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A Bit of Fry and Laurie: Series 4

Started by fucking livid, February 27, 2004, 04:17:13 PM

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fucking livid

Dear all,

I was wondering if anybody out there might be able to help me with a rather specific query regarding A Bit of Fry and Laurie...

As you may be aware there were a total of seven episodes in the (criminally under-rated) fourth series.

Unfortunately, I only seem to have six episodes on the tapes I recorded at the time. From the information given below can anyone out there confirm which episode I am missing?

Furthermore, if said individual is in possession of the "missing episode", I would be more than happy to arrange some sort of reciprocal arrangement which would result in both parties "getting what they wanted", so to speak...

I have listed below the first couple of sketches in each episode, along with the names of the guests for-to-the-better-to-aid-with-identification with ;-)

Muchos Gracias in advance...

Episode 1 - (Guests: John Bird & Jane Booker)
"Pretension" opening credits
'Grey and hopeless'
'I am bloody furious! I've killed your parents...'

Episode 2 - (Guests: Kevin McNally & Fiona Gillies)
Aristocrat reminiscing about 'Hamper' the dog...
"Pretension" opening credits
Anne Charlston (Madge from Neighbours) opening 2nd episode
Vox Pops: Can't find a flush, lowering the age of Home Secretaries

Episode ? - (Guests: Clive Mantle & Imelda Staunton)
Filming more of those repeats...
"Pretension" opening credits
Multingual introduction: 'Lars pebble-fingerhat'

Episode ? - (Guests: Caroline Quentin & Patrick Barlow)
Walking and talking to camera through Television Centre...
"Pretension" opening credits
Top Gear deconstruction (lifeless body of Kenneth Baker)

Episode ? - (Guests: Stephen Moore & Phyllida Law)
Oprah Winfrey (I think we'd better take a vomit break...)
"Pretension" opening credits
Ungrateful Formula One driver (We had a lot of problems with the car...)

Episode ? - (Guests: ??? & ???)
???
???
???

Episode 7 - "Virtually guest-free environment"
Chess voiceover
"Pretension" opening credits
'Counting out money that I've stolen during the course of today'

Darrell

Hello! It's sirkobble here.

Yeah, I thought one was missing, but wasn't sure. Which series 4 ep is it that has all the big fuckoff dropouts on your tape?

If the missing/buggered eps could be identified, I could try and chase them for you, along with the stuff I promised about a million years ago.

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

Is it under-rated? I remember thinking it was *terrible* at the time - all  half-written and heavy-handed. Like they'd really lost it. I'd love to see it again to see if I was right.

I thought they were scraping barrels a bit in Series 3 too, although that had many good bits.

tony peanuts

Well according to the list of guests in the script book, this episode should have Robert Dawes and Jane Duvitski in it.  Unfortunately it's the only 4th series episode I haven't seen, or taped off of Paramount, myself.

Darrell

Quote from: "Emergency Lalla Ward Ten"Is it under-rated? I remember thinking it was *terrible* at the time - all  half-written and heavy-handed. Like they'd really lost it. I'd love to see it again to see if I was right.

I thought they were scraping barrels a bit in Series 3 too, although that had many good bits.

I thought series 3 was the best of the bunch when I watched through them all recently, though series 4 did seem a little thin at times. Still great stuff in all of them, and series 4 does have lots going for it - great songs for one (and you can see Brint and Rivron in the band).

tony peanuts

Quote from: "Emergency Lalla Ward Ten"Is it under-rated? I remember thinking it was *terrible* at the time - all  half-written and heavy-handed. Like they'd really lost it. I'd love to see it again to see if I was right.

I thought they were scraping barrels a bit in Series 3 too, although that had many good bits.

Not as good as the previous series perhaps, but in no way *terrible*.  Both Fry and Laurie were in mid-depressive phase at the time, and in retrospect it shows in their work.  It was first broadcast at the same time as Stephen's much publicised breakdown and flight to Belgium, which put a bit of a downer on the whole thing.
But the series was still very very funny and remains one of my most favouriteist things ever.  
And the introductions for the guests were brilliant.  Was it Clive Mantle who was described as "...the Jilly Cooper of anal love..."?

Jemble Fred

Robert Dawes and Janine Duvitski were in the final episode, it's crucial that you have it as it's the last ABOF&L EVER. It ends in typically depressed manner, with Stephen crying and screaming about the ruination of Britain as Hugh takes down the Union Jack and Robert Dawes plays a surprisingly excellent trumpet solo for the final cocktail tune.

The fourth series is decidedly the worst, but still amazing comedy. The third series was as high in quality as any single thing ever created by any other person or collection of persons in the history of Man.

alan strang

Quote from: "tony peanuts"Not as good as the previous series perhaps, but in no way *terrible*.  Both Fry and Laurie were in mid-depressive phase at the time, and in retrospect it shows in their work.  It was first broadcast at the same time as Stephen's much publicised breakdown and flight to Belgium, which put a bit of a downer on the whole thing.

The series started before all the Belgium business though - in fact the (deservedly) bad reviews probably contributed to it. Emergency Lalla Ward and myself watched the first show together, really looking forward to it, being such huge fans.

At the end I remember turning the sound down on the TV and us just sitting there rather dispondantly, shaking our heads, unable to work out what had happened. Our dismay was then echoed by Lee & Herring's Radio 1 show which took a crafty swipe at it - Stewart Lee hyperbolically describing it as "The worst comedy show I've ever seen in my life!"; Herring pretending to be a bit more sympathetic: "Oh, come on, Stew - what about that fantastic Rupert Murdoch sketch!"

The rot had started to set in a few months previously though - when Fry & Laurie had introduced an appalling attempt at a 'Christmas Night With The Stars' evening (with appearences by The Fast Show and others). That's when all the misjudged faux-cheesy "M'partner..." stuff was premiered. It was painful TV.

We considered writing Fry a letter, asking what had gone wrong, and whether he realised the series had taken a frantic dip. We were genuinely baffled. I think it may have been only a couple of days later when all the news reports appeared that he'd gone AWOL. We both breathed sighs of relief that we never got round to writing the letter obviously.

The news reports tried to put a slant on it - showing a sketch from the series about a mid-life crisis, suggesting that, in retrospect, 'all the signs were there' (they'd already pretty much written him off as having commited suicide).

I haven't seen the series since it went out. Maybe, with such a lowering of general comedy expectations these days, it now looks like a lost gem. But I can tell you it looked bloody rotten at the time - i.e. in the context of a much healthier comedy scene and in comparison with their previous TV work which had been near-faultless.

Jemble Fred

Interesting stuff - you only need to buy the script book to see that there are some classics in Series 4 - The New Heart sketch and Lawyers/Shagging for instance, I performed on stage in my youth, before I got material of my own. As I say, there's a definite dip in quality compared to the heights of series two and three, but you don't need to watch the shit that's on these days to see the quality in every episode.

But then I also highly prize my copy of Christmas Night With The Stars - badly directed it may be, but it was such a CUNT that Stephen and Hugh had to shoulder the vitriolic feedback. Damn sight better than Michael Parkinson presenting it anyway. Vic, Bob, Whitehouse & Higson, Partridge, Alexei Sayle... fucking hell, what a show. I love it all the more for the fact that Fry and his colleague made their intros twice as dirty as ABOF&L, and the audience seemed to be mainly miserable old cunts expecting Dana or something.

As it goes, I'm paraplegic with rage every time I see series 4 that F&L have done nothing since. If the Two Ronnies can return, why aren't we seeing the odd, for instance, Easter special of ABOF&L, using the two guests format in an hour-long show??? I'm not a huge fan of the chat show aspect for a series, but it would work superbly in one big special. Think of the guests they could have – Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon, Geena Davis... they could get almost anyone.

Emergency Lalla Ward Ten

I only recall one great exchange from Series 4:

WOMAN: He was very active in the community.
FRY: Well that doesn't mean anything does it? *Burglars* are quite active in the community...

Fry disappeared to Belgium the Thursday after the first episode, as I recall. Although apparently the recordings took place nearly a year beforehand, according to an old penpal at the time.

I think the pilot and Series 1+2 are thirteen absolute masterpieces. Really tightly-written, angry shows, full of lines you could die for. Series 3 went slightly cute and mainstream to my mind, and seemed to be playing up to the studio audience more - lots of sketches where Fry says 'What in the name of arse' for a cheap laugh a bit too often. About one great sketch per show, lots of lovely moments, but lots of flabbiness generally - not as ruthlessly script-edited as in the past. And Series 4 just seemed really weak, and depressingly so because it would have had such a big audience having transferred to BBC1. I'd been similarly disappointed by Absolutely's fourth series, but this was worse.

I haven't seen it for nine years though. I'll give it another go.