Topic: Little & Large Xmas special 1980. Extraordinary.

[BlodwynPig]

Remember, without Little and Large, there would have been no Chris Morris.

[Gavin M]

Syd's still got it!  (By it meaning a promotional video for the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy7826kkIk

[sick as a pike]

I also lasted until Eddie Large said "Ya hear dat, Chalky? You should never have come off da marmalade jar" in a mock Jamaican accent. Yes really.

GOLD THOUGH, INNIT, EH? COMEDY GOLD.

As well as the racism and the sludgy depression that hangs over the whole thing, oh, and the fact that I quite probably watched it on its first TX, feeling baffled and adolescent and angry... is that Syd holds his rifle in front of Eddie's face throughout.  Did he not pay attention at the camera rehearsals?
Useless.

[elnombre]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoR6sKKpCy8

Bloody hell, that's from 1991!
I thought they'd long since left the building by then.

Apparently their show was cancelled that same year, and on the basis of that...er....let's be  charitable and call it a 'sketch', I can't say I'm surprised. What the fuck was that supposed to be exactly? Because funny, entertaining or charming it most certainly wasn't.

Seeing Eddie's impersonations disintegrate from 'tangentially related' (i.e. Geldof) to 'excuse me, why are you doing this?' (Prince Charles) to 'please stop, I'm starting to worry about you' (Zippy & George, pretty much everything else) is mesmerizing. He knows it's all over, and the 5 minutes of hackneyed schtick that comprises his act is flashing before his eyes while Syd stares on indifferently. A be-wigged Bob Holness looking sad and confused only adds to the almost surreal desperation of it all.

[BlodwynPig]

Syd's still got it!  (By it meaning a promotional video for the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy7826kkIk

Wow, brilliant. Cutting satire.

[NurseNugent]

I love the fat that Syd's wiki page has "citation needed" after Syd Little is an English Comedian.

[Gulftastic]

It's quite staggering that Syd Little was once employed as a professional comedian. He makes Eddie Large - who, make no mistake, was a spectacularly unfunny cunt at the best of times - look like an explosive comic firecracker by comparison; which was, I suppose, the point as far as Eddie was concerned.

Even as a kid, I could never understand what the point of Syd was. Beyond looking vaguely annoyed at Eddie's "antics" - and he couldn't even do that with any discernible trace of presence or timing - he contributed absolutely nothing to the act. As others have said, he was just a mute, charisma-free sounding board for some terrible impressions and piss-weak gags.

WHAT IS POINT SYD?

Sadly, we'll never know for sure how good he was. If only Eddie had let him finish playing his new song for us each week, instead of coming onstage and titting about as Deputy Dawg or Cliff Richard. Syd might have revealed himself to be a musical genius.

We used to play a drunken game called 'Large Repetiore' when you had to name an impression that Eddie Large did. I think we got up to about ten once.

[Brundle-Fly]

Zoom forward to around the 41 minute mark for the last crosstalk routine. Eddie does impressions of these new pop bands Splodgenessabounds and Madness.

[Gulftastic]

Zoom forward to around the 41 minute mark for the last crosstalk routine. Eddie does impressions of these new pop bands Splodgenessabounds and Madness.

The shot of the studio audience actually applauding the gag about Malcolm Allison and Crystal Palace. What the hell? Were they all Millwall fans>

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Syd's still got it!  (By it meaning a promotional video for the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy7826kkIk

I think I could actually watch hours of Syd wandering around and pretending to be annoyed when people don't recognise him. I wouldn't enjoy it, but I'd watch it. I suppose it was that very attitude that kept these incorrigible laughter-makers afloat for so long.

[Gradual Decline]

[KLG-7B]

I really find people who go to Blackpool on purpose unagreeable.

[Gulftastic]

One thing I always kind of admired L & L for was their complete lack of bitterness when their time in the sun was over. Other comedians of that era moaned on about 'so-called alternative' comedy, and how comedy was much better in their day when they could no longer get a prime time slot.

I think L & L realised they were lucky to have got away with it for so long, and just left it at that.

[KLG-7B]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sFy7826kkIk#t=81s

The dead-eyed acting by the girl in that bit is incredible.

[biggytitbo]

I remember when Eddie Large was on the Weakest Link and he came across as a sad husk of a man, deadened by what the last 2 decades had done to him.


He just accepted all of Anne's crap insults with the resignation of a man who would happily have been euthanised right there and then.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

While having a go at Little & Large is like shooting fish in a barrel (probably), these clips really have reminded me of just how spectacularly shit they were. However...

One thing I always kind of admired L & L for was their complete lack of bitterness when their time in the sun was over. Other comedians of that era moaned on about 'so-called alternative' comedy, and how comedy was much better in their day when they could no longer get a prime time slot.

I think L & L realised they were lucky to have got away with it for so long, and just left it at that.

I think this is a fair assessment.

[Lfbarfe]

Sadly, we'll never know for sure how good he was. If only Eddie had let him finish playing his new song for us each week, instead of coming onstage and titting about as Deputy Dawg or Cliff Richard.

You forgot "Dave, the barman from that series, The Minder". Eddie always called it "The Minder".

[Lfbarfe]

I remember when Eddie Large was on the Weakest Link and he came across as a sad husk of a man, deadened by what the last 2 decades had done to him.

He just accepted all of Anne's crap insults with the resignation of a man who would happily have been euthanised right there and then.

Didn't he have a heart transplant? That's going to take it out of you a bit.

[neveragain]

Dear me, this is hard to get through with an open mind...

[Jackson K Pollock]

Sadly, we'll never know for sure how good he was. If only Eddie had let him finish playing his new song for us each week, instead of coming onstage and titting about as Deputy Dawg or Cliff Richard. Syd might have revealed himself to be a musical genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9h-8nO4pHU

It's a nice idea, but trust me, after half a verse of this you'll be begging for Eddie Large to wander on and do his Deputy Dawg impression... And wait til you get to the standup at the end...

This is well worth a look, though - Noel's Gotcha of Eddie Large:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5ofw-eyAl0

Notable for the following:

1) the actor Robert Harley as one of the stooges, who surely back then would've been fairly recognisable From stuff like Fast Forward, the Daewoo adverts etc.

2) a young Rebecca Front as the female stooge - bet that wasn't on her showreel for Armando...

3) the fact that Eddie actually comes across as quite a decent and funny(ish) guy in real life

And 4) that much like the tv show, you don't even realise Syd's there til about halfway through!

[ziggy starbucks]

Eddie Large deserves credit for carrying that dead weight around with him for 30 years

also Syd Little went to Yew Tree Secondary Modern School in Manchester, which is surely a sign of revelations to come in the near future

[KLG-7B]

Ah god, those gotchas were fun.

[Alternative Carpark]

a young Rebecca Front as the female stooge - bet that wasn't on her showreel for Armando...

I think this was around the time they were already doing The Day Today.  Indeed, it might even post-date it.

Thanks to Brundle-Fly for the link too, I might have watched this at the time, or at least a trailer for it, because it did bring one definite memory back.  I do remember a trailer for a comedy with a clip from a Dallas parody of JR in bed in a suit of armour, and had thought it was perhaps from Kenny Everett or Three of A Kind.  Seems it was this though, so that's one thing settled...

[Ray Le Otter]

Syd's still got it!  (By it meaning a promotional video for the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy7826kkIk

Shithead advertises shithole.

I've been there.

[Chriddof]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=sFy7826kkIk#t=81s

The dead-eyed acting by the girl in that bit is incredible.

The best part of it is that girl's probably never heard of Bobby Davro either.

[elnombre]

The best part of it is that girl's probably never heard of Bobby Davro either.

Someone should direct her to that Dorothy-Dot-Com video of a few years back. Once seen, never forgotten.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

You say all that, but were Lee & Herring any better?

[Glebe]

I didn't watch that, but I imagine there are plenty of Deputy Dawg impressions alongside desperate acting from Syd Little.

[SavageHedgehog]

Not a single Deputy Dawg impression :( What gives?

[Desi Dubs Dallas]

too topical