'Bottle Boys, Bottle Boys, up wiv the lark!'

[Sydward Lartle]

https://www.youtube.com/user/mk2dubster/search?query=bottle+boys

This YouTube user has several episodes of the much-maligned, critically panned mid-eighties London Weekend series Bottle Boys on his channel, and they're grimly fascinating viewing.

The 'randy milkman' trope is, of course, nothing new - Derren Nesbitt wrote and directed the dismal 1974 British sex comedy the Amorous Milkman, which flopped largely because it wasn't very good, but also because its release coincided with tabloid reports of him knocking his missus about, and On the Buses' Bob Grant (you know the one - foot-long sideburns, teeth like piano keys) made a pilot episode for ATV in the mid-seventies called Milk-o! where he played a randy milkman (bet that was a stretch for him), and its poor reception, combined with ATV's refusal to proceed with a full series, led to Grant's decision to never work in television again - and spent the rest of his career in theatre, in such prestige productions as Come Play With Me (based on the David Sullivan-financed sex comedy of the same name) and Get Your Hands Off My Crumpet.

Fast forward ten years, and some bright spark at London Weekend - seemingly unaware of the fact that Robin Askwith's glory years in the Confessions... films had long passed, and that previous attempts at comedies about randy milkmen hadn't exactly gone down well - decided to cast the Poundland Mick Jagger in a new sitcom about the employees of a dairy company, written by the redoubtable Vince Powell (Love Thy Neighbour, Mind Your Language). It wasn't a total disaster - it did run for two series - but you can't help thinking that LWT's top brass were delighted when one episode clashed with the BBC's coverage of Live Aid and its ratings proved to be disastrously low as a result, giving them as good an excuse as any to swing the axe.

The same YouTube user also has episodes of Richard Beckinsale's final TV project, Bloomers... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhO4W25XElo

[Glebe]

I hadn't heard of this until someone posted about it a while back. I watched an episode featuring guest star Bernie Winters (sans Schnorbitz), I found it, rather predictably, to be not much cop.

[Sydward Lartle]

Eve Ferret is one of the least sexy names an actress could possibly choose for herself, isn't it? Jesus Christ. Eve Ferret. Even saying that makes me feel badly.