Dumber and Dumber - Tommy Vance (Channel 5)

[The Boston Crab]

The C5 thread made me remember this show, looked it up and literally crying with laughter in the bath.


It's basically You've Been Framed but with a lot less humanity. It's Crash Bang Wallop! What A Video! for real, but funny. Tommy Vance is absolutely sensational.


https://youtu.be/dCtf47KD4BY

Please skip to 6:32 for my personal highlight of the woman driving in a flood.

Anyone remember this or ever watched it?

[DrGreggles]

My GOD, yes!
How had I forgotten about this?

There's a VHS somewhere* full of episodes of D&D.
Always thought Vance got the gig after being so great in Brass Eye.


*in my Dad's loft

[the]

My memory of this is that it was a cunty programme, because it would sometimes joke that even the blameless people involved in the accidents/incidents were 'obviously fucking idiots'. You know, like cunts on the internet do.

[Bazooka]

I had forgotten about it, but always tuned in, sadly ya utubes have made this and Dumbest Criminal shows obsolete. Vance was born for the role.

[BlodwynPig]

The C5 thread made me remember this show, looked it up and literally crying with laughter in the bath.


It's basically You've Been Framed but with a lot less humanity. It's Crash Bang Wallop! What A Video! for real, but funny. Tommy Vance is absolutely sensational.


https://youtu.be/dCtf47KD4BY

Please skip to 6:32 for my personal highlight of the woman driving in a flood.

Anyone remember this or ever watched it?

Garry Bailey
Furious Fireman

[Captain Z]

Wow, I do now remember this too. I enjoyed it, and generally liked Tommy Vance, but also thought the commentary was a little harsh and over-the-top at times.

It has also reminded me of another (Ch5?) show that used to set up petty criminals, what was that called? There was one setup with an unguarded lorry full of goods that locked the thieves inside, dropped its canvas sides to turn into a 'mobile prison' and paraded them around the streets.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Can we make this a generic 'knockoff shows on shit channels that were much better than the originals?' thread?

On Bravo and it's freeview sister channel FTN they showed a low-budget Scottish version of Jackass called 'World Famous for Dicking Around'. It was much better than Jackass and Dirty Sanchez.

https://youtu.be/CIWesJrgRvQ?t=643

[The Boston Crab]

My memory of this is that it was a cunty programme, because it would sometimes joke that even the blameless people involved in the accidents/incidents were 'obviously fucking idiots'. You know, like cunts on the internet do.

Absolutely, but calling that woman a 'one-eyed screaming flood witch' deviated my moral centre. I laughed a lot.

[gilbertharding]

https://youtu.be/dCtf47KD4BY

Please skip to 6:32 for my personal highlight of the woman driving in a flood.

See - I think that person is making a pretty textbook job of driving through that flood (until it suddenly gets too deep, obviously). I know TV is reading a script...

I don't remember the show. Where I lived was always in a Channel 5 black-spot, I never saw it until we got digital tv.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Am I right in thinking that Big Breakfast newsreading totty Jasmine Lowson used to co-present this? I'm half remembering a link with her and Vance in a sauna, specifically so they could get her in a towel.

[lgpmachine]

It has also reminded me of another (Ch5?) show that used to set up petty criminals, what was that called? There was one setup with an unguarded lorry full of goods that locked the thieves inside, dropped its canvas sides to turn into a 'mobile prison' and paraded them around the streets.

That was Swag, a show devised by Guy Ritchie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swag_(TV_series)?wprov=sfti1

The only other recurring setup on there that I remember was a wallet/mobile phone left on the floor in the middle of a shopping centre with some medieval minstrel themed buskers playing nearby.  When someone pocketed the item the minstrels would give chase, singing loudly about the crime for other shoppers to hear.  Top TV.

[Bazooka]

Because of entrapment laws they couldn't actually arrest the caged blokes in the lorry.

[a duncandisorderly]

tommy was a lovely bloke but he would read anything for you if there were some tenners stapled to the script.
I remain convinced that he was in on the 'brass eye' thing, because he had a quirky sense of humour himself, & because he told us (but of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?)

he 'hosted' a friday night rock-show on VH-1; the reality of this & other Mtv/VH-1 presenter-led shows was that the presenter recorded their 'links', mostly scripted, all in one go in the studio, then a tape of the individual links would be played out from tx while a transmission operator actually played the videos, mixing them (audio & video) to make the whole show fit in its allotted time-slot.
mixing between the various videos in an elegant way was a bit of an art, & made the channels what they once were.
tommy would watch the show at home most weeks, & often phoned the suite to talk to the ops, usually to compliment them on the mixing.

[DrGreggles]

I remain convinced that he was in on the 'brass eye' thing, because he had a quirky sense of humour himself, & because he told us (but of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?)

I think he was in on it too. Either that or he just didn't care.
He certainly wasn't 'taken in' anyway.

[sponk]

Absolutely, but calling that woman a 'one-eyed screaming flood witch' deviated my moral centre. I laughed a lot.

I loved the bit where the wipers come on and Vance says "it's the only thing she understands...yeah that should help love", I have a soft spot for that deliciously un-PC comedic device of merging lame, crass dad jokes with footage of a shocking and dangerous situation. It worked so well in Assassination of the Week on TV Offal too.

[sponk]

tommy was a lovely bloke but he would read anything for you if there were some tenners stapled to the script.
I remain convinced that he was in on the 'brass eye' thing, because he had a quirky sense of humour himself, & because he told us (but of course, he would say that, wouldn't he?)

When did he say that?

[a duncandisorderly]

When did he say that?

well, I'd likely have seen him not long after it aired- he was in the office most days, even if he wasn't due in. he used to sit in the office of VH-1's head music programmer, & I'd go in if I saw them.
this guy (the music programmer) had his business cards made of enamel-painted steel, & a short run of VH-1 tshirts with rolled-up twenty-pound-notes on the front. ahem...

[a duncandisorderly]

When did he say that?

oh.








ich nichten lichten.

[kngen]

tommy would watch the show at home most weeks, & often phoned the suite to talk to the ops, usually to compliment them on the mixing.

That has warmed me to him immensely. It's always nice to find out when a 'name' actually has time for the folk behind the scenes that make them look good, instead of - like so, so many - being a precious arshole about it all. Clive James was similarly generous in his praise when I worked on some of his stuff, which puts him close to sainthood in my book.