for once, the American pronunciation is
correct there. We've got we've got 3 entries
now, FLACID, BLACID and BLACCID. Is that right?
Yeah, the the the English pronunciation was originally
flac flaccid, but it comes from the Latin Flacco.
But I think we can all agree that whatever pronunciation you
prefer of the word George Roper is.
A limp noodle, Yeah. Only when it comes to Mildred.
Yeah. Here's here's another word that
I've only. I think I've only ever seen it
written down. I've don't think I've ever said
it before. So I might get it might get the
pronunciation wrong. Olia genus.
That's correct. Yeah.
Genus, Olia, Genus. And I'm attaching that word to
the actor Peter Salia. Yes, not Peter Sellers.
Peter Sellers, listeners Peter Salia, Do we want to talk about
Peter Salia who turns up in this film as the What is he?
There's the What is he? But he he's he's the agent for
the for the villain, isn't he? But he he he's the one who has
to go around persuading everybody to have the houses
bought and knocked down. That's it.
Because that's, that's the plot of the film.
Yeah, this, this is that the Victorian terrace that the
Ropers house is, is, is, is on is.
They're trying to buy it up and knock it down and and put up an
office block. It's a fairly standard movie
plot, isn't it? They're going to pull down the
old something. Let's hold club together and
prevent it. Yeah, the whole thing is very,
very structured, like like a late 50s, early 60s thing, isn't
it? The other thing I was thinking
is the running around the TV studio at the end is very much
that that kind of standard standards.
You know, maybe think of for example, oh, it's tried that,
you know an excuse to get a load, get a load of characters,
a load of famous faces together. Because we we have to, we have
to go into the TV studio where they all are.
It's all building blocks of that kind, that kind of programmer
from the from the 50s and stuff, isn't it?
Great segue there Andrew because later this year there's going to
be some bonus episodes of Goompod dropping in, which
myself and guests will be talking about just general
British comedy films, 40s, fifties, 60s, seventies, 80s
onwards. And Andrew has agreed.
You have agreed, Andrew. It's on record now it's on tape
that at some point he's going to come on and join me to talk
about the aforementioned. It's tried.
Dead I've. Completely forgotten that said
that but that makes that makes sense I'm I'm up for that I mean
and that does have a goon connection because Richard
Lester obviously so. Yes, of course.
We first acquired the taste for it in a little bar near the
Acropolis. Oh, yes.
Yeah, he's Bump is about the ancient Greeks, but it's such a
marvelous civilization. It's so.
So civilized. True, true.
The friendship of an older man for a lad was not misunderstood
and frowned upon. Quite.
I think that Nigel here has rather the look of an Apollo
about him. Yes, yes.
You know, the Michelangelo Apollo put that statue on a
motorbike and it's Nigel to a team.
Quite. And it's still a glorious
country today. The the wine, the sunshine, the
music. Do you like the bazooka?
Nah, I prefer the Yamaha super bike.
His witch is a constant delight. Peter.
Sally. What do we know him from?
Yes, Minister. Yes.
Is that it? Mary Linden, Is he Mary Linden?
Yeah, yeah. Only a Smallville, but he's in
there. He's been in everything though.
But but yes, minister is the thing that the thing that
everybody recognized him from, he was the permanent secretary
to the Treasury and that's his opposite number.
Yeah. Yeah, here's the strange
instances at a tad a typical casting not 100 million miles
away. But he plays effectively a sort
of ticket tote A spiff and good night sweetheart when he
explains to to. Because Gary realizes that
you're supposed to have a ticket to to be underground during the
the the bombing. And Celia is there and just
coincidentally happens to have, you know a couple of briefs to
spare. And Gary immediately says, hey,
you're a spiff, aren't you? And he said they're still
playing it in not too dissimilar fashion, but he's like a bit
more rough around the edges. He's like it reminds me a little
bit of Donald Syndon in the film of father, dear father, what
he's like he's still sort of you OK.
He's he's got all the the lingo and what have you could pass for
for for being cultured and what have you.
But actually he, you know he's yeah, the black sheep of the
family. You know, sort of associates
with the the the wrong people. Brings us on to Miss Bird.
Who's that? Who's Who's exemplifies that 70s
British comedy trope of the raging nympho?
Now OK now that again this this is going to come back to the the
the precise use of the the words but I would obviously waving
lymphoma cell and you're going for raging now raging suggests
is a little bit more anger in there and and our lymphosity is
that what nymphosity. Nymphosity.
Yeah, I just I've I've just invented that water.
It's now. Yeah.
It's it is interesting though that she's not like sexually
aggressive. She seems very dainty and and
pleasant and Robin's fear of her seems rather unusual.
And also we we've also that kind of raises an issue with Larry's
complaining about not getting any.
Yes. And yet all he needs to do is.
Knock on the door 2 doors. Down.
He's going to pull him in and give him a damn good scene, too.
Let's There's no two ways about it, and the implication is, is
that Peter Celia is at least on the receiving end of a damn good
swiping. See.
OK. Well, like, likewise, George,
yeah, you know. OK, I can understand George
because, you know, if Mildred finds out, then she he's going
to be guilded. I I think, I think George is
scared of anything actually happening in real life is the
thing. I think.
I think George is a man who lives in his fantasies and would
be terrified with of any actual real woman.
I. Don't think that she would be
keen on Larry because Larry would be would be too eager.
I think that she think he was a bit sort of you know, oh where's
he been? You know, you don't know where
he was last night, that kind of thing.
Tyler, do you remember what you said the end of the scene when
he just said there finally manages to escape captivity for
about 3 days or so and the the Boy Scout runs up the stairs and
in the film she just says no, you can come back next year.
You had an alternative scenario for that.
Oh yeah, I thought that scout should have been played by
Ruxton Haywood. It would have been.
We're going to take in the film about different direction.
How much screen time does he get in films?
Does he get like 20 minutes? 20 minutes wouldn't need that
log. Should he go in with his, you
know, typical his voice, which is sort of up here, not quite
sound like people, and then when he comes out, sounds like
Valentine dial. With a pipe on the game.
Yeah, of course. We see.
It's it's the scene where we see we see Mike first of all, Mike
Baldwin. Well, what was he called?
Johnny Berks? Yeah, as a milkman and Bill
Poetry as a postman. And.
And they're both Lincoln. You miss him really, aren't
they? Yeah.
Funny thing about Johnny Briggs is that Johnny Briggs sounds
like a made-up name, but Mike Baldwin doesn't.
Yeah, I think possibly the kids TV show called Johnny Briggs.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, maybe it's the Johnny Element, I think if if he was
just credited as John Briggs. Yeah, yeah.
And nobody, nobody blink and I would they I.
Can't find IMDB's no help, but I know Ruxton Harewood appeared in
at least one movie, but I saw a brief clip of.
He also appeared on Sky Star Search, did he not?
Did he? Yes, Till when we were.
When we see, we see Arthur Lowe. I mean the the peerless Arthur
Lowe, who it seemed like he appeared in most British films
in the 1970s. Really, if you think about it.
I know he didn't. But it's what it feels like of.
Course, Lindsay Anderson thought very highly of men at one point.
He's actually, he's actually more dark and sinister in this
than he is an all lucky man. Frankly.
He doesn't play it as an Arthur Law type.
He's not the Leonard Swinney nor George Mannering.
He's he's very straight and quite sinister.
He's a ruthlessness to him. He would have been a good hunter
and. Yes, yes.
He would have been but you thought he he he should have put
because he plays a character in this the what's he called Spiros
who owns this building firm. Yeah.
Owns this building firm and and you you you thought he he
perhaps he should have played as he played the character in oh
Lucky Man. I I, I refuse to be drawn on
this because that makes it sound like a advocate for blackface.
And I don't know that you'll get to be cancelled.
Man. Morris, you know I've always
liked you. Don't say that, Sir.
But I've been asked to appear on television this evening to
defend our. Your Middleton Terrace
development? Not an easy task, Sir.
No, no. That's why I'm not going to do
it. Why?
Why?
You are and. You will disarm any criticism of
the project. How?
By telling them it is cancelled, It's been.
But why? On environmental and moral
grounds, a sincere gesture to public opinion, and because a
certain incompetent I was unable to knock down all six houses
before a preservation order was planted on them.
If. If I was able to get all the
houses, I I could still live 6:00.
Tonight, Maurice, I'll be watching.
And should my name come up? Don't forget to stress that I
give a lot to charities anonymously.
Children's charity. No, no.
Breaking dogs. What?
What were we talking about? George Rupert's plums because it
always, always leads back to that, in a way.
Yeah, Speaking of that, then, how often does George defy
Mildred? And why does he think he's going
to get away with it every? Time.
OK, first of all, I thought you were going to say how?
Often does George. Get it?
How often has he actually done it?
I mean, nobody kept going. He doesn't defy, OK, defy her in
a way. That is he's actually saying I'm
going to be man of this house and so on.
I think he kept those on one hand.
But the number of times he does it behind her back and usually
when Roy can hear Jetty is involved and then he's here.
Yeah. Jet needs to do something.
Yeah, there's a few more of those instances, but of course
you got was gets found out. People watching this film in the
cinema, you know in the back in the day, they'll have seen we we
may as well come to him now. They'll have seen Spike's name
in the opening credits and they're waiting for him to turn
up and they're thinking perhaps he's going to turn up as a
Indian waiter or Irish tramp something like that.
And and no he we see him probably about well 10 minutes
from the end he's he's got his own dressing room at Thames
Television and he comes out and and and clearly baffles George
Roper with this stream of consciousness.
And he's wearing as I have pointed out before and it was
actually first pointed out to me by friend of the show Chris
Diamond. He's wearing the the exact same
jumper that he wore for the recording of the last goon
shovel. So clearly a man who's, you
know, close to a pound note his bike, but what do we make of
his? His clearly improvised a couple
of scenes in this film. It's all that a film of from
particularly from this era that has Spec Milliken in it and he's
playing himself and it looks like he's got license to, you
know just go off in one. His appearance is one of the
least problematic in terms of the various in this part.
Yeah, no, his his part doesn't require any editing at all,
whereas we already touched on Love My neighbor and Julian
Orchard calling one of the cameramen a tip man.
I think that probably gets removed these days as well.
And of course, Bill. Bill Grundy, a couple of years
away from his night event for me.
Well, the famous thing is, is that the six pistols appeared on
the Today program because Queen were unavailable.
Freddie had gone to the dentist and obviously that was going to
take a couple of weeks. So I just think I would rather
have seen Bill Grundy interviewing Queen because I
think when it comes to foul language and being insulted, he
he could kind of summon up the right anger and could handle
that. But the idea of him having to
handle Freddie Mercury? Possibly flirting with him?
I think making squirm a great deal more.
Can I just mention Norman Mitchell's epaulets?
Oh. Yes, I have the film playing on
my tablet while we're doing this just in case there's to bring
anything. And I just noticed that he he is
a security guard and his epilepse have a metallic Thames
on them. Yes.
My goodness, I'd like some of some of those, just to be good.
Beautifully next to my Yorkshire television cufflinks.
Yes, you do have those. Can distinctly hear the
trembling in your voice as you said that too.
Absolutely. A man needs hobbies.
So I want to talk about Spike Milligan as a media brand
because I'm thinking Spike's appearance in this is very
similar to his appearance in The Goon Show.
I'm just wondering if that's kind of, it's not, it's not like
I'm making a claim of deliberate eccentricity, but I'm thinking
Spike is playing up to certain aspects of his personality.
Yeah, deliberately. And is that kind of his way of
handling, You know, sometimes people are not comfortable being
themselves. And it brings me back to Brian
Murphy's hairpiece. Yeah, because one theory I'd had
is that maybe Brian Murphy wore the hairpiece so that he could
put a cord on sanitaire between Brian Murphy, the actor and
George Roper. So when he's appearing on a
show, he's just gone there. And James Villiers, who appeared
on a call my bluff and had a bit of a panic beforehand because he
didn't know how to be himself. And so he arranged for the
wardrobe department to get him a mustache.
And he could put on the mustache and pretend that he was playing
a part called James Villiers, who just happened to be an actor
with a mustache. But he wasn't being himself.
Well, that that's just like Sellers.
When he would put on the German army helmet.
Yeah, he was on chat shows. Yeah, I think putting on a
mustache is more elegant solution.
It would have raised questions on call my bluffer have been no
context off Robert Robinson just yeah, we're all aware of the
elephant in the room. Let's let's just not speak about
this. Stop with you hit me or you go
blind. Excuse me.
Who are you? Mr. Roper.
What a good memory you've got. Oh, thank you.
Look, I'm. I'm looking for today.
Today, this is today. It's here with us all day today.
No, No. No.
All day today. Even if you're standing on it,
all these walls are today. No, I mean this general
direction. It's all in the general
direction today. No.
Studio Studio 373, Yes. Straight up here.
Left and left again, left the game and then left the game.
Yeah. And I'll be there.
No, you'll be back here, but by then somebody might be here who
knows away. So look, we've dispensed with
Spike fairly quickly, but he he doesn't, he doesn't add a lot,
He doesn't take away anything. He's just a nice little.
Woman, I think he does add something.
I think just disappearance, just so it's it's a thing.
When you're extending A sitcom to feature length, there is the
whole issue of plot, character and gags.
And sometimes, you know, you might, there might be a
temptation to expand upon character at the expense of plot
and gags. Gags might come less.
That's the problem if you have all this time to play with.
But man, about the House is really successful, not just in
jokes arising from the situation, but sometimes it's
just like jokes just sort of stuffed in there.
There's, there's an exchange about, oh, you know, it's the
Prime Minister spoke in the Commons for 90 minutes and said,
oh, what was he talking about? I don't know.
He didn't say yes. Well, that's just, you know,
that's just the gag. It's it's nothing really to do
with anything. It can be slipped in because of
Patrick Neal's character being an MP, but it's not really
integral to the thing. But it keeps the mood aloft and
that's an important thing to I I sometimes use the first say
there are there are jokes that just keep the mood aloft and
there are load bearing jokes. These are the jokes that you
know are it's they they have a beautiful intersection between
plot character and being a gag. Yeah, but they're also have to
be ones that just make things funny and this is full of those
things. So there's a gag about, you
know, the girls Larry's talking about Robin, you know, be be
having a flat with two birds or and Robin said yeah, but they
put a bolt on the door. Now I have difficulty getting
out but a fine bit of mood gaggery and of course
excellently delivered this. This is really putting aside all
the cameos. This is a really great cast.
Everybody just delivers things exactly right.
Yeah, they're they're lovable when they need to be.
And it's it's a situation where I think the script is as good as
the wonderful performances. If you want to see something
where the script is not as good as the performances, look at
mind your language, which is a really fantastic cast.
Yeah, And the jokes do not rise to the occasion.
Yeah, I don't like Barry Evans. No, I don't like his performance
in Mind your language. He he seems to have a very
unrealistic expectations of the English language abilities of
people who are there to learn English and gets annoyed when
they make elementary errors. Yeah, and there's absolutely
zero logic. Well, it might be complaint.
No. You know what, Let's put that to
one side might do mind your language.
That's I did. We did say I want to do mind
your language properly with tons of research, so I will not say
anything anymore about that. Well.
You're just talking about the cast of this film or man, about
the house in general. We've, I don't think we've
mentioned Paula Wilcox, really, have we?
No, no. You see, she's the straightest
character. She doesn't have really a
character. King.
Yeah. And it might be a thankless
test, but yeah, she's wonderful. Yeah, she's she's brilliant in
this and and in the series as a whole.
But yeah, she and she is the she, she has the the least odd
character. Although you you, you do have
the in this, the the whole having been taught out to doubt,
to trick people, do card tricks and stuff that thing you know.
Which, yeah, yes, Chrissy is very convincing.
Shuffling card hands. Shuffling cards.
Yes, with. With at No, no point do you see
the rest of Paula Wilcox? Well, well, like we got to be.
Shuffled. It's like, it's like whenever
they have a scene of someone playing snooker.
Well, yeah. Films with TV like it's Steptoe
and in the film Sleuth. Yeah.
It's it's always the same guy, isn't it?
It's so it's, it's, it was a Gary.
There was some retired snooker player that used to be
constantly being employed on films and TV shows to to play
shots of snooker. I can place his name just now,
so I'm going to substitute it for Corbett Woodall.
Butch Corbett Woodall. Now, did Butch Corbett Wardle
ever play he he played himself in an episode of Q.
Well, that's where the Butch thing comes from.
Yeah, I mean, we've got Bill Grandy in here.
Bill Grandy in this film playing himself.
What other instances of TV presenters playing themselves on
on in films and TV? Ludovic, Kennedy and Yes
Minister. And Michael Barrett in Goodies.
Goodies. Yes, yeah.
Kenneth Kendall in Doctor Who. Yes.
Oh, original bosun kit in Monty Python.
Yep. Oh, and Kenneth, what's Richard
Baker Baker? Richard Baker?
Yeah, Lemon Curry. Yeah, I'm Angela.
Ripping on the mock more wise. Yeah, I was thinking of that,
that particular sort of, I'm thinking mid 80s because there
was a little bit of a call of of BBC News readers early 80s and
so some of the older ones were retired and read about that
period. Then you just saw them popping
up all over the place as news reader whenever a news reader
was required. There was.
Still, there was still recent enough that people would
associate them with that role. Robert Dukel doing the Reader's
Digest commercials. I went on for a while, remember.
You know what? I should mention that the same
Doctor Who started with Kenneth Kendall also has Dwight Wiley, I
think was Britain's first black black news reader.
Yeah, he was a he was a radio announcer in the 60s.
Oh, and of course, John Snag has, yeah, paid as himself.
Well, yeah, it brings us back to the pistols.
Of course some somebody will know this straight away, but
what's not on Radio 4 sitcom that had Peter Donaldson in it
frequently? Well.
Didn't didn't he used to do the the links on Look back at the
90s which then became look back at the future, the whole shtick
and look back at the 90s was that it was like looking back at
years that hadn't happened yet with satirical results.
Because the BBC at one point they they they cottoned on to
this idea of playing the look back at the 90s for a particular
year on New Year's Eve. You know so they'd played look
back at 1995 on the 31st of December 1994.
I kind of this is like being trapped in a lift with us, isn't
it? I'm sure.
Can I just say for reasons later this year I'm going to be
talking about briefly, very, very briefly talking about look
back at the future. Fantastic, great.
There are always these radio shows that only I seem to
remember, like Star Turk 2. Does anybody remember Elastic
Planet? Oh.
That was so. No, I didn't know.
No, I'm. I am going to invoke quantum
leap rule. No.
That was a lovely little series. It just still turns up on radio
for extra. I've been there and then and it
was some. What's his name?
So old Postgate was a narrator of it.
Yes. We haven't mentioned either Cook
and Mortimer, of course. Yes.
So Brian Cook and Johnny Mortimer.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah, two of the sharpest script writers of the period, Yeah.
And it is telling that this, like you said right at the
outset, the sitcom man about the house sitcom is still being
shown today. It's and Georgia Mildred and
they are dated in terms of the fashions and whatnot, but still
remarkably fresh, yeah, in terms of the the dialogue and
everything. And the other interesting thing
about them is that unlike most of the American TV adaptations
of sitcoms at the time, they when, when, when it, when it was
brought over to America, when it became full house and stuff,
they just kept the same scripts basically, you know, the the
there were mild edits, but it wasn't.
It wasn't. We'll keep the premise, but
throw away the scripts. It was we will, we will remake,
we will remake these scripts because they're good enough.
They work very well, cross culturally, cross temporally in
a way a lot of other comedy doesn't.
A lot. A lot of comedy is very tied to
a specific place in time, and that stuff isn't really in a in
a way, that's surprising. Yeah, do you did the when did
the ropers spin off, did they utilize a lot of the Georgia
Mildred scripts? There are, there are some, there
are some which are adaptations, but I'm trying to.
They don't entirely work though, because.
Stanley and Helen are very different from George and
Mildred, yeah. Yeah, looking, looking at the.
Not a dragon who can put her foot down.
Yeah, looking at the Wikipedia entry for the for the Ropers,
the first the first six episodes were adaptations of George and
Mildred episodes, and then the the 28 after weren't, so they
clear. They clearly moved away from
that. I don't remember seeing George
Roper ever holding it. No, I was.
Going to. I was going to say they've got
they've got like a communal hot tub in their place and they were
behind. George never would have, I mean
he would have you know if he had the chance to to hang out with
the the sexy neighbors. But yeah, I mean, you wouldn't
get hot tub in in England in the 70s, been absorbed.
Well, can we mention, if we're talking about adaptations,
adaptations of American sitcoms to Britain tend to be much less
successful? Yeah.
And I want to mention, there's like these where they didn't
properly adapt the scripts to a British idiom.
And so there's a party and this 16 year old is trying to obtain
some beer so he can take it. What to his friends who were
hanging out in the garage. And it's just like he's 16 at a
party as well. Because you can.
I I didn't. I only found this out like very
recently that the the drinking age is enforceable at home.
Yeah. I saw a video of the of the
American police breaking up a party where people under the age
of 21 would thinking. Now in the UK, if you are given
some alcohol, I think the age is of the age of five, yeah, you
are allowed to give alcohol with.
With a meal, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
With a meal or it's just, you know, at home.
Yes, you can. Yeah.
Drink. I I, I grew up as a child
drinking. I I emphasize, watered down
wine. Yeah.
So that they wanted to make sure that, you know, alcohol wasn't
this this big mysterious thing. I could have one glass of wine
with water in it. And yes, so it's like he's 16,
he's at a party. It's it's that's going to be
like pinching his nose, pulling his mouth open and pouring an
entire party 7. Down there.
And people saying things like, yeah, like, I'm going to say
that. It's like people didn't talk
that way in Britain in the 70s since, no.
Was they saying Swindon as well? Sorry, I spat that out.
Like Swindon's not a nice place. They gave us the world.
XTC. What a wonderful town.
But still, Swindon, Milwaukee. They're kind of different.
Follow reading Married for Life and Brighton Bells.
Yes. I was thinking Brighton bells.
Yeah, Yeah. Of course, if you want a really
successful rewrite of an American sitcom series, two of
Porridge. I was just going to say yes,
yes. Sorry.
No, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, that. That's that astounded me when I
discovered that that for those who don't know, series one of
Porridge was made as a British TV series.
But then the writers went over to the States, and they they
made an American adaptation of the series.
And American seasons are much longer.
And then series two of Porridge in Britain was the right of the
scripts they had written for the American adaptation of the
British series. Utterly, utterly fascinating.
You couldn't tell. And nobody, nobody in Britain
really knows this at all. And.
There was all you being served in Australia.
Inman playing the same character, yes Humphreys, and
somehow managing to pitch up in a department store in Australia
with with the same archetype. Is it?
And sometimes the same. Plots.
I think that the most problematic situation with that
is that they used John Edmonds recording of the song Are You
Being Served? That was on one of his albums
and so. And are you on a copy of that
album? But, oh, I'm sure you did you
own our final as well. But we won't talk about that.
But that means that what? Does that mean?
You can't say that token. You can't.
There happens to be this. This was before all the
information came out. There happens to be a a remix of
Indulge Jumo by Mike Oldfield over which some he has put an
impression of certain disgraced deceased DJ from Leeds doing it.
Impression of him full of swear words and homophobia.
And it just so happens that I have the, the, the 12 inch vinyl
copy where that comes from? I didn't realize it was a 12
inch. Oh, that's.
Amazing. Well, actually it's, it's, I
mean it's one of the tracks on the B side.
The air side is a remix of dirty cash, you know, dirty cash you
want you. But they've got like samples of
money by Pink Floyd. So it's not, you know, it's not
legit. It's not above board.
And on the B side there are a bunch of breaks that you can use
if you're so inclined as a DJ. And there is also, for some
reason, a song about the disgraced DJ who at that time
was still live so. Yeah.
Yeah, but I was, I was, I was
mentioning that the problematic issue with Are you being Served
is that Oh yeah, John Inman sings the opening theme.
And then one episode begins with Captain Wagstaff saying, what is
Mr. Humphreys? He's late, he isn't here yet.
And what we just saw him stood at the counter 2 minutes ago
singing his own song. So is it?
What is he a ghost now? Are you?
Being served, Sir. I'm Humphreys and I'm free.
Are you being served, Sir? Would you like to see if you'd
like some swimming trunks? We've got them.
Plain or Scotty. We've also got some.
See through that. Really.
Turn. Your movies are gay.
There's plenty around the back, and if you'd like a bit of flesh
then try a plastic mag. I'm confused.
And I'm free. What would you like to?
See. Is this going to be a 2 parter?
No, no, we mentioned the man about the house movie at least
once I think during the conversation.
Is there anything, is there anything that you want to throw
in that we haven't touched on that the?
Amy McDonald. Yes.
Yeah, the lovely Amy McDonald. Yes, go on then.
Well, she plays the typical Amy McDonald part.
Yeah. Of the slightly the airheaded
blonde that becomes one of the things the plot hinges on.
The fact that Patrick Neal's MP character has a kept woman who
just happens to be Amy McDonald. All right, all right.
Hello. Hello.
Hello, darling. The poopsie.
I've been trying to ring you. I've been to the poodle parlor.
Are you coming round tonight? Laugh.
Well, it's the wife's birthday. Sorry.
Oh, but I've got a new gin slip specially.
Really. And it's your size.
Well, maybe just for 5 minutes. She's lovely Amy McDonald, but
would probably find her hard work in real life.
I don't know. I imagined that she's not that
much. I mean like on less than 1948
show she she bring, she's playing that.
But she brings out a slight, I'm not going to say dark side, but
there's something weird and mean and narcissistic about the 1948
show. Amy McDonald.
Yeah. Think she says the weird things
she she plays like a brief excerpt of Swan Lake and says in
the time it took to to play that like 250 babies were born in
Africa and now for the Indian babies, just, you know, weird
things that she did. So I You have to be clever to be
that stupid. Yeah.
So I am. And also she's she's had a good,
long career, which is also sometimes an indication that
that can sometimes be a sign that somebody's easy to work
with, especially if they're not like an above the line.
If superstars can have long careers, even though they're
horrible people, but when you get down, when you get
supporting actors, if they're consistently getting work, it
usually means that they turn up sober with their shoes shined
and their lines weren't, yeah. If the scene in the television
studio had been set maybe six years earlier, then they could
have also encountered Amy McDonald there, along with Marty
Feldman and, yes, Timber Taylor please.
Now hang on a minute. Oh, OK.
Different, different, different studio.
But yeah, yeah, yeah, I was going to say, because yes,
sorry, but let's not go there. That way.
Lies Madness. Knowledge of Teddington Studios
where in Andrews tried to attack the Earth.
There's a series called Undermined and has an episode.
It's kind of like a British version of The Invaders on the
you know, it's not quite, but. And there's an episode that
takes place in Teddington Studios in which the aliens try
to assassinate Eamon Andrews, which will somehow further their
plans of world domination. Yeah.
What's it called? Undermined.
Not, not as I know.
In it, yeah. Not not to be confused with
undermining, no. It's it's it was from Robert
Banks Stewart who later created Bergerac and Schustering and all
those but also about Doctor Who stuff and then it's it's the
kind of thing you would expect from you would expect from that
that sort of stable. OK.
So Gary, have you got anything more to throw into the
conversation? I I think we've we've we've
covered it pretty well frame by frame and yes keep an eye out
for it. It's actually the thing I'll
throw in is is is I mentioned when we're watching it is that
the the HD print is is beautiful and actually makes the 1970s
look too nice. Yeah.
Because I know till you've said before about how the 60s, you
know, in HD looks phenomenal and the 70s generally speaking
should be looking at properties. Look kind of cool.
Kind of. Yeah.
Like to be, whereas in a lot of 70s films even the nice bits
look. Warm and.
Drab, but in this, yeah, London looks like a very pleasant
place. Andrew, anything to.
No, no, I've just gone into a little bit of a sidetrack in my
own mind, because of course, talking about how nice the 70s
looks, I won't. I wonder if that's a function of
the economic crash that came just after this was released in
December 74, wasn't it? Which, if I'm remembering my
history right, is it precisely when the OPEC this thing
happened and the economy completely crashed?
And I'm wondering if like 7576 seventies looks much, much worse
than 74 seventies. That seems plausible.
I'd have to watch a lot more HD 70s stuff with that in mind to
be to be able to distinguish. Interesting.
Yeah. So like you said, Gary, it's
beautiful. It is.
It is available. Although it was.
It's a It was. Network, wasn't it?
Yeah, so. So is it it?
Maybe is not as freely available.
Now I I think there's probably still copies available on
Amazon, the rather of most network things, but yeah,
they'll be out of print, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, no brilliant film, great
film and one of the best of the genre.
So chaps, thank you so much. We've gone.
I mean, we've really gone all over the houses this time.
But that's, that's the nature of these things, Andrew.
You know, we barely need to give a plug to 500 songs, because
anyone who's got a passing interest in popular music will
already be all over it, I'm sure, but very well edited.
Yes. And and who edits that?
I do. Right.
And what do you do, Gary? Right.
OK. I can't for, for for reasons,
can't actually name the, the, the, the channel involved.
But I can tell you that if you're watching any blockbuster
films on a very popular commercial channel in the UK and
they get interrupted by a commercial, there's a very good
chance that I actually chose a precise moment in that film
where those commercials were going to interrupt your
enjoyment. So you're welcome.
Providing a public service, Yes and and you two?
At some point, now that you've got your brand spanking new
microphone tilt, you 2 going to hold you to this.
You are going to have to resurrect plans to to bring back
Sitcom Club or even Jaffa Cakes. Gary, did we already have a
sitcom in mind? Hang on a minute.
Yes, we did, didn't we? Oh, I know what it was.
Should we actually? Should we say it?
Should we say it on there? Should we do?
It do important exclusive. OK, so nobody remembers this,
nobody remembers this, but there was.
It wasn't a CBBC sitcom as such, but it sort of was.
It was called Rumble and it was about British professional
wrestling in the mid 90s when the industry was on its backside
and it starred Brian Glover and Leslie Joseph.
And we've we might have come into possession of six episodes
of the six. So yeah, we had that marked down
as a future. Discussion kept that quiet.
I don't remember that nobody remembers it.
Very good, Very good. Well, we'll hold you to that and
and the IE being served. The IE being served cast of
series on the back burner. Yeah, we we put the pilot for
that and we try to. Get access to a book I bought
about the series. Well, I may have that for.
Good, insufficient reasons. All my possessions are Nearly
all of my possessions are in a storage locker.
Well, I probably have said books, so if you want I can take
a photograph of every page on the phone and then it will.
Be helpful. Yeah, you can turn it into an
audio book. There you go.
Should you? Do you want me to do the voices?
I might. I might struggle a bit.
It's sort of do, young Mr. Grace, you know.
You've all done very well if you want to listen to that before.
That you can't. Very good.
OK. Well, as I said, thank you very
much guys and you're welcome. And thank you very much for
listening. And I will see you next week
with another edition of Goodbye.