Little - Remenbered Comedy Shows

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Ooh, lummee, I hope my typo isnae prescient, and we're all reading her obituary tomorrow.

What a great new page.

[Gurke and Hare]

David Jason was in a few ITV sitcoms in the late 70s/early 80s just pre-OFAH, but he's apparently blocked them all from being released on DVD the miserable bugger.

[Jockice]

Andy Serkis was one of them!

Their stab at a follow up hit (one which was less likely to cause the then stuttering little Greggles to be bullied at school), 'This Is The Chorus', was a genuinely good Stock, Aitken & Waterman parody.
Obviously it died on its arse.

Another of them was a former  member of Meatwhistle, a 70s Sheffield youth club/project that also spawned the likes of The Human League, Heaven 17, Clock DVA etc. And that Ian Reddington bloke who has been in EastEnders and Coronation Street. And another was Tony Hawks. And still is to this day.

[Jockice]

When I was young my parents used to enjoy a David Jason vehicle called A Sharp Intake of Breath. I've never seen it and it doesn't seem to have garnered many repeats.

It was shown on Gold or another channel of that ilk not long ago. I recorded an episode just to see what it was like (I could vaguely remember quite liking it as a kid) but haven't watched it yet.

[Icehaven]

Packet of Three (later, Packing Them In), some early 90s thing that had Frank Skinner, Jenny Eclair, and Kevin Eldon.

It wasn't Kevin Eldon, as already discussed a few pages back it was Henry Normal. Dunno if Eldon ever appeared as a guest in one episode maybe.

[Jockice]

written by Peter Tinniswoood.

Who used to work at the same newspaper I did. A long time before me. He came back to be filmed for a documentary while I was there and strolled around the office smoking a pipe and acting like he owned the place. Which he probably could afford to buy nowadays if he was still alive.

[Blumf]

It wasn't Kevin Eldon, as already discussed a few pages back it was Henry Normal. Dunno if Eldon ever appeared as a guest in one episode maybe.

It was in the second, retitled series, Packing Them In:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315697/

[Ignatius_S]

It was shown on Gold or another channel of that ilk not long ago. I recorded an episode just to see what it was like (I could vaguely remember quite liking it as a kid) but haven't watched it yet.

It's been repeated a few times in the last few years on GOLD, as have another Jason sitcom, Lucky Feller.

[Spoon of Ploff]

I think I remember that one. I'm sure they made an advert for a product called 'Barbi-mate' which involved a bloke saying 'Barbecue with barbi-mate, followed by a small group of singers repeating it as a jingle, much to his chagrin.'

The only other thing I remember about Watch This Space is an advert for beds that featured a couple spending a night in one, but with the film sped up. Had the young me laughing like a drain.. also, the couple were upset because they got dubbed over to sound like working class northerners.

[Gulftastic]

The only other thing I remember about Watch This Space is an advert for beds that featured a couple spending a night in one, but with the film sped up. Had the young me laughing like a drain.. also, the couple were upset because they got dubbed over to sound like working class northerners.

YES! I remember that too now. It was bad dubbing too, IITC.

[Artie Fufkin]

Has anyone mentioned Mel Smith's 'Colin's Sandwich'?
I thought it lasted just the one series, but apparently 2 series of six episodes each.
I'm convinced I loved it at the time.
He was an office(?) worker trying to make it as an author?
There was an episode on a train.

[Artie Fufkin]

Ah. He worked for British Rail, apparently.
No wonder there was an episode on a train.

[paruses]

It wasn't Kevin Eldon, as already discussed a few pages back it was Henry Normal. Dunno if Eldon ever appeared as a guest in one episode maybe.

Kevin Eldon was also in an episode of Blue Heaven playing a one-off ...  I don't remember (and I only saw it a couple of months ago). He played whatever it was very well though. I think he may have had a big fake moustache.

I know he's been in loads of things and is one reason why he is known by Lee and Herring as "the actor Kevin Eldon" but I remember seeing him playing an loutish new boyfriend in a post-Game for a Laugh Game for a Laugh thing. Must have been the mid-late 90s when that sort of edgy thing slipped into the mainstream. I only mention it because a bit like seeing somewhere you know on the news I get really excited at unexpected Kevin Eldon spots.

[Blumf]

The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand de Bargos - Old clips overdubbed with silliness. Remember one plot line had aliens invading from the planet Skcollob.

Surprised to see Paul Merton wasn't involved because he did a book along similar lines a little later.

[paruses]

Clarence - Ronnie Barker one-series job with the woman I now know to be Josephine Tewson. He was a short-sighted removal man who found love with Tewson's character. I do remember it being very funny no doubt because of the mishaps that you can just imagine would happen! Mad.

Lasted one series. Turns out it was his last one before retirement (and may even have been billed as such but I could be retrofitting that information).

[Ignatius_S]

Has anyone mentioned Mel Smith's 'Colin's Sandwich'?
I thought it lasted just the one series, but apparently 2 series of six episodes each.
I'm convinced I loved it at the time.
He was an office(?) worker trying to make it as an author?
There was an episode on a train.

It's a show that I thought really deserved to have been repeated more - and should have gone longer. When discussed here, the consensus is that it's a good 'un. Came out a few years ago on DVD but to my shame, I still haven't picked it up to my shame.

You're right about Colin wanting to be an author - as the show moves, he begins to have success as a writer, which I found to work well.

[Ignatius_S]

Roy Raiders - one series where James Grout runs a motorcycle courier company. Edward Tudor-Pole plays one of the couriers, but think he had a bicycle, rather than a motorcycle. Good cast overall.

Tygo Road - Kevin McNally runs a community centre - decent cast, which included Bill Bailey.

'Morris Minor's Marvellous Motors', because what viewers were hollering for in 1989 was a sitcom featuring those jeb ends that had a top 40 hit with an unfunny Beastie Boys parody two years ago. It was those three tits but they were car mechanics now and that's all I can give you. I remember the theme song went 'Morris Minor, gets you from A to B, nothing finer....' then I think my mum switched channels.

From what I remember, the three were also a band as well as mechanics. The only other thing I can remember about the set-up is that the villain of the piece was (possibly) a rival garage owner, whose daughter goes to work at Morris Minor's Marvellous Motors.

Have a strong feeling that the sets were very minimalist (possibly some of the action was just against a white background) and/or something deliberately false, like something more unusually seen in a stage play. Performances had the nuance of those in a pantomime and the show certainly wasn't going to gritty realism - all very OTT.

Have a feeling that I rather liked it, partly because it was such a bizarre show to have on early Saturday evening - from what I recall, felt like it was aimed quite a young demographic, but not sure how well it suited after-school afternoon slot.

David Jason was in a few ITV sitcoms in the late 70s/early 80s just pre-OFAH, but he's apparently blocked them all from being released on DVD the miserable bugger.

Jason starred in three in the 1970s - Lucky Feller, A Sharp Intake of Breath and The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs - but they've been available on DVD for a few years now.

Although there are stories about actors blocking repeats or home media releases, my understanding that's relatively rare as they don't normally have the veto. The claim that Jason blocked repeats of The Top Secret Life of Edgar Briggs has some currency but it's questionable the appetite ITV had to do so as it's not a very strong show (to be diplomatic) and would have been expensive to do so.

Father Charlie? Lionel Jeffries as a worldly, wily monk stationed at a nunnery with a very starchy humourless Mother Superior - Anna Quayle - who obviously disapproved of him and thought him a bad influence on the other nuns. Circa 1982. Not sure anyone else remembers that one.

Union Castle, with Stratford Johns, Moray Watson and Wanda Ventham, Johns playing a trade union rep who'd come into money and lived in a castle somewhere. Also about 1982...

I was going to mention Father Charlie - have very hazy memories of it and often mix it up with the Arthur Lowe show, Bless Me, Father.

Not sure if I had heard of Union Castle before... interesting cast!

After Henry is the Prunella Scales sitcom that springs to. Mind for some reason despite the fact I can literally only remember her standing in a book shop. The others in my mental image date it to long before Men Behaving Badly though. I think at the time I only knew her from Fawlty Towers so obvs was disappointed and confused. (and not very old)...

It started off as a Radio 4 series (and still gets repeated, I think) - Victor Lewis-Smith laid into it on Loose Ends. Long time since I listened or watched either version, but have a feeling I liked the radio series but the TV version was so-so.

Simon Brett wrote it and also another Scales radio sitcom, Smelling of Roses - the title was a clever bit of wordplay as the main character was called Rosie.

[paruses]

[Afte Henry] started off as a Radio 4 series (and still gets repeated, I think) - Victor Lewis-Smith laid into it on Loose Ends. Long time since I listened or watched either version, but have a feeling I liked the radio series but the TV version was so-so.

Simon Brett wrote it and also another Scales radio sitcom, Smelling of Roses - the title was a clever bit of wordplay as the main character was called Rosie.

Am not surprised as even that snapshot memory marks it out as being a Radio 4 sort of thing. And weirdly I knew Simon Brett wrote it not you've mentioned it. He must have had his name as a massive opening credit. Looking at the run dates I must remember it from 1988 or so.

I am finding bits of this thread very Proustian (and I hate people who say that).

[monkfromhavana]

Has anyone mentioned Babes In The Wood yet?

[Gurke and Hare]

It started off as a Radio 4 series (and still gets repeated, I think) - Victor Lewis-Smith laid into it on Loose Ends. Long time since I listened or watched either version, but have a feeling I liked the radio series but the TV version was so-so.

It's in the middle of a repeat run right now - 8.30 this morning on 4 Extra and presumably a few times more through the day. It's quite weak but, y'know, Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson so it can't be all bad.

[Glebe]

Clarence - Ronnie Barker one-series job with the woman I now know to be Josephine Tewson. He was a short-sighted removal man who found love with Tewson's character. I do remember it being very funny no doubt because of the mishaps that you can just imagine would happen! Mad.

Lasted one series. Turns out it was his last one before retirement (and may even have been billed as such but I could be retrofitting that information).

I remember him doing an 'a salt and battery' gag in that.

[Hand Solo]

Has anyone mentioned Babes In The Wood yet?

No. Sounds hilarious?

[mippy]

How about Shane, early 2000's familycom written by/starring Frank Skinner(he also sang da feem toon). Had a dream sequence where his cock turns into a puppet crocodile which proceeds to ravage a saucy young American girl in the bath which probably look a bit dodgy now.

The other notable thing about it is a second series was commissioned and made, then there was a contractual dispute between Skinner and ITV and the whole thing got shelved indefinitely. To this day these episodes never been shown or released in any form. Imagine what we missed out on there.

(Actually I've just seen on youtube someone commented the second series was eventually shown on Paramount Comedy rather than ITV, so it's not even notable for that.)

I was visiting a friend in London in 2005 and he got us tickets to see it being recorded - I think because it seemed like a fun thing to do with someone from out of town. It was not very good but I liked seeing Actual David Schneider.

Not many people my age seem to remember Watching, was it actually as big a show as I thought it was or was I just a weird child fan? I even got my mum to tape the credits so that I could work out what the song lyrics were.

There were a few ITV sitcoms I remember from round the same time but don't seem to have much of an online presence - Land Of Hope And Gloria, Conjugal Rites, one set in a hospital which I can't even Google because Google thinks I mean Only When I Laugh.

[mippy]

Oh, and Coasting - set in Blackpool, catchy theme tune.

[Famous Mortimer]

one set in a hospital which I can't even Google because Google thinks I mean Only When I Laugh.

Trying to figure out a way to search for this, I found "The Singles Bar", written by Eric "Only When I Laugh" Chappell, and starring Roger Rees before he went to be on "Cheers". Never heard of it.

Are you thinking of "Surgical Spirit" by any chance?

[Norton Canes]

I found the DVD of Channel 5's 2006 brothel-based sitcom starring Justin Edwards and Jodi Albert Respectable on a shelf upstairs. I'd completely forgotten about it, but it must have been really funny for me to buy the DVD.

[Famous Mortimer]

I found the DVD of Channel 5's 2006 brothel-based sitcom starring Justin Edwards and Jodi Albert Respectable on a shelf upstairs. I'd completely forgotten about it, but it must have been really funny for me to buy the DVD.

It definitely wasn't. I only watched more than 5 seconds of it because Albert and co-star Cordelia Bugeja looked very nice in their skimpies, but it was really bad.

[kalowski]

Has anyone mentioned Mel Smith's 'Colin's Sandwich'?
I thought it lasted just the one series, but apparently 2 series of six episodes each.
I'm convinced I loved it at the time.
He was an office(?) worker trying to make it as an author?
There was an episode on a train.

I remember really enjoying this. I think I watched a bit if one not long after he died and it still held up.

[kalowski]

I remember him doing an 'a salt and battery' gag in that.

I remember him saying women have cleaner minds than men, mainly because they change them more often.

[Icehaven]

Is Brush Strokes little remembered or just best forgotten?