I turned for you because I want to talk to you about this
invention of mine. I have to talk to somebody now.
For thousands of years, the Earth has been receiving
messages and even voices from outer space.
Listen to this. Hello.
Sometimes I even startle myself. Well, now I'm going to call upon
Professor Benteen to explain this strange phenomena.
Professor Benteen, any questions?
The. Hello and welcome to Goonpod,
the show which needs no introduction, which is useful
because I haven't written one this week.
My name is Tyler Adams and you know the drill.
This is the podcast in which every week we look at some
aspect of the Gooniverse, as I like to call it, be that an
actual goon show or a film featuring Sellers or Milligan or
even seek him or Benteen or books or television series or
anything with even the vaguest connection to the goons or a
goon. But before we talk about this
week's episode, I just wanted to share some feedback.
Some listener feedback from last week's show on the Return of the
Pink Panther, which went down very well, largely John
Williams, friend of the show and former guest.
He said this was great fun. I was slightly alarmed at how
many of the spot the fake film candidates had seen.
It also reminded me that after the initial premiere of The
Return of the Pink Panther, ITV used to show a version with the
heist scene cut out. It was infuriating.
I assume it was either edited for time and they then carried
on using that version or they wanted to get to cluesome more
quickly. Maybe.
I haven't looked but perhaps scheduling was tight the night
before the royal wedding so that's intriguing.
I cannot believe that ITV would cut such a pivotal scene the the
actual heist, which, yeah, OK, it's not very funny as Gary and
I discussed, but it is really, really well done and it is
genuinely thrilling. So bad form ITVI say now another
listener Tony Lithgow or Lithgow.
Hello Tony he said. Nice episode about a film I
haven't seen since it was on TV sometime back in the 80s.
Good to have the show back but I was a little surprised you
started with a film and not a goon show episode after all that
is in the title of the podcast. This is a minor moan though and
I'm looking forward to what comes next.
Thank you very much, Tony. Yeah, I did toy with kicking off
the new series with an actual goon show.
Various reasons I decided against it.
And obviously the second episode of the the series you were
listening to now and again, it's not a goon show.
But next week, I promise there will be a goon show episode
under discussion. And John Auty again, friend of
the show, former guest John Auty.
Wonderful first episode of the new season.
Great chat between Tyler and Gary.
Nearly spat out my tea when Kathy Staff was mentioned.
Yes, we were. We were for various reasons.
We were imagining what characters from Last of the
Summer Wine or what actors from Last of the Summer Wine could
have appeared in Return of the Pink Panther.
And, and I suggested, I think it was me that suggested that Kathy
Staff could be the girl diving into the swimming pool and
taking Cluso with her. So this week I am joined by
returning guest film academic, writer and podcaster Adrian
Smith. And Adrian and I are talking
about a real curio. It's a Michael Winner film,
believe it or not, and it is sort of tangentially connected
to the goons, as you will find out.
It's a really interesting discussion about a not very
interesting film. Well, it's a bit of a mess of a
film, but there is definite sort of goon strands knitted in
there. So, you know, don't lose faith.
There will be goon content, but it's yeah, it's it's well,
let's. OK, let's just kick off you, you
join Adrian and me discussing this weird little film.
I've watched it twice now and the first time around, as I
often do, I, I, I have a circle of friends and we, we watch
things together often old films and obscure films and old TV and
stuff. And I, it's very difficult to
get a copy of this. My, one of my friends is able,
he's like, he's like some sort of magician.
He can, you know, he can find the most obscure cinema from
the, from the, you know, the darkest recesses of the
Internet. But it is actually available on
eBay. It's on.
It is on DVD. There's a a legit release on DVD
about 10 years ago. Yeah.
And maybe that's long out of print.
It is so. So many fans snapped it up.
Well, it comes with calling all cars.
Yeah, and London. Entertains London Entertainment.
I just assumed, Tyler, that this would be high up on on one of
your many Goon Show connected DVD shelves because it's
basically a goon triple bill that DVD.
Yeah, because Spike, Spike is in calling all cars and London
Entertained has got that great clip where they go and watch a
goon show actually being shot. And then of course, this one
features footage from Down Among the Z men.
Yeah, well we will come to that. But I was watched.
So I said to my, my mate, OK, I'm thinking of shelling out
because it was something like £30 on eBay to get the DVD.
And I thought, you know what, for the sake of the show, I'll,
I'll buy it on eBay. And he said just give me another
chance to find it. And he, he went away and he did
manage to track down a copy which we all watched OK.
And we're halfway through watching it.
And I said, you know what, I'm so glad I didn't spend that £30.
Wait, so does that mean you've never seen London Entertains or
have you just seen? That I have seen.
I have seen London. Well, no.
I've seen the the Goon sequence from.
Oh, OK. London.
Entertains, yeah, because that's also because you were talking
recently about This is Your Life, weren't you?
And yeah, London Entertains is hosted by Old.
What's his name? Oh, Amon.
Amon. Yes, of course, yes.
So there's another connection to your podcast, all circles back
to Goon Pod. Doesn't that it?
Does London entertains is actually like all these things
because they were so cheap. They're just going out and
shooting around the West End. So they're really good.
Like, you know, bits of cultural and social history.
If you wanted to look at it from a slightly pompous perspective,
Like you get to see glimpses of London that nobody else was
probably filming at that time. So they're quite interesting for
that, if not for the entertainment value, I suppose.
Yeah, it is. There is.
It's there isn't a lot of entertainment value, so in
London entertains. The conceit is that there is a
kind of escort agency. That's right, very much in the
comic strip presents version of of of that kind of escort
agency. They just take people out for a
nice time. Escorts.
Exactly.
There's no naughty stuff. So you've just got all these
beautiful women who take people out for a nice time around
London. So that's the conceit.
And for some reason, yeah, Amy Andrews is hanging around with
these girls as well. And so they just go to various
different spots around London. So it's a sort of fake
documentary, so that one of the things that these escorts to do
is they take one of their guests to a goon show recording.
So that's why they're there. And then what they're filming is
a bit of an audience kind of warm up before the show actually
starts. So you just get the the goons
doing a couple of sketches to warm the audience up.
So I don't think they actually filmed any of the goon show
recording. It was just they probably
weren't allowed to have their cameras on.
No, that's true. At that point, yeah.
Anyway, so that's quite it is an interesting film to look at,
particularly because they film a lot of it in the producer, EJ
Fancy, I think he actually directed that one as well.
They shot it in his office or in Queen's House, which is on
Leicester Square. It's still there today.
So you can just see out the window the massive cinemas, the
front of the cinemas of of Leicester Square.
So again, you get quite interesting glimpses of London
in these things, even though they are a bit crap.
It's films. Well, you and I discussed fancy
years ago because you came on to talk about.
Well, yes. Down among the Z men.
That was one of your early episodes before you were able to
get real guests. And I'm still obliged to ask you
to come back about once a year. But we did talk about down among
the Z men back back in back in the day.
And I would direct listeners to that Goon pot episode, the film
we're talking about today, Climb up the Wall.
It doesn't have in the credits starring Peter Sellers, Michael
Benting or anything like that, but they do feature.
Mind you, so does Elvis. Yes, they do feature in Climb up
the Wall in a sort of a sly way, I would say.
Before we get on to that though, what what was your what's your
history with this film? So I, in my research, like 10
years ago, I was researching British film distributors and
independent distributors. And so I, I started noticing
this name of EJ Fancy coming up. And so I kind of dug into him
because not much had been done about him being written about
him. And he turned out to be a quite
an interesting guy. And I still toy with the idea of
doing a book about him one day. But he had all kinds of crazy
stories about him that I probably told some of those last
time. But he he ran several companies
and they were all family. So there was a new realm.
There was SF Pictures, EJ Fancy Productions and then Border
Films. So this film today was produced
by Border Films. So as well as being a
distributor, they did also make their own films and not really
many that you could describe as good, but they did make their
own films. So he had Michael Winner working
for him and he produced a couple of short films of Michael
Winners. And Winner told a story in his
autobiography about how they were making a film that had a
scene set in Germany or something.
So they just they got some fake German number plates, stuck them
surreptitiously on some cars that were parked and then just
shot this scene on a street in London to look like it was
Germany. And then they just left the
number plates on those cars. So people would have just been
driving around knowing they had German number plates.
So they. Were pulled over by the
Constabulary. Yeah, very low budget, but that
was how Winner got into the film industry basically was through
his connections there. And I mean, he was quite a posh
guy and had a lot of money in his family, but still needed a
kind of point of entry into the film industry.
And that was Fancy, because Fancy would employ people who
would work for very little money.
And Fancy also produced U KS first British Rock'n'roll film a
couple of years before this one called Rock You Sinners, and
that features both Joan and Jackie Collins.
So that's again got his sort of historical interest.
And his daughter Adrian Fancy was an actress in the 50s.
So she appeared in London entertains.
She turns up in The Calling All Cars and she's one of the stars
of Rock, You Sinners. So you know, Fancy would see
that. He saw that rock'n'roll films
and music films and variety films were popular.
So I guess that's why he decided to make this one.
But the the catch was that the director would have to use a
load of their kind of archive material, stock footage as well.
It reminded me a bit of Do you know the film targets Peter
Bogdanovich. I do with Karloff.
Yeah, yeah. And it's a similar set up that
Roger Corman said to Bogdanovich.
OK, you can make, you can do your first film, but 25% of it
has got to be footage we already own.
What? What's the reason for that?
He had a, well, partly just money because Corman was good at
saving money and also because he had, I think Boris Karloff owed
him two days I think, or three days.
So it's like you can have Karloff for three days, You can
make a film, but 25% of it has got to be footage we've already
got. So anyway, so Bogdanovich, being
a very talented filmmaker, came up with this incredible kind of
early Hollywood new wave film targets.
So the same set up eight years. It's, it's sorry, just to just
interrupt, but the film it is, it's a brilliant film.
If if listeners aren't aware of it, it's it's loosely based on
the Charles Whitman murders, isn't it?
Something like that. The sniper who was picking off
people. But it uses this footage of an
earlier Corman Boris Karloff film.
And so so Michael Wenner is called into EJ Fancy's office
and given a similar he didn't have Boris Karloff, sadly, but
he said, I can give you, I can give you Jack Jackson.
And you've got to make a film. But about 25% of it has got to
be footage we've already got in a vault.
And so he came up with Climb up the Wall.
Hello, Fast. What are you doing here?
Well, we're looking for singers. Singers.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Just a minute. We've had enough of that.
You'll disturb the patients upstairs.
Oh, somebody else. You are.
You see, either you're 5 minutes fast or my watch is dead.
It can't be. You fed it two hours ago.
Oh, forget it. Where you going?
I'm going out here to hear my girl sing.
Yes. Yes.
Lovely girl. Yeah, in there.
Have you seen it? Oh, you mean the one with the
beautiful golden hair and the cute little dimple in the side
of the cheek and every chin turn up nose have these shoulders?
No, I haven't seen her. Malcolm.
Hello. Yes, Glenn.
Is that Jack with you? Jack.
Yes, I'm women. I'm asking.
Hello. Is that you?
Yes, this is me. I'm with you.
Yes, it's him. He's with me.
I thought it was Glenn. Do they serve dress crab here?
Yes, they serve anybody. Well, look, give this one a
feed. He's hungry.
Oh, hello. Hello.
Is that you?
Nice to have had you do come again when we're closed.
Yeah. Thank you very much.
Goodbye. A lot of my time and effort has
been taken up trying to work out who half the people.
Were yes, who they all are, yes. Yeah, I've been doing a bit of
that. Yeah.
I found a couple of useful reviews at the time that did
actually kind of list who everyone was, which was helpful.
But yeah, it's an interesting little.
Film. OK, Jack Jackson.
I only became aware of him through Goon Pod, actually, and
I can't remember for the life of me who it was who first talked
about him. It was a guest.
I've got a feeling it might have been either John Cantor, the
writer John Cantor or Christopher Douglas, you know,
the creator of Ed Reardon's week.
Oh yes, sorry, that was a good episode.
Yeah, it's what I'm sure it's one of those two talked about
being big fans of of Jack Jackson back in the day.
And I guess I don't know much about him, but he he was like a
prototype Kenny Everett stroke Adrian, just character, wasn't
he? Yeah, he was one of the first
DJs on Radio One, but before that he'd been on the BBC Light
programme. But before that he was a dance
band leader. So he was a kind of musician and
trumpeter in the 40s, which obviously he does a little bit
of in in this film and then became ADJ in the late 40s and
did that basically right up until he died in 1978.
But he he had a known he was also a recording artist in his
own right. He had a recording studio in his
house and they produced very I was looking earlier at the list
of bands they him and his son, who we also see in this film,
Malcolm. They had a sound studio and they
launched their own record label, which included Elton John and
Motörhead at one point. What?
Yeah, as in as interesting Reg, Dwight, Elton John or Yeah,
Yeah. Right.
Oh, as far as I know, yeah. OK, Yes, the the Elton.
John No, but I mean, I mean, I mean when he was just Reg, not
Elton. That's.
Oh, yeah. No, I think he was out at the
time. Yeah.
But he was mainly known, yeah. Like you said, he was a kind of
early adopter of that style of presenting that was later taken
up by people like Kenny Everett, where he would use sound effects
and kind of comedy. And you can see in this film the
way he presents and there's often little lots of throwaway
gags. That was sort of his
presentation style, mixing in sound effects and noises and
stuff. And he was so popular that when
he moved to Tenerife in 1960, he just carried on recording his
BBC shows and then posting them back to the back to London,
right. OK.
Which I I guess he didn't have a phone in which that would have
been difficult. But yeah, so he was very popular
and pretty much forgotten, I would say now.
But he he is also credited with being the first person to call
the BBC auntie. Oh, really?
It's just listed among I've a couple of websites that talk
about him. There's a really good website
called Radio Rewind. It's actually got some audio
clips of him from his Radio 1 show that you can listen to if
anyone's curious. But yes, apparently that is one
of the claims about him that he nicknamed the BBC Auntie.
So there you go. So but yeah, he wasn't much of
an actor or like it was mainly radio.
So it's kind of interesting that he ended up.
In this because that wasn't his usual thing.
His usual thing was radio. Well, I guess Fancy was wasn't
in it for the art. He was in it to make money or to
to cash in on the latest craze or the latest big thing.
And around this time Jack Jackson would be very popular on
the radio. So so makes sense.
And this is very much a kind of proto.
It's triad dad. But doesn't this come out fast?
I. Think yeah it's track data is
62. Yeah, but there's a lot of sort
of gimmickry and playing around with editing that they do in
that film, like where they they need to get from one place to
another place. So they just do it by in an in
an edit. And there are similar gags about
form and TV and all sorts of stuff.
So they were trying to do something creative and I'm, I'm
imagining although there was a script, but it says the writers
were Michael Wenner and Jack Jackson.
I would I would be inclined to think it was more Jack Jackson.
Yeah. Than Michael Wenner.
I don't know. I mean, Michael Wenner, did he
make comedies? I mean, he made Bullseye later
on his career, didn't he? But did he make comedies?
Really? He made light films like The
Cool Mikado and stuff in the 60s, didn't he?
But. Yes, when it comes.
To writing, I don't. I mean, I know what he is as a
director, but I don't know as a writer if he's got the chops.
Well, yeah, I mean, who knows? Obviously.
I mean, Parting Shots is also very funny, but possibly not
deliberately, No, But yeah, he did do.
I mean, he did films like I'll Never Forget There was not
Deliberate. I'll Never Forget.
What's his name? That's pretty good.
And I mean, he did a kind of cool trilogy.
Some like it cool, play it cool. And the cool Mikado.
The cool Mikado's got Frankie Howard in it.
It's also got, I thought because I have seen it once.
Hasn't it got Tommy Cooper in a rare film role?
Oh, I believe so, yes. Speaking of which, somebody else
from our film today turns up in the plank alongside Tommy
Cooper. I noticed that, yes.
Yeah, yes. But you are right, thinking
about it, this is kind of a precursor to it's Traddad and
somewhere. I mean, Craig Douglas is in both
films, Yeah. Of course, yeah.
And of course there's no real plot as such in this one.
Like at least in it's Traddad there is a narrative arc.
Sort of. Yeah.
Whereas in is this one, it's just let's string together a
load of stuff with some gags in between and something to do with
a time machine, but they give up on that halfway through anyway,
and then they come back at the end.
Well, I I would imagine that most people listening to this
won't have seen climb up the. Wall stop.
Stop listening now. Go out.
Buy that. Buy that 30 LB copy of eBay.
Don't wait. Be the first one to grab it
quick. But we're not going to spoil it.
We are going to talk about the film, but there's no spoilers to
spoil, is there? There's no sort of because it's
just, it's, it's just sort of just stuff happens.
I'll, I'll, I'll read a quick, I'll read a short review that I
picked up which was printed in the whole Daily Mail in August
1960, simply because it gives a kind of an overview of what the
film is sort of about. It says it's crazy, it's
laughter raising. It's Jack Jackson who in Climb
Up the Wall really goes to town with a machine he has invented,
which by pressing knobs on a complicated looking dial brings
to a screen any personality he wishes, though at times it is
hard to follow the point of the story.
With 10 top tunes and such stars as Russ Conway, Glenn Mason,
Craig Douglas, Mike Preston, Cherry Wiener and a host of
pretty girls, this mixed up light hearted comedy does it's
best to drive you up the wall. I mean, yes, I couldn't argue
with any of that. Yeah, it is very much like
Michael Winner has just pointed a camera at people in a room and
said go on then. Yeah, do something.
Yeah. I mean, I remember in your
conversation about it's Trad Dad, how one of the things that
you guys pointed out was how good the kind of the framing and
the editing were and how influential that style would go
on to be. And obviously with Hard Day's
Night, but just in music videos in general, unfortunately we
don't get that same level of creativity here.
There are, it is, like you said, just point the camera on a, on a
wide shot and people just do their thing.
And there's not much in the way of creative anything really,
which is, which is a pity. But he was learning.
He was, you know, he was new. He was learning.
He hadn't had, yeah, he hadn't had like 10 years in television
or anything like that. He just sort of was just getting
going. Well, that's the thing.
Because he was a he was a reporter journalist of sorts,
wasn't he? Because he actually, again, I've
talked about this on an episode of Goon Pod relatively recently.
He interviewed the goons in late. 52 I'd forgotten about
that, yeah. Yeah, because he was a cub
reporter on the on the Marley Bone and Paddington Mercury.
Junior Reporter. Yeah, and in his.
In his shorts. Yes, but he was only about 17 or
18 or something, I think. But he went he interviewed well
say he interviewed the goons in late 52.
It was around the time that they did that Robin Hood radio
pantomime in in series 3. And so Spike was actually absent
because he was in hospital and Dick Emery and Carol Carr were
guests for that. So Michael Winner does this long
story about the goons in general and and their their world, and
he implies that he's speaking to Spike as well.
Oh, right. The the way it's written, it
implies that Spike's there, but Spike wasn't there.
We know because he was, he was in hospital.
So he's obviously made stuff up. And he also.
Winner interviewed Sellers in May 53 when Sellers was making
the Super Secret Service and and Winners basically saying it's
going to be a great film, can't wait to see it, blah, blah,
blah. So he's bigging them up and he's
an early, you know, he's an early supporter if you like.
And then it's it's interesting, of course, that he would then
fill it. Bits of their performances from
down among the Z men's some seven years later.
Although notably no Spike apart from Jack Jackson's
impersonation of Echoes. It's weird that it is.
It's very odd. But now let me see the first
goon, right? How?
Is that Claude Debbier? That's more like Spike Milligan
to me. Oh, what was that, Waldo?
Anyway, that was long before my day, yes, but not before Francis
Day. Let's switch her on.
The film begins, we get the opening credits, and then we see
we're at Jack Jackson's actual house.
I wonder if it is, Was it his actual house?
Do you know? I wouldn't be surprised.
Probably would have been. Yeah, yeah.
It was either that or it could have been EJ Fancy's house.
Yeah, they had a kind of country house outside Worthing with big
gardens and horses and stuff. So possibly down there, I'm not
sure. OK, and he says what you're
about to see may seem strange to your ears and and tells us that
he will be presenting artists from the past, the present and
the future. And then he holds up a skull and
says he and the producer hope you enjoy the film.
So who's that meant to be? Is the skull meant to be fancy?
Well, it's, yeah, I should have mentioned, although, yeah, EJ
Fancy kind of looms large over all of these things because this
was a border film. If you notice in the opening
credit it says produced by Negus Fancy.
Oh OK, didn't pick up on that. And yeah, so that was actually.
So there's a very complicated family situation going on here.
So EJ was married and had two children with with that wife.
But at the same time that his two children were born, he'd
also started a relationship with another woman and had two
children with her. So he lived with his main wife
in the big house on this estate outside Worthing.
And then the second became, she became known as his common law
wife and she even took on his surname.
So Olive, her name was Olive Negus and she became Olive Negus
Fancy. So she was calling herself his
wife, even though she technically wasn't his wife.
But she lived up. I've been told she lived in a
house on the same grounds and her two children with EJ worked
for her at Border. So there were three of them
working there and then his children with his regular wife,
if you like, worked up in the New Realm office just down the
road, because this is all in Soho.
So, yeah. So Nigger's fancy was actually
Olive Nigger's fancy, who ran Border films for for quite a
good number of years. In fact, just today, by
coincidence, I was in London this morning and I had time to
kill while I was waiting for a shop to open.
Oi Oed around the corner to Wardour Street and had a good
look at Border film offices. It's still there.
Oh, really? Yeah, it's, well, it's.
Still, it's still a going concern.
Surely not. No, the the place is still
there, but it's now a tortilla and burritos place.
It's next door to that place is it was called the Marquee Club
St. that really famous venue. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's basically next. It's next to that.
I've got a photo of the border offices from about 1970.
So it's I knew it's the same place, but yeah.
So Olive was down the road with her two children.
Well, EJ was up the road with his, why, actual wife and his
other two children and they, they all worked for him.
But apparently there was one I was told about one time the
phone rang and said the secretary said to EJ, Mrs.
Fancy's on the phone. And then his wife came storming
and said she's not Mrs. Fancy, I'm Mrs. Fancy.
Well, she's a she's a fancy woman, isn't?
She yeah, yeah, very strange. But anyway, so yes.
So when he says the producer, that could be her right that
he's referring to. There's also a nice gag there
because he talks about how this isn't television and then he
puts his head through the screen of the We're Looking at ATV
screen and then his head comes through as if it's bursting out
of the cinema screen, which I thought was quite creative.
He's got this huge wall sized like what would you call it,
console thing. Yes.
With with the TV screen with knobs and dials and gauges and a
telephone receiver and whiskey dispenser even.
Yeah, it's like the machine that goes ping.
It's just one of these things with lots of dials and buttons
and not really sure what it does, but apparently it's a kind
of Time Machine telly viewer. Yes, and he says he can receive
voices from outer space. Yeah, although they don't
really. Well, they, they do briefly look
into the stars, but not much really happens.
But. We do hear a fragmented
recording. Unless it's someone doing an
impression, it's a recording of Charlie Drake going Hello my
darlings. Yeah.
And and what sounds like someone doing an impression of Eccles,
whether that's Jack Jackson. Yes.
Not sure, there's some belching. So you kind of you realise where
you are pretty much from the off with.
This film, yeah, we don't get any alien encounters, which
would have been fun. Yeah.
Again, it was kind of like you had an opportunity there, so
maybe even like a puppet alien or something, but no.
Yeah, no. And then, just for no reason,
Jack Jackson calls on Professor Benteen.
And this is where we get a quick clip.
Oh yes, of the classic chair back.
Yeah, sketch. With with his voice speed up.
It's to sort of, he says. Professor Benteen will explain
how the machine works. And then they just cut to a clip
of that from Down Among the Zeed Men.
And that was his, that was his, his thing for years, wasn't it?
The chair back, it was a sketch. And I've watched his performance
of it in Down Among the Zeed Men and I, I don't get it, but.
No, well, I do get it, but it's not particularly funny.
I've seen him do it as well on Frost on Sunday from the late
60s. Oh right, that that might be
better. It's not really it's, it's more
or less exactly the same as in segment.
So he's not really developed the the ACT.
Because he's he's so frantic in his performance.
Like, it's funny that in this film they speed it up and they
almost don't need to because, yeah, the original is so fast
that it it's kind of, it's a bit manic and hard to follow what
he's going on about, I found. Yeah, although some people say,
and I'm inclined to agree with them, I suppose in fact, you and
you and I may have even discussed this when we talked
about it. Some people say that he's the
best thing in down among the Z men, Michael Benton.
And maybe he is. Yeah, it's not saying a lot,
but. Yes, what have we got here?
So. Oh God.
So Jack Jackson's son Malcolm arrives and I read down at first
he's more awkward than Douglas Barter at a roller disco and he
he really looks uncomfortable, but he seems to kind of get it
loosens up a bit as the film goes.
On yeah, I mean, he wasn't an actor and I think this is the
only time he ever really made a film.
He did, like I said, he got involved in the the music
business, but he seems quite gained to go along with it.
And obviously he's basically just doing his dad's jokes.
Can I, can I tell you something as well?
This is this must be a sign of me getting on a bit or just
losing the plot a bit. So I watched the film a couple
of times. I'm making all these notes and
also trying to identify who a couple of the artists are
because it's there's a, most of them are easy to identify or
relatively easy, but there's a couple I struggled with.
And I'll tell you what I spent, I'm not joking, 20, maybe 30
minutes trying to look up, thinking that one of the
artists, one of the black artists in this, trying to work
out who he was in the cast list. And I spent a good 20 minutes or
so Googling Malcolm Jackson because I'd completely failed to
realise that Malcolm Jackson is of course, Jack Jackson's son
who's in the film. Yes.
So that was a fruitless 20 minutes.
Right. Are you talking about George
Calypso brand? Well, I, I, I worked out who he
was. It's the it's the guy towards
the end with. Oh, the singer at.
The end? Yes, with What's the name?
With Cherry Wayne. Cherry Wayne.
Yeah. Yeah, I think he might have just
been a member of her band. OK, She had a band called I just
want to get this rolled. The Lord Rockingham's 11.
That's right, yes. So I was wondering whether he
was a member of that because they were quite a big group of
people. So he may have been in that
band. Well, her husband was in that
band, wasn't he? Yeah, he was the drummer there.
There's a part in there where they do a drum solo together.
Yeah, that's her and her husband.
That's great. I think her number in the film
is my favorite bit. The.
She looks like a lot of fun. Yeah.
Funny. Though her dress keeps changing,
but not in a kind of deliberately woo Hoo kind of
way. It's almost just like they
forgot the continuity. They just were filming on
different days and they forgot to mention to kind of make sure
you wear the same dress again. Continuity, schmunter community.
Yeah, when it would have said, funny enough, I was watching
this, one of the friends I was watching this with was Andrew
Hickey. And.
And he he's tell me quite a bit about Cherry Waner.
Oh yeah. And she she had a lot of early
success in the 50s and then just kind of gave it up, more or
less. Yeah, I read that she they went
to Vegas to work in Cabaret in the late 60s and she ended up
working in a gift shop in Vegas. Yeah.
For a number of years. But just even on the evidence of
this film, she's very talented. Yeah, she's got lots of
personality and she's sitting there playing that hilarious
Hammond organ, that whole. Yeah, I love that whole bit.
I think it's my, it is my favorite bit.
The way she's. I like the framing, the camera.
She's just kind of filling the frame, staring almost slightly
unnervingly at the straight at the.
Yeah, that's it. She looks.
She looks wired, almost, but. She was quite popular on TV in
the 60s as well. She was on a few TV shows, like
6-5 special and that kind of stuff I think.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now someone else who was very
popular, another musician, if you want to call him that, Glenn
Mason, it's. Hard to tell if he was a singer
or a comedian because he's he's mainly in the film as a comedian
and then he finally sings one song.
Well, he wrote one of the songs. Yes.
Oh yeah, who sings that one? Mike Preston at the.
Beginning. That's Mike Preston, isn't it?
Yeah. I.
Sing weirdly singing in the winter at the Albert Memorial.
Yeah, it's around you. Can see the steam.
You can see the steam coming out of their their breath.
Yeah, it's so cold. So Jack Jackson says to Malcolm,
his son Malcolm, you can, you know, ask the machine to conjure
up anything more or less. Oh, yeah, anything.
And he says, naturally, he says, well, I'd like it to recreate
what Glenn Mason did at the park last week.
No Wouldn't we do get a very quick clip of Seeking from Z Men
putting a record on? Yes, they would go back to that
several times in the film. Didn't.
They now Glenn Mason, we see him playing tennis in the park or a
park and Libby Morris walks up and asks him what he's doing and
they enjoy several minutes of leaden banter.
There's a good bit of banter there, almost like they're a
double act. But he's got this weird.
He's doing this because he's Scottish, isn't he?
But he's doing this kind of weird transatlantic accent
thing. Yeah, she's Canadian.
And she was the one who appeared in the plank.
Yes. And bizarrely, and it's a film I
actually really enjoy, United 93, the the what's his name,
Paul Greengrass film. Which is, Oh, that.
Oh, I see. I'm think I'm still thinking
60s. No.
Oh, you mean that film? That film.
OK, right. Fair enough.
It's it's an odd end to her career, but there you go.
Yeah, she also appeared on the Jack Jackson show five years
before this on on his radio show.
And she also did theatre and cabaret and kind of comedy comic
songs, I guess, sort of a singing comedian.
And yeah, they had a nice bit of banter there.
Some people might be interested to know, of course, that she did
one of the voices on Space Patrol.
Oh, right. OK, early puppet show.
There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK. Glenn Mason, he was born.
He was born Tom Lennon. Lennon.
He should have kept that surname.
Yeah, but he was annoyed. I mean, let's be honest with
this whole film, as I was sitting here watching this
again, I just thought, thank goodness The Beatles came along.
Or, you know, we would have. They would have had to put up
with this kind of clock cutter, the whole 60s.
Yeah, well, Mason was George Martin produced a couple of
Glenn Mason's tracks, including Green Door, right.
And and Glenn Mason later appeared in a couple of winner
films that we've mentioned, one of them called Mikado and also
Behave Yourself. He he was very prolific in the
late, mid to late 50s. He was it says there was an
interview in the Daily Mirror in January 1960s.
So right about the time this film, this would have been
filmed. And the headline, the headline
is bachelor gay exclamation mark, right?
And it says, it says singer-songwriter Glenn Mason,
veteran of 320 television shows, glanced around the West End
restaurant, grinned and whispered in my ear, I daren't
get married. I'm the last bachelor.
I'm holding up the banner for man.
Right. Described as an X minor 29 year
old, Glenn said marriage might interfere with my weekly
football matches with the Showbiz 11.
Oh yeah, which we get some footage.
We do in this film, yeah. Where they played against Billy
Wright. I that was so incomprehensible
to me, that Hulk, So he's he meets Libby or Libby meets him
in the, in the part where he's playing tennis.
Then they start talking about football.
Then they get on the train and we see what I later found out
was footage of the Showbiz Football 11, including Billy
Wright, who is described as Mr. Beverly in the film.
The reason they call him Mr. Beverly is that he at the time
was married to one of the Beverly sisters, It.
Was an extra joke. Yeah, See, they're trying to
cram the jokes. Yeah, well, I used to live in
Stoke on Trent, where Billy Wright was very much a national
hero and there was a statue to him in the middle of Stoke.
He's just one of those names. I I was vaguely aware of the
fact that he was a famous footballer back in the dim,
distant past. Yeah.
And this is where we somehow we get this football match and then
and then they're back in the back in the park and this tall
bloke walks up to Libby and Glenn and starts singing.
Try again and this is Mike Preston.
And they're all like all the singers in this, like all these
male singers, they're kind of very interchangeable, aren't?
They yes. They could all just have been
the same guy, and I wouldn't have noticed that kind of.
Yeah, this. This is what The Beatles killed
off. Like all these guys who thought
they were going to have great, long singing careers, they, when
they were making this film, they only had a couple of years left,
didn't they, before it was all going to change.
Thank goodness. Yeah.
And throughout this film, Glenn Mason, he gets a bit of a
shooing, doesn't he? In in terms of he's he gets the
Mickey taken out of him and. Yes, it reminded me very much of
the way it is very similar to the kind of Morecambe and Wise
Dez O'Connor. Relationship.
That's right, that's right. And then we're back to Jack
Jackson and he mentions for no reason, he, he mentions the
Americans in World War 2, which gives him a good opportunity to
for that. So they could insert that clip
of of sellers from Z Men doing his party piece where he's
playing two American servicemen. Yeah.
Is he supposed to be General Patton or something like that?
Yes, I think so. I think so the, the, the thing
about that performance from Sellers, though, it's, it's
very, it's not particularly funny, but it's, you know, it
clearly had demonstrated that he had great talent.
But the character he's playing in the film is, is Colonel Blood
Knock, isn't it not Major? I think it's Colonel Blood Knock
and it's completely at odds with his characterisation of of that
character. Yeah, I, I seem to remember the
conceit in Down Among the Z men is that they're putting on a
show for the troops or something.
So this. Yeah.
So Major Colonel, whatever he is, Blood Knock does an
impression for this show. So that's why he's doing an
American. Yeah, it, but it just seems like
it, it doesn't seem sort of thing that that character would.
Well know. Maybe I'm thinking about it too
much. Yeah.
How long ago was that? Well, I'll tell you, son.
It was shortly after the Americans entered the war.
Peter Sellers will tell you Hotel on Highgreaves Hotel.
I have called you here because we are in a very, very grave
position. Yes, Sir.
We are not only completely 01 moment, Lieutenant.
Hello, HQ. Yes, four dozen.
And another thing. Goodbye, Lieutenant.
We are not only completely surrounded by units of the 15th
Panza Division, but they are at this very moment, Lieutenant,
surrounding and penetrating our main defense line.
Yes. Sir, Gentlemen, it's a good job
you called me in. I can get you all out of this.
My plan is very simple. Permission to speak, Sir.
Thank you, Sir. Madam, we are here and the enemy
is here. Madam, what happens is this.
They attacked. Not now.
And I'm waiting for him to see. I close in.
My men. At ease, man.
Permission to speak, Sir. Go ahead, American soldiers.
Well, what about Elvis Presley? Never out of him.
We get an impromptu advert for headache relief courtesy of Jack
Jackson, who stays right into the camera and does this sort of
advert thing. Which again, I think they're
trying to spoof television, yes. Oh, and Elvis.
A quick bit of newsreel footage of Elvis when he's going into
the army, Yeah, or coming out of the army, I'm not sure.
But I think, yeah, 1960 was when he went, wasn't it?
I don't know. I don't know my Elvis history as
well as I should, no. Or maybe who knows how old the
footage was, of course. True, yeah.
But yeah, it looks like he's boarding a troop ship.
Yeah, and then Malcolm mentions Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Sal
Mineo, Frankie. Those people we we don't get to
see. Cliff Richard Yes, but we do get
to see footage of Charlie Koons playing piano.
Oh, yeah, yeah, he just starts talking.
It goes, Oh yes, because Jack Jackson starts playing the piano
and doing a bit of jazz, doesn't he?
And then talks about Charlie Koons.
And then I think they also mentioned Francis Day.
Yeah, he's. Another kind of 30s singer
actress. That's right.
Yeah. This is the thing about Malcolm
is I said when he when he first enters the film, he's very, very
wooden. He seems to have warmed up by
this point because that's. Yeah.
Did you think it was very odd the way he he points at the the
large invention, whatever you want to call it, and says, look,
father, there's something coming up on the screen.
And then he he adopts this weird kind of duck voice and says, and
she sort of shouts, quick, dad, it's on now.
I can't even begin to try and approximate it.
Look. Father, there's something coming
up on the screen. Quick Dad, it's on now.
Yeah, and I imagine there was never more than one taken.
Sorry. Now you said about fancy, it
stipulated that what what was that 25% of the footage had to?
Be, I mean roughly I'm, I'm guessing it's about, it's
probably about because it's only an hour long anyway.
That's true. So, you know, if you probably,
if you added up all of the archive footage, it probably
comes to, I don't know, 5 or 6 minutes maybe.
So yeah, maybe more like 10%. Maybe because The thing is they
then show a series of of clips from old westerns.
Yes, they just start counting how many people get shot and I
couldn't work out why we were doing that, I think he says.
It's a game. Malcolm's Malcolm complaints
that it's too slow. Oh yeah, he's speaking for the
audience. He wants some action.
And his father tells him to start counting the dead bodies.
Now, in the end, there's 22 deaths that we see.
Obviously, it's Western deaths. That ain't nothing graphic.
Did you pick up on the fact, though, that at one point an
Indian, as they would have called it back then, is shot and
Jack Jackson counts his death as half?
Yes, yeah, sadly, yeah. Which is a shame because there's
another scene, as you've already mentioned, I think just after
this one, where they meet George Calypso Brown and his sort of
Jamaican calypso band. And that scene is great.
The music is really good, but I was really cringing.
I was like, please don't be racist.
Please don't say something racist and they don't.
It was a great relief. I mean, the film could have been
worse. It could have been worse.
Notice that Jack Jackson says something like he he forgot to
buy the BBC Times. Yes, that was a bit of a.
Weird. It should have been the Radio
Times, darling. Never mind, move on.
Well, yeah, basically because he worked for the BBC.
Maybe he So he must have been deliberate.
How did I? Maybe another gag that's just
not funny 60 years later. There's some very, very obvious
ADR as Jack explains to his son how he met his mother.
There's a couple of moments in the film where they start
dubbing and it's something completely.
Different. Oh, it's terrible.
Yeah, yeah. There's a, there's a clip of an
old film which looked to me like it was an actual foreign film.
You know where where there's a there's a clip from an old film
with a boy and a girl. There's a girl at the window.
You know when he's telling the story about how he how he met
his wife and his he was singing outside her window when she was
in hospital or something. Something like that, Yeah, yeah.
It's a lot. I don't.
Yeah, I don't. I haven't been able to identify
what that is, no. That clear again?
It was. It was lying around the fancy
production company. Because, yeah, because they were
distributors as well as making their own films.
And by this point, Fancy had already been making his own
films for about 20 years, so he had a lot of material that he
could have drawn on. Yes.
So yeah. Next, Jack is going to explain
to his son how to get into show business.
And he's reading from a from a book.
And it was just the first book, I guess, that they had to hand,
which was a book very clearly about yoga.
So nothing to do with show business.
Yeah. And we have some Spanish dancers
who are doing a routine. It turns out they're in the room
upstairs. Yes, and leading to much
hilarity with plaster coming down from the ceiling umbrella
which he struggles to open the umbrella like but again pouring
this plaster dust down on him and he can't get the umbrella
open. When I was thinking how funny it
would have been if the plaster had run out by the time he just
manages to get it open in time for the joke to work.
Well, they wouldn't do it again, would they?
So it has to work. He talks about the They're going
to leave the house, they're going to go to town.
Oh, no, sorry. No, it's it's Malcolm that says
this. He says.
We're going to get with it because it's we're going to go
to to town because it's where where the cool cats are, man.
Because they're looking at all this old stuff.
He wants to see what's happening.
There, Yeah, but if you look at Malcolm Jackson and this, he's
got to be what, 20? Maybe 21, if that.
Yes, I would have said so. Very conservatively dressed, he
looked like to me, to my mind, from a distance, he looked like
a young Prince Charles. Yeah, and, and Jack Jackson's in
his mid 50s at this point and wearing a very fetching cardigan
and, of course, constantly smoking a fag.
Of course, Glenn Mason's been sleeping in their car, so
obviously they have to allow them to carry on.
I reckon that might have been EJ's car that big.
It's a Rolls Royce's number of Rolls which we they never, which
isn't driven. He obviously we said you can
have the car, but I won't. Let you drive it so they can't
drive it just as Glenn's been a Kip in it.
So they have to try and thumb a lift obviously.
Also, did you notice that when they were saying goodbye to
Glenn, he copied more or less the Sellers line from earlier?
When he's doing the, Sellers is doing that impression and he
says and Glenn Mason says to Jack and Malcolm and another
thing goodbye, which is what Sellers had said in that comedy
sequence. And they used the car to do a
little bit of an edit gag, which like a goes back to early silent
film where they go into the get in the car and then there's a
cart and they've got new clothes on.
The magic of cinema. You don't notice it, but this is
where we see George Calypso Brown and his band performing
Frankie and Johnny. You do get some clunky kind of
comedy business with Malcolm and Jack and two very bored looking
girls during the song. Yeah, yeah, they're, they're
trying to, I mean, they're trying to liven it up because
some of those, because he's singing, but some of the time
it's more instrumental. So they're trying to put in a
bit of stuff in between. I'm just looked him up.
Actually, George Calypso Brown came from Trinidad.
He actually did do a few of the films.
He turns up in the National Health and he also did 10
episodes of Jack and Oori in the in the 60s, so he did have a bit
of an I. Should have asked Andrew.
He would. He would have known all about
him. I should have asked him.
But yeah, that's, I really like that bit and that's the music is
really good. Like it's the singers, it's the
really bland male singers that make the film drag.
But when you've got stuff like this, it's pretty.
Good. Yeah, this and cheery Weiner.
When the song ends, Jack says Piccadilly line.
He should have changed at Stanmore.
What does that mean? No idea.
Oh yes, because that's that's George's line, isn't it?
Can you tell me the way to Piccadilly or?
Something, yeah, but what? What's What does Stanmore mean?
Well I'm just Googling it now and Stanmore is just a place so
I don't. Know, yeah, could be, could be
rhyming slang for something, I don't know.
Let's keep our fingers. Crossed.
This is where we have kind of like, yeah, like you said before
about forerunner of it's Trat. Dad, Malcolm and father close
their eyes, open the mouths and then they suddenly have
miraculously arrived in a new location.
Yeah, although they've become separated and I think yes,
Jack's on the other side of town or something.
What's the other way? Around, yeah, Jack, Jack has
landed in a what looks like a an art class where where they're
painting, where somebody's like there's a life models posing or
something. Always landed in the windmill
maybe? This is like, yeah, so like this
nude tableau. There's just yeah.
So I guess it's landed in the yeah.
I was trying to think is it is this some sort of life drawing
or is it the the windmill? Might be the windmill.
No, it wouldn't be the windmill, because they have they have to
pay to get in, wouldn't they? They're not going to dig.
Them but it's quite racy for because this film is it was a
bit unexpected to suddenly seen topless women.
There's like 5 of. Them well, I I'd when I first
watched it, I'd briefly taken my eyes off the screen.
Can you believe it? I took my eyes off the screen.
My mates went well hey and I'd missed it because it was split
second. Serious film viewers, obviously.
Yes, Malcolm, meanwhile, is watching dancers in a club and
there's this this dancer who he describes as a lovely Indian
girl, standing on nails and then lying on nails.
Yeah. It's.
Quite a good act. I don't know how they do it.
Yeah, because then she gets him to come and stand on her while
she's lying on the nails. Yeah.
And but yeah, I love these glimpses into Soho nightlife,
like club nightlife, because you've got the dancers as well,
doing a little dance act before she comes on.
And they've just got a couple of musicians and there's just a
drummer and a bongo player behind them providing the
accompaniment. It's very similar to the kind of
Mondo documentaries that came out a couple of years later,
made by Compton. There's one called Primitive
London and another one called London in the Raw.
I've heard of those. Yeah, they're really interesting
and they go into some of these clubs and film some of these
nightclub acts. One of them, it's funny, the old
because I was watching the a lot of these things around the same
time when I was doing a lot of this sort of early 60s London
stuff. So I was kept expecting to see
Lionel Blair in this film. I'd remembered Lionel Blair
turning up in this, but it's because we see him dancing in
one of those other ones, some other London nightclub, back in
the early 60s as my master general Lionel Blair.
Is. Did he turns up?
So he's not in this one. Did he talk Disappointed
Something? What's that film The Small World
of Sammy Lee? Isn't that?
Yes, I think so, yeah. Yeah, but he's just a dancer in
one of those clubs in. It's either London in the raw or
primitive London. But.
But this film kind of gives us a glimpse of that before they did
those by going out into actual clubs and persuading A nightclub
act to let them film it. You see though, yeah, but so
much of this film, when you see them in these clubs and whatnot,
there's loads of particularly women just sitting around
looking bored. Yes.
So I think that was pretty standard.
Yeah, are. You, Russ Conway?
Are you David Jacobs? Now, wait a minute.
Be serious. I got a busy man on the line
here. Are you Russ Conway?
Yes. Wait a minute.
You start out here.
Well, tell me to play the piano. Anything for peace and quiet.
Yes. OK.
Excuse me please. Mr. Conway, I can't stand women
screaming. Now, would you like to play the
piano for us? Yeah, sure.
Good. Let's go this way there.
Malcolm goes to the barn and bumps into Glenn Mason and and
also Russ Conway. Yes.
And he's he's someone that I was aware of, of course.
And I love side saddle, one of his tunes brilliant.
And and he asked Malcolm if he's David Jacobs.
And when the rest of the women in the bar hear that it's Russ
Conway, they scream and swoon and throw themselves at him.
Yeah. But this gives him.
Is this his cue to go to the piano and play for a bit?
Where the piano is this? The wall behind him is just
plastered with old posters. Build posters.
Well, I think they're probably not even old.
They look like they're for current.
Oh, they're probably. And I was, I was mesmerized.
I was intrigued by one poster. It was right behind him.
And the artist that it was advertising was 1 Armando
Orifice. Wow.
Now, if your surname, sorry if because I'm it sounds like a
stage name. If your stage name was very,
very close to the word orifice, you'd change it, wouldn't you?
Unless, you know, it was a novelty act.
Maybe. Did you notice?
Did you notice there's a poster next to that one for an act for
a show called Sexorama? That's the one that I that's the
one I spotted. I was too busy looking at
Armando Horofish. You know the story about Russ
Conway in his later years when he was, he was, he used to
pretend to be his agent. By the time we get to the
whatever, 80s or whatever, he doesn't have an agent anymore,
but he pretends that he does. And so if you wanted to book him
for something, you'd have to bring his house.
And Russ would answer the phone and say hello and the person
would say, oh, could we speak to Russ Conway?
We'd like to book him for whatever.
And he'd say, yes, I'm his agent, let me go and get some
for you. And then he'd put the, you could
hear him put the phone down and shout, Russ, there's someone on
the phone for you, It's a booking.
And then he'd wait a couple of moments and then pick up the
phone and say Russ speaking. So are people supposed to
imagine that his agent just lived in his house?
Or that that Ross was always in his agent's office waiting for
his next job. And they and they had the same
voice. Yeah.
Fabulous. But while Russ is doing this,
playing this song, this tune, you see women tapping their
feet, and that's about as visually arresting an image.
Yeah, there is one woman that he keeps cutting to.
Who is dancing? I think maybe she's one of the
dancers maybe that he's picked up along the way filming in
these different clubs because she gets a lot of close-ups.
Yeah, maybe she was the girlfriend of Winner at the time
or something. Yeah.
And then Malcolm and Jack are reunited.
Glen's there on the phone to his mum and they tap him up to pay
their bar tab and there's some. Really.
Oh no, they've gone to a restaurant, haven't they?
They say they're going to go and get dinner.
Oh yeah. They're going to, they're going
to sneak out without paying and that's when they run into Glenn
Mason again. It's quite, it's quite funny.
He's on the phone to his mum. He's like, it's 4:30, when are
you coming home? I thought that was quite.
Funny. Do you know what it's it's that
bit as well. The only time I laughed out loud
in this film was when during the sequence when the the restaurant
manager comes up to Jack Jackson and Malcolm and says something
like do come again when we're closed.
Yeah, yeah. Because there's a whole bit of
shtick about them paying the bill.
And so, yeah, Jack says to his son, lend us some money.
And then he turns to Glenn Mason, lend me some money.
Glenn Mason does to the waiter. He says, lend me some money.
So he does. So it goes all the way back
round again. And then they pay the bill with
the money that the waiter just gave them.
Yeah, Yeah. Which you know, is a bit late.
You were paying attention. Clearly I wasn't.
Yeah, it's. Kind of funny.
We have the kitchen scene, which is.
Oh yeah, really random. Yeah.
And that's presumably just because Glenn Mason had a song
about cooking. He did?
What was it called? What's cooking, baby?
Yeah. And they're talking about.
They've got some more windmill dancers in here.
Yeah. To do some dancing for them
while he sings his song. And Jack is going to demonstrate
how to cook eggs, but then doesn't bother.
That's where we we get some more clunky ADR.
Yeah, I think one of the starlets or dancers says this
egg's burnt. And Jack says, well, rub some
sun cream in it. That joke was really workshops
as well probably. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, one of the problems with this film for for the two
presenters is that they have to spend a lot of time just
standing around watching people singing.
Yeah. Like the bit with the bit
earlier on with George Calypso Brown, they're just standing in
the corner watching him. And then there are two girls
that are sitting there and they end up calling these girls over.
And it's a bit, you know, because Jack Mason's 55 and
these girls look like they're about 15.
In fact, I think there's a joke. Did you notice?
He said Jack Jackson says something about I'll see you
again. And then he says to the camera
in two years, Oh, well, not which I read as a when you're,
when you're league, when you're legal.
Oh. Dear, his son's there as well.
With his son, yeah. Jack.
I don't know, maybe I'm misreading that.
But, you know, just knowing what we know now about the BBC, it
wouldn't surprise me. But then, yeah, Well, so later
on in this kitchen scene, they're basically just having to
sort of stand around and watch him sing a whole.
Song Well, Glenn Mason does sing.
Yeah, he sings What's Cooking, Baby?
And he sounds a bit like one of those club singers that Victoria
and Bob used to do. Yes, and they boot, they they
boot him off for half the song because they just focus on the
dancers. He's not even on screen half of
it. Poor Glenn.
Hey, what's cooking, baby? With his love of art in our love
affair, there's nothing but in Broussard.
I'm always hanging around the telephone, but anytime I call,
you're never at home. What's cooking, baby?
We then get a proper star. No disrespect to Glenn Mason,
but Craig Douglas. The conceit is that he's working
as a dishwasher in the restaurant and he's singing a
song in the almost empty restaurant bar.
And he was 18, believe it or not.
Wow. And he?
Well, they all looked older in those days.
Yeah, yeah. They've been smoking since they
were 12. Yes, we spoke about Craig.
And eating lard. Eating lard yes and not going
out into the sunshine or anything like that so we talked
about Craig Douglas when we talked about it's tried dad but
he. Yes.
Was he the he was the the male star, right?
Yeah, it was him, him and whatever age she would have been
15 year old Helen Shapiro. But he he was interviewed by
Disc magazine about this film. OK Oh by the way I want to thank
Paul Abbott, friend of the show and also Co host of big Beatles
sort out who has access to disc magazine archives and whatnot,
music papers. And he sent me a bunch of stuff
including this interview. It wasn't much that he didn't
say very much but he did say it was quite, quite interesting.
This because I don't believe a word of it, but I do believe
this bit. He said about 5 minutes before I
was due to do my bit, I was handed a script.
This is what you've got to say they told me.
I don't know how I remembered it, in fact I didn't.
I made it up as I went along, more or less, but the director
seemed very pleased with me. So I believe that.
What I don't believe is what he he said he describes himself as
no Marlon Brando, right? OK, well that's fine.
But then he said he had to because he sings 2 songs in this
film and he said he had to perform both of them about 50
times for various camera shots and angles.
Wow, now clearly that footage got lost in a fire.
Well, if that's true, then I think we have to reassess
Michael Winner as a serious auteur.
Really. Yeah, but none of that got used
in the edit. That's where did all that go?
Because it's there's not 50 different angles of him in this
film by any stretch. Well, the damn thing, I would
say. Because he he goes into the
restaurant itself and sings, doesn't he?
For the diners. And the Evening Standard on the
20th of November 1959 includes the little piece about Miss
Camilla Jessel. Have you heard of Camilla
Jessel? I don't think so.
OK, so this piece in the Evening Standard from N59 it reads Lord
Jessel's daughter Miss Camilla Jessel has played her first film
role. It is a short feature with the
tentative title Climb Up the Wall.
The charming Miss Jessel has a bit part in a sequence at a
Mayfair restaurant. It requires patience rather than
acting ability, she says. I had to sit at a table in the
evening, dress for about four hours.
They gave us champagne substitute made of ginger beer
and soda water. The star, Craig Douglas, sang
several times. So, right, fair enough.
Several isn't 50, but you know. But it I mean, it does sound
like they're making a real film. Doesn't.
It it does, and it also says how much she was paid to sit there
for four hours. OK, £3.10 shillings, which is
the equivalent of about £71 in today's money.
Fair enough. I'm sure she didn't need the
money though. Lord.
Lord Jesse's daughter. That's interesting.
It's also just worth noting that both Craig Douglas and Glenn
Mason tried to compete for the UK in Eurovision around this
time. They both entered themselves but
didn't get selected. Yeah, there is footage.
Like I like to get Eurovision facts wherever I can.
Yeah, I think I mentioned on the It's Trap Dead episode as well,
there is footage on YouTube of Craig Douglas in his later
years. So he may still be with us.
Actually, I'm not sure, maybe not, but in in sometime in the
sort of 20 tens, he was filmed recording a cover version of
Ready Heads Creep, which you believe.
Cool. Yeah, no, he he is still with
us. I just.
He is right. Oh, I could have tried to get
him on the show. Asking for his time.
Anyway, somehow or other we we end up back at the Jackson
family home. They get into the car again and
and briefly emerges as sort of an Arab garb and then and then
back in the normal clothes. Some gags about having lots of
wives. That's right, yeah, one of them
says. We've been out all nights, we've
spent all trying to reproduce something that the machine can
do better, and that's where we get cherry on the organ.
Enjoying yourself? Who whose band is so good that
it blows up the machine? Which I guess is kind of a
spoiler if you do want to watch this all the way to the end.
Most most of the band does look like your dad's mates from the
Legion. You know the the they all look
quite of advanced age. Another.
Yeah, I'm assuming that is the Lord Rockingham's 11 and plus a
couple of extra dance. Maybe, yeah, maybe.
But who knows? Quick glimpse to seek him again.
We get these little very quick. Yeah.
Clips, don't we? And like you say, the machine
overheats and it blows up. And then the film closes with
with Jack and and Malcolm as angels playing us out on their
trumpets. Oh yeah, doing a kind of weird
trumpet dance that doesn't appear to mean anything or make
any difference to how they say. No, no.
So that focuses the film. So yeah.
And all of that in only 63 minutes.
Yeah. That's a lot of entertainment
packed into a second feature, I think.
Well, either this this could have been the first feature.
It was on a double bill. Anyway, I looked it up to see
what it came out with and it was on a double bill with a film
called Khyber Patrol, which was a 1954 American adventure film,
right? So starring Rock Hudson.
Right, OK. So what a what a odd double
bill. Yeah, I read a few contemporary
reviews. There weren't that many.
One quite sympathetic review described it as just the thing
for the espresso coffee bar trade.
Yeah, I mean, I suppose because this is around the same time
again, we've got starting to get these films coming out and we
like Beat Girl and Espresso Bongo and is it the Tommy Steele
story, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah.
These these are what the kids are into.
Well, it's because they had nothing better until The Beatles
came along. Exactly.
They were just killing time. Yeah, the the Monthly Film
Bulletin called it surrealist, which is perhaps quite generous.
I would have said so. But also poverty stricken.
I've read, yeah, I've read. 1 review described it as the
craziest, happiest, zingiest film ever made.
I think Michael Winner probably wrote that.
Yes, very possibly. And there's one in Kinematograph
Weekly which was aimed at film industry people rather than the
public. So this would have been read by
cinema owners trying to decide whether to take it or not.
And it says in here that it's got the the lunatic
conglomeration given an adequate backdrop.
I think they mean like the sort of posters and stuff in the
lobby should score, particularly with teenagers.
Good British star, novelty attraction.
They were quite positive about it.
I'm not sure who the stars are, particularly because Jack
Jackson was obviously bigger than than we are probably giving
him credit for now. So people would have been keen
to see him. Partic particularly because he
was famous for radio. So it would have been a bit of a
novelty to people to see what he, you know, it'd be like.
It would have been like if in 1985 Terry Wogan had made a
movie featuring five star and I don't know, Kajagugu like.
It's sort. Of similar, yeah, it's a kind of
similar thing, I suppose. Mind you, I would watch that
film too. I'd love to see a a a narrative
film with Terry Logan. Except he'd do the the floral
dance, wouldn't he? Of course, we'd expect nothing
less. The trouble is a film like that
in the in the 80s or even the 70s would have had DJs in it.
That or or musical acts that would mean we couldn't watch it.
Now, yes, almost certainly, sadly, I looked at Michael
Winner's filmography and so this was his first kind of feature
length film. Not quite feature length, but
more or less. I looked at films of his that
I've seen. All right.
It's surprising isn't it? He's we think of him as just
like 3 or 4 films, but actually he's got quite a long, there's
loads I haven't seen. Well, I've I've seen very few.
I've seen the call Mercado. I've seen the the mechanic which
is Charles Bronson. That's the first 15 minutes of
the mechanic is brilliant. Well, it's it's good and the
rest is terrible. Death Wish I have seen.
Death wish two I've seen because I remember there was a death
wish season on Channel 4 or something about 20 years ago or
more. And I've seen appointment with
Death, which is is Poirot, who's Peter Yusenov?
Poirot. And I've seen Bullseye.
Of course I haven't seen this sounds intriguing.
Dirty Weekend from 1993. Me neither, but I have seen
Parting Shots, his last film, which is it's it's almost like a
work of art. Is it?
It's incredible. He's got the most amazing cast,
people who've won Oscars, but he makes them come across as the
worst actors you've ever seen. Like he makes Diana Rigg look
like she can't. Oh dear.
It's it's incredible how you direct.
Might have to watch that. Sure it's.
Free on Amazon Prime, Prime Video.
And it stars Chris Rea, who was not an actor.
Oh my God. And but there's loads of cameos
from. It's basically just getting in
all his. Yeah, what it's got Oliver Reed,
Peter Davison turns up, Ben Kingsley, Bob Hoskins, Joanna
Lumley. John Cleese is in there.
And then his girlfriend is Felicity Kendall.
And it's an incredible film. Honestly, anyone listening who
hasn't seen Parting Shots is well worth it.
It's one of those films that is probably best watched with
friends. I would say.
Because you won't be able to believe.
What we're seeing that's I'm going to make a note of that for
Yeah. Yeah, but another one of his
films, there's a more serious vein where you actually, because
he could be a good director, could he?
And I think this, I think The Sentinel is really good.
That was his sort of kind of Exorcist Omen type horror movie
made in the 70s. And that's genuinely really
good. I think The Sentinel It's got an
astonishing finale that is quite controversial.
Let's say it also features the mum from the National Lampoon,
Christmas Vacation Films, Beverley to.
Angel in. Quite a saucy role.
So yeah, that's actually really. Selling it to me.
And also the Night Comers I thought was very good, which is
his prequel to The Innocence. So that's one's quite different.
It's got Marlon Brando in it, and this is, yeah, like the
innocence, the turn of the screw.
Yeah, but there's films like Wonton Ton The Dog Who Saved
Hollywood. I know, right?
Yeah. I don't think I've ever watched
that one, sadly. And of course we can't, we
cannot forget his possibly his finest work.
Those eshore ads he made? Heavens, I forgot to renew the
car insurance last. Telephone the broker at once.
Telephone, dear. We're not in the dark ages.
This is a job for Mr. Mouse. By going online to eshore.com,
the mouse cuts out the middle man and could save us a tidy
sum. What a clever little mouse.
I bought him some cheese. Calm down dear, it's not a real.
Mouse. Oh, I think he's asleep.
esure.com. Great.
Value car insurance at the click of a mouse.
But yeah, he definitely had talent.
It's not necessarily evident in Climb Up the Wall, but he when
he wanted to be good, he could be good.
I did have a ticket to go and see him doing it.
He was going to do an event at the Cinema Museum years ago and
I was excited. I was going to go and go and see
this Q&A with him. And then he died.
I know. So that didn't happen.
Yeah. And it was tragic for me,
obviously. You're the real victim here,
aren't you? It's.
Terrible. OK.
So have you got anything else you want to say about this
before we wrap up? Well, I mean, obviously I've,
I've been wanging on about the fancies for years and years, but
I just think that there there's so many different elements to
them as a family and the companies that they had and the
films that they made, the legal issues that they got into, they
were court cases and EJ Fancy was in prison at one point.
Like there's a lot of interesting stuff in that family
that maybe I will write up properly one day rather than it
just sitting in my thesis that no one ever reads.
But yeah, so this is a good example of I think it's it's not
necessarily the only kind of film that they made, but it's a
good example of what they would rush out to try and capitalise
on a on a trend, but just on like lots of other people would
have been doing, but just on a really, really, really low
budget. And and that obviously does
show, I know we've probably made this film sound quite painful,
but there it has got historical interest for sure.
I would say for that, that you talk about this a lot on Goon
Pod because, you know, Goon Pod is secretly a Beatles podcast
because everyone knows so revealed not see the secret is
out. So climb up the wall is just
another one of those. It's another part of that
picture, isn't it, of what was going on in the the late 50s,
because this would have been shot in 1959.
So where where British popular culture was at and what why
things needed to change when they did.
And so it's it's you know, it's interesting for that.
I mean, of course, we mentioned Craig Douglas.
He sang on the bill. He was the top of the bill when
The Beatles supported him in like 196263, whenever that was.
And of course, you know, his career came to an abrupt halt
once people started buying their records instead of his.
So this is a great film for looking at that as a that sort
of turning point into much better things.
Yeah. And this film, this would have
been filmed November, possibly December 1959, as, as you say,
which was just around the time that the Goon Show was ending.
That's true. That came to an end in January
1960, didn't it? So.
So in some ways this film is a tribute to.
Yes, well, Sellers was was hot stuff because he'd won the BAFTA
for I'm All Right Jack, around the time that this comes out.
Yeah. Do you think he would have been
annoyed because he probably didn't get any?
Oh, he would have been. He would.
Have been furious but. There would have been no
royalties for any of them for the footage that they use in
this I. Wouldn't have?
No, no. I'm sure EJ would have had some
clause in the contract when they made down among the Z men so
that oh you reckon they didn't they didn't earn anything.
Absolutely. But yeah, I bet if Sal is even
new but he probably wouldn't have been aware of it but.
I mean, I'd love to know. It's an interesting little what
if? What would Sellers have said
about the film? What?
Because we know what he was like.
He would have, depending on his mood, he would have tried to
engage the greatest lawyers in the land to try and block it's
release. But or or like you say, it just
passed them by completely. Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine
this stuck around for very long. No, I mean, this double bill
that I found in the paper was a list.
This was listed October 1960, so this is around the same time the
Psycho came out. So I can't imagine cinemas kept
this one going for long, because also it's not only music was
about to change, but cinema was about to change considerably.
And crappy films like this, we're not going to really stick
around for much longer when quality films like Psycho
suddenly. Indeed.
Changing cinema forever as well. And and colour was becoming more
and more prevalent as well. I was thinking that while I was
watching this. It's sometimes easy to forget,
isn't it, that if you'd have been in the room when they were
filming this, that would all have been in colour?
Like it's only the film stock that was black and white.
I was sort of thinking, wonder what colour clothes those guys
were actually wearing. What colour was his cardigan?
I mean, it was probably brown, let's be honest.
But you know, I bet some of the other artists had quite,
especially Cherry Wayner that was, that was probably quite
colourful. Like it's easy to forget, isn't
it, because everything is so black and white in these these
old cheap films of that period. But yeah, it was all changing.
And this is a great example of of how that was all happening in
front of our eyes almost. Yeah, Adam, anyway, I'm so
indebted to you for coming to the show with this film because.
It's, I suppose it just goes to show, doesn't it, that no matter
how obscure something is you want to talk about, you'll find
somebody, yeah, who can talk about it.
Yeah, it's and it is, it's, it's not an important, well, it's,
it's not an important film, but it is, it does represent a
moment in time like you're saying that the old order is
about to change and be swept away.
And yeah, and obviously it's got the got the Goon connection,
albeit unwittingly, yeah, without permission.
Yeah. So Adrian, thank.
Thank you again for that. So what are you up to at the
moment? Because if you're doing any DVD
commentaries or. Podcasting.
I've yeah. So I've in the last two months
I've produced 2 new commentaries, right?
I don't think either of them have been announced yet.
One of them has, there's an Italian film coming out called
So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious. I think it's called.
I always forget the title. It's an Italian kind of
psychodrama. And there's another one which
hasn't been announced yet, but I like early late last year, I had
another couple come out. So I had a booklet in Troll 2,
the 4K of that, which came out in America.
And my podcast, Wild, Wild Podcast is still going.
Yeah, there's always something on the go.
I mean, the main thing for me at the moment is that I'm going
back to China next week. So my my new job is keeping me
incredibly busy. I started a new job last
September and I work in China now, so.
To do with to do with film. I'm I'm still teaching.
So I used to teach at Sussex University.
I think when we last recorded a year ago when we did the
Running, Jumping, Standing still film, I was recording from one
of my classrooms and, but I've since started a new job, which
is quite complicated. I won't bore you all with the
details, but basically I work for a British university, but
all of my teaching is on a university campus in Beijing, so
I will be spending three months in in Beijing.
Very good. Yeah, so I'm glad we just
managed to fit this in before I have to knuckle down and start
packing. Absolutely, absolutely.
So all the all the very best with that and.
Thank you. And I'd just like to thank you
again for on behalf of all the Goon Pod listeners because I, I
am a listener more than a contributor obviously.
And I just I really look forward to your podcast as I'm sure many
of all of us they're listening to.
And it's so good to have this focused somewhere to talk about
British comedy. But you've managed to to do so
well by bringing in everything that's goon connected in some
way and all the different people that you've all the real like
exciting people that you've had on here as, as well as people
like me and, and even my my late grandfather you talked to.
And so, you know, goon pod is it's a great resource and a
great piece of entertainment and it's always interesting.
So, you know, thank you for what you're doing.
Oh, I'm blushing. Thank you.
Thanks again to Adrian. So thank you for listening.
And next week, as I said before, at the top of the show, we will
be discussing an actual goon show.
So that will keep Tony happy. Please rate and review in the
usual places, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and the like.
And any comments, any feedback is gratefully received.
If it's, you know, if it's largely positive, I'll probably
read it out on the show. In the meantime, thank you for
listening. Until next time, bye.
It can't be. It's crazy, it's impossible.
It's.