O.T.T.

[Satchmo Distel]

I read the second volume of Alexei Sayle's memoirs this week and was struck by his discussion of O.T.T. He seems to blame everybody else except himself and Lenny Henry for it being shit, but I can't help wondering why they didn't just walk after the first couple of shows, which were diabolical. Sayle seems to have some blame for the 'Katanga' catchphrase although both he and Henry were just shockingly naive rather than racist in intent (a bit like the Johnny Speight/Warren Mitchell ambivalence with Alf Garnett).

I welcome your thoughts.

[Ignatius_S]

...I can't help wondering why they didn't just walk after the first couple of shows, which were diabolical...

Money, reputation and the show possibly getting better?

In the unlikely event that their contracts said they could sod off whenever they felt like it, doing just that would establish a reputation of being unreliable. Show business is a precarious industry enough to begin with, let alone if people can't trust you to turn up and do the gig that you agreed to.

I recently read the Harry H Corbett biography by his daughter, Susannah that had a few interesting points made by Lynda Barron. One was that as an actor, you ask yourself sometimes 'do I really want to be doing this?' and the answer is no, but you know you need to support your family. I suspect neither could afford the luxury of walking out on work - particularly, if this also meant future income could be jeopardised.

It's not unusual for shows to have a rocky start - sometimes they get better, sometimes they don't. Quite a while ago, someone started a thread about Freddie Starr's Madhouse, a series that had issues and reportedly, the star was unhappy with and bailed - the show was then retooled, Russ Abbot promoted to star and was a big ITV show for a few years. Starr's reputation would have suffered (which I think had also been affected on an earlier show) - and IIRC, someone posted some interesting information about someone on the show saying that Starr had flashes of brilliance on the series, but lacked the temperament necessary to work in the environment.

Given what Henry had/has to have put up with in his career this series must have been a welcome relief in many ways.

Also, hindsight is a wonderful thing - at the time, they may have thought there were teething issues, but nothing that can't be sorted.

...Sayle seems to have some blame for the 'Katanga' catchphrase although both he and Henry were just shockingly naive rather than racist in intent (a bit like the Johnny Speight/Warren Mitchell ambivalence with Alf Garnett)...

What did you have in mind about Speight and Mitchell? I can't say that I've ever been struck that they had ambivalence over Garnett.

[Autopsy Turvey]

What did you have in mind about Speight and Mitchell? I can't say that I've ever been struck that they had ambivalence over Garnett.

I guess this means the way that Alf was depicted as a ranting bigot but not a total monster, with scope for audience sympathy. You could easily feel sorry for this sad old twat, constantly disrespected and derided by his own family, trapped in a world he no longer understands, the only breadwinner in a house with a lazy dopey wife, a highly-strung daughter and a bolshy workshy son-in-law who was just as bigoted as Alf in his own way. So there were no real voices of reason in the show, unlike Love Thy Neighbour where the wives were perfectly normal and friendly, unlike even Curry & Chips where Eric Sykes was the hapless mediator.

Or is it just, even more simplistically, that if you put these racist swear words into the mouths of people we're encouraged to laugh at, some people will use them thinking they're funny? Is that what Alexei was saying happened with 'Katanga'? I can't find anything from Lenny discussing 'Katanga' as a racist trope, though I did find this gracious quote, from Time Out in 2013:

'People come up to me and go "Katanga, my friend!' or "Oooookay!",' he snarls, referencing two of his old catchphrases. 'Fuck that. I want to do "The Sopranos" or some shit like that.'

[Satchmo Distel]

It just seems to have been naive to believe that you could do nuanced comedy about race before the mid-80s without the audience identifying with the racist aspects of the character. By ambivalence I mean that Speight and Mitchell were meeting people who would say, "Good on yer, Alf, sticking it to the P*k*s" but still coming back to write more series, and the last one they made (with Arthur English as just a racist echo chamber) had no white counterbalancing character AFAIK.

Sayle says his wife thinks he may have unconsciously sabotaged Lenny Henry by giving him the 'Katanga' phrase, whilst Henry always points out that the phrase came from Sayle. I just think that a black comedian unintentionally doing Jim Davidson-lite phrases bears some responsibility for Jim Davidson fans latching on to that aspect of the character.

[Autopsy Turvey]

It just seems to have been naive to believe that you could do nuanced comedy about race before the mid-80s without the audience

- or a small section of the audience -

identifying with the racist aspects of the character.

But Alf was the butt of all the jokes! In one episode the lights go out and they phone an electrician. Alf's ranting away about 'c**ns' when the electrician turns up, he is black, he gets the lights working and says "Black magic", which gets a disproportionately delighted reaction from the studio audience. It is clear who they are rooting for, who has the power and status and who is the lowly fool.

By ambivalence I mean that Speight and Mitchell were meeting people who would say, "Good on yer, Alf, sticking it to the P*k*s" but still coming back to write more series

I've heard one anecdote from Mitchell about one person reacting this way, but presumably the more common reaction, which spurred them to write more series, was "Good on you for sticking it to the bigots" or simply just "I know someone just like Alf, isn't he awful". As I remember it Alf's bigotry became more and more palpably absurd as the show went on, and Arthur English's character was practically brain dead.

Sayle says his wife thinks he may have unconsciously sabotaged Lenny Henry by giving him the 'Katanga' phrase,

It was a popular catchphrase for years, that's hardly sabotage! Was he ever actually reprimanded for it?

I just think that a black comedian unintentionally doing Jim Davidson-lite phrases bears some responsibility for Jim Davidson fans latching on to that aspect of the character.

Assuming that's what happened, and that 'Katanga my friends' is a 'Jim Davidson-lite' phrase, did it result in any malice, hatred or disrespect? I mean, from a hard-line standpoint, all of Lenny's 80s characters were takes on racist stereotypes, so it seems odd to pick on one bizarre catchphrase in honour of a 1960s Congolese breakaway state.