Kenny Everett- Captain Kremmen

[Pinball]

I can't do a search ('not allowed' for some reason), so have started a new thread. These 25 episodes are currently being re-broadcast. The 1976 Capital Radio ones :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n4f5f/episodes/guide

[Pinball]

And another Kenny prog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wv3xy

[JesusAndYourBush]

I can't do a search ('not allowed' for some reason), so have started a new thread. These 25 episodes are currently being re-broadcast. The 1976 Capital Radio ones :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n4f5f/episodes/guide

Since it's 25 episodes I assume it's the same 25 that were offered by "Creation Podcast" some years back??  You got one whole story and the first few episodes of another and it just stops.  I assume Creation were going to release more (from wherever they were getting them from)  but then the site ceased to exist.

Over the last few years I've been trying to collect the various Kremmen series(serieses?) and there's hardly any information on the net at all which has made things difficult.

[ajsmith]

Since it's 25 episodes I assume it's the same 25 that were offered by "Creation Podcast" some years back??  You got one whole story and the first few episodes of another and it just stops.  I assume Creation were going to release more (from wherever they were getting them from)  but then the site ceased to exist.

Over the last few years I've been trying to collect the various Kremmen series(serieses?) and there's hardly any information on the net at all which has made things difficult.

I'd be interested in seeing your findings so far. I've often wondered how the various Kremmen stories join up, if indeed they do at all, and exactly when new episodes stopped being made.

[steveh]

Think the last original series of Kremmen he made for Capital Radio was in 1980. He then introduced a new character called Chris P Bacon, which I believe continued on the breakfast show after he left the station in 1981. Episodes of Kremmen used to get chopped up and recycled on his shows which makes it harder to have a definitive list. There used to be a torrent around that had a reasonably complete set of the Kremmen series tho.

Capital supposedly still have a full set of all the series in their archives because they were syndicated to other stations - which is lucky as when they moved from Euston Tower to Leicester Square they apparently dumped a big chunk of stuff into a skip so a whole load of comedy and music sessions no longer exist outside listener recordings. The contents of Kenny Everett's own studio are now in the British Library's sound archive.

[Pinball]

Since it's 25 episodes I assume it's the same 25 that were offered by "Creation Podcast" some years back??  You got one whole story and the first few episodes of another and it just stops.  I assume Creation were going to release more (from wherever they were getting them from)  but then the site ceased to exist.

Over the last few years I've been trying to collect the various Kremmen series(serieses?) and there's hardly any information on the net at all which has made things difficult.

I downloaded the Creation ones, and also various torrents and other sources, plus I have the vinyl album and the Kremmen movie soundtrack which I encoded.

I'd be happy to upload what I have so we can share notes? Amazing these never got a proper release.

[JesusAndYourBush]

There aren't really any findings as far as working out a chronology and broadcast dates etc.

I've collected various batches of Kremmen

(1)
First there's this collection of episodes...
https://web.archive.org/web/20050415005309/http://www.stephensykes.com/kremmen_series.html
(I have copies of the files from that page)
...with a few extra odds and sods here...
https://web.archive.org/web/20050415005201/http://www.stephensykes.com/kremmen.html
(I only have the wma's from that page - which are still available from the archive.org copy - because I only discovered that 2nd page even existed earlier this year and it's archived the wma's but none of the mp3's.)
There's one story as a "UK version" and all the others are the "International version" which is useless - each episode is extremely short and most of the plot has been removed. Kremmen completists will want it but it's trash. One wonders what international audiences thought of Kenny Everett when their only exposure were these tiny soundbites.

(2) Another incomplete set, but longer episodes at least...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steve.goskie/
(See link near the end of my post for them all as one .rar to save the guys bandwidth.)

(3) Creation Podcast 25 episode set (it's the same as the latest BBC 25 episode set, I just checked).
Episodes 1-20(21?) are the "The Thargoids try to steal Kremmen's brain" story, and episodes 21/22-25 are approx the first half of the "The Pleasure Planet, the Macronites and the Krells" story.  I assume Creation had intentions to finish it before they disappeared.  And while I'm talking about Creation Podcast did anyone save a copy of their set of "Moment Of Terror" ? They uploaded 22(I think) episodes in 2006 but they're not available anywhere.  There's some episodes in the youtube link I'm about to mention but the Creation set contained a bunch of others.

(4) https://www.youtube.com/user/barney5672/videos
From there you have an unbroken run from Capital Radio in 1985.
- "Oil Planet" #2-#8. 1985.07.20-1985.08.31. Story not available in any of the previous 3 sources. Complete story apart from episode 1 being missing. Like all these I have no idea if they're original airings or repeats. It's likely at such a late date that they're repeats I think.
- "Prison Ship" #1-#7. 1985.09.07-1985.10.19. Another not available in any of the other sources. Seems to follow on from the Oil Planet story. After several weeks of not much plot, #7 ends on a cliffhanger... and then the following week Kenny messes up and starts with a new story so we don't get the ending!!
- "Double Trouble [aka Kremmen's Double]". #1-#8 1985.10.26-1985.11.23
- "The Giant Banana" #1 1985.11.30. Broadcast during Kennys last show of 1985 (he wouldn't be back until sometime in 1986) so another incomplete series. Episode ends with "Tune in next week to episode 4" so Kenny probably edited these together from a shorter episode version.

Also on that youtube there's some other undated stories.
- "The Pleasure Planet, the Macronites and the Krells". 30 minutes in 2 files. Mainly complete.
- "Aliens steal energy from the sun" 22 minutes. Complete story.
- "Gort Captures Kremmen"(my title). Another one not available from the other sources. 25 minutes in 3 files. Takes place some time after the other Gort story as they've clearly met before. Incomplete story.
- "Kremmen and Queen Iris". 20 minutes in 2 files. Complete story.

If anyone wants any of them I can bung them online, they're not all there yet but they'll all go in that folder.  Maybe someone has something to add, even if it's just information about airdates etc.

I'd be interested to know what the torrents contained, whether it was just the first 3 sets I mentioned or if they got their hands on any others.

[steveh]

Amazing these never got a proper release.

Aside from Capital's lack of interest in its archive, I imagine it would be a pain to clear the copyright. There's bits of Wendy Carlos, Tomita, Cerrone, Jeff Wayne and other music from artists that might not give permission. Effects are mostly from the BBC library discs but not always. Then there's random snippets from things like the syndicated comedy bits used elsewhere on Everett's show that were done originally for Los Angeles DJ Gary Owens (which is where the Kremmen name came from) or even voiceover session outtakes like Roger Scott's laugh. The LP licensed just one orchestral recording for the music and stripped out other elements and consequently is rather disappointing compared to the radio originals.

Regretting again that I didn't save up to buy more blank cassettes when I was a kid...

[JesusAndYourBush]

Just a heads-up that someone's posted a 1968 episode of Kenny's TV show "Nice Time" on youtube.
There's none of the wackiness you'd see in his later TV works so it's a bit disappointing in that respect, but it's still interesting to finally get to see an episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywl0QrK3C68

[Glebe]

I'm sure I came across these Captain Kremmen View-Master slides in a local shop as a nipper.

[ajsmith]

I'm sure I came across these Captain Kremmen View-Master slides in a local shop as a nipper.

Something I thinks kind of odd is that there was loads of Kremmen merchandise that seemed to be aimed at kids. I mean, I know it was more PG rated innuendo and smut than anything too extreme but it still seems jarring. They don't even make any concessions in any of the merch to making it more family friendly like not drawing in Carla's nipples.

[JesusAndYourBush]

Something I thinks kind of odd is that there was loads of Kremmen merchandise that seemed to be aimed at kids. I mean, I know it was more PG rated innuendo and smut than anything too extreme but it still seems jarring. They don't even make any concessions in any of the merch to making it more family friendly like not drawing in Carla's nipples.

Yeah, when I was a kid I always thought it wasn't aimed at kids and that there was probably some rude stuff that went over my head, even going so far as wrongly assuming the word "Kremmen" itself was probably something really rude.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Did anyone else have the storybook of that character?  Choice scenes included schoolboy Kremmen knotting a bully's neck then ripping off one of his legs, and his making a many-headed creatures heads explode, one-by-one, by talking to it in an infuriatingly posh, condescending manner.  Non-politically correct characters included a stereotypical chinky Chinaman cook and an obnoxious African dictator with real scrambled egg (!?) epaulettes on each shoulder.

[ajsmith]

Did anyone else have the storybook of that character?  Choice scenes included schoolboy Kremmen knotting a bully's neck then ripping off one of his legs, and his making a many-headed creatures heads explode, one-by-one, by talking to it in an infuriatingly posh, condescending manner.  Non-politically correct characters included a stereotypical chinky Chinaman cook and an obnoxious African dictator with real scrambled egg (!?) epaulettes on each shoulder.

I didn't have it back in the day, but I bought a copy off amazon a few years ago. I thought the comic was a bit confusing - it's pre the Cosgrove Hall version of Kremmen, so the characters are drawn differently, and the art style is very loose and weird. Also, again, it looks like a kids comic, there's no Viz - style 'adults only' warning, but there's several images of Carla topless(and as you noted, some ultra violence). Very weird - maybe it was just the 70s when things like that could fly under the radar. Anyhow, I love Kremmen and I think we should keep this thread going at all costs.

additional note: I went to the huge Comics Unmasked exhibition at the British Library last year, and was pleasantly if not slightly bewilderedly surprised to see the Kremmen comic included in the part of the exhibition on sexual themes hitting the comic medium.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Did anyone else have the storybook of that character?  Choice scenes included schoolboy Kremmen knotting a bully's neck then ripping off one of his legs, and his making a many-headed creatures heads explode, one-by-one, by talking to it in an infuriatingly posh, condescending manner.  Non-politically correct characters included a stereotypical chinky Chinaman cook and an obnoxious African dictator with real scrambled egg (!?) epaulettes on each shoulder.

And also a Scotsman who looked like a ginger-haired Captain Caveman in a kilt.

I remember Kenny Everett Video Show having Carla get her boobs out, to scare aliens, in the animated Kremmen bit.  That was certainly pre-watershed.

[Catalogue Trousers]

I presume that that was at least done with a comedy censorship bar. Carla's abundant anatomy did strange things to my early pubescent self, and I'm damn sure that an uncensored image of that kind would be firmly buried but retrievable in my life's wank bank. But no, nothing!

Any photographic evidence?...

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Just ordered 1977's Captain Kremmen & The Krells book from Abebooks, to see how memory matches.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Just ordered 1977's Captain Kremmen & The Krells book from Abebooks, to see how memory matches.

Just got and read it (second order as first didn't arrive).  Enjoyably zany, as recalled.  Far from PC, with its Jewish, gay, Scots, Chinese, African and German stereotypes.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I was searching for some of Kenny's Thames TV episodes the other day...  there wasn't much to be found last time I looked a few years ago, and I'd not got around to looking again until now.  I found this ancient thread in which it was mentioned that someone was attempting to cobble the episodes together from available clips.  I did find some crudely edited but still incomplete episodes on youtube, I wonder if they're the same thing talked about in that thread?
The 4th Thames series is on dailymotion in it's entirety as off-airs from the original airings, which is nice, but the first 3 series still seem as rare as hen's teeth.  I found long-dead torrents that showed that at least 2 episodes from series 1 and 2 episodes from series 2 exist in their entirety so I'm assuming they're all out there somewhere.  Can anyone provide any pointers?

[steveh]

New documentary on Sunday, though not sure it adds much to the previous ones: http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week51/world-according-kenny-everett

[Winegums100]

Anyone actually find the complete Kremmen of the Oil Planet?

[JesusAndYourBush]

Anyone actually find the complete Kremmen of the Oil Planet?

My link still works (up the page) for episodes 2 to 8.  I'd still like to hear episode 1 but the chances of it turning up seem fairly slim.

[Pauline Walnuts]

We all know about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPWB7_ITFpw

I guess?

[Winegums100]

My link still works (up the page) for episodes 2 to 8.  I'd still like to hear episode 1 but the chances of it turning up seem fairly slim.

I did find some ref to the first part, but it was a snippet of it. I'm guessing the original was broken up into snippets...?

[JesusAndYourBush]

I did find some ref to the first part, but it was a snippet of it. I'm guessing the original was broken up into snippets...?

It's the whole thing (minus the first episode), in seven 3-5 minute episodes.
Kremmen was always broadcast in short 3-5 minute episodes.  Any longer versions are because someone's edited them together,  then there's the LP of course, linked a couple of posts ago by OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead.

[Winegums100]

This is the snippet I have... I thinks it's from the Oil Planet series as it refers to Planet X...

http://www.mediafire.com/file/iodxq7uuy56zc2d/Oil_Planet_1_%2528episode_snippet%2529.mp3/file

[JesusAndYourBush]

Thanks.  It's not a snippet, it's a complete episode.  Remember the episodes were very short.
There's also some episodes (supposedly of Oil Planet) here but they're the type with many jokes and hardly any plot...
https://web.archive.org/web/20050415005201/http://www.stephensykes.com/kremmen.html
...That page had them as mp3 and wma - I managed to grab the wma files from archive.org a few years ago (except the 5 in the middle that are only available as mp3).   I've not worked out if your episode fits anywhere into it.  There's also the longer version with a more substantial storyline (episode 2-8) which is in the link I posted earlier in the thread.  I should really do a comparison of both versions to see how they compare.
Kremmen seems to have been re-edited and aired in so many different versions, it's a shame there's very little information about it apart from what can be gleaned from the available recordings.
EDIT: On listening... the short version bears no resemblance to the long version, and your episode doesn't seem to fit into either of them!

[Winegums100]

Yes, it's a bit odd isn't it? It refers to Planet X - which is mentioned with the Oil Planet episodes - but listening to the WMA versions I don't know where either!
I do have good stereo copy versions of the 'Captain Kremmen and Queen Iris' done in 10 episodes, and also 'Captain Kremmen Exploding stomachs and the Krells' in 9 episodes (this seems to be the first Kremmen series I think?) - I'll upload them to Mediafire for anyone who wants them!

I'll keep hunting for the Oil Planet episode - sometimes you hear things like that on recordings of Kenny's radio shows.

[Winegums100]

Here's the link for The Exploding Stomachs episodes:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/nw4pjeo5u8nu8wg/Captain_Kremmen_Exploding_Stomachs_and_the_Krells.zip/file

And also for the Queen Iris episodes:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/75sbkmwfl5ovgp0/Captain_Kremmen_and_Queen_Iris.zip/file

Enjoy!

[Winegums100]

Also came across this:

https://tunein.com/radio/Captain-Kremmen--Star-Corps-p1010138/

Anyone know about this??