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After Lights Out

Started by Jemble Fred, February 06, 2004, 01:34:14 PM

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Jemble Fred

Fucked up by putting this in the wrong thread t'other day. I was just getting to a point as well. Anyway...

I was unemployed enough the other day to find myself in a charity shop. Faced with the opportunity of buying an old Smith & Jones video for £1.50, I thought, 'Hey, wow, like just go for it'.

It turned out to be mainly comprised of episodes I had on tape, but it brought back to mind just how sodding superb the Chris Langham After Dark sketches were. For those with no TV sets in the early nineties, Langham played a strange man-boy who presented an After Dark Show, with a pretensious toff, (Griff) a chauvenistic slob, (Mel) and a radical lesbian feminist (Brenda Blethyn, at first) but i have no idea who wrote it. Probably Mel, Griff and Peter Fincham, as he has a major writing credit for the series. They really should be available somewhere online, they're that good.

It's shocking that Smith & Jones haven't featured on here more really, considering they're two of the most important people to Morris' career, forming Talkback with Fincham, and also working so much with Peter Cook - Mel was one of his real best mates. Does anyone remeber 'A Dose of Smith & Jones', five or sic one-act plays by the likes of Graeme Garden and John Mortimer? Well worth getting hold of. A lot of their sketch stuff seems a bit banal now, but it's well worth another look. At least for £1.50.


TOCMFIC went:
Quote
On a totally pointless note: I've met Chris Langham. He's a really nice bloke. Or was, 12 years ago when I met him. He may be a twat now.


Are you Kermit the Frog?

Darrell

Yes, I got the two videos for Christmas, and those After Lights Out discussions are terrific, though the first one on the tape's the best by far.

If you can, try to get the 'Alas' video. It's a bit rarer than the one you mention, but well worth getting hold of. It's full of brilliant stuff, including The Wino Programme, that fantastic police press conference sketch, and the clueless hi-fi salesmen (almost a reversal of the NTNOCN one!).

I love Smith and Jones, but my only problem is that the shows are stylistically all over the place, which can make for uneven viewing. Probably due to all the rentahacks that started arriving after the first couple of years of Alas. Also, as the nineties progressed and TV became a bit more liberated, the last few series of S&J just started using excessive swearing and nudity instead of actual jokes, diluting the whole shebang a bit.

Purple Tentacle

Two Smith and Jones sketches stick in my mind, the first being when Mel is stuck in a lift with a borderline psychotic Griff demanding that he sings him songs, and the second where Mel plays an architect building a mauseleum (sp) for Griff's Pharoah.

"Sic transit gloria mundi!"

"What does that mean?"

"My girlfriend Gloria threw up over my van at the beginning of the week."



The punchline of the sketch was great as well, the incredibly complex model is whittled down bit by bit to just a pointy roof.... or a pyramid.

Sounds dead unfunny here, but it's hilarious in my head.

benthalo

QuoteDoes anyone remeber 'A Dose of Smith & Jones', five or sic one-act plays by the likes of Graeme Garden and John Mortimer?

Smith & Jones... In Small Doses. A fine show.

I'd love to see a full release of the S&J series. I've not seen many of them since UK Gold ran repeats, and I don't think Alas Sage & Onion has ever been repeated. It went out on the night of Lockerbie, so I've no idea how well it fared with viewers.

Jemble Fred

Quote from: "benthalo"
QuoteDoes anyone remeber 'A Dose of Smith & Jones', five or sic one-act plays by the likes of Graeme Garden and John Mortimer?

Smith & Jones... In Small Doses. A fine show.

I'd love to see a full release of the S&J series. I've not seen many of them since UK Gold ran repeats, and I don't think Alas Sage & Onion has ever been repeated. It went out on the night of Lockerbie, so I've no idea how well it fared with viewers.

Yes, damn my brain. I have them all on tape, but couldn't remember the title. Always wanted to perform the Garden one. 'The Whole Hog' when I had thesp leanings. It's a great short about a man meeting his ex-wife again after she's had a sex change. The others were, I think, 'Second Thoughts', a Anthony Minghella one where the reincarnation of Samuel Johnson tries to stop the reincarnation of Boswell from throwing himself off a bridge, John Mortimer's 'The Waiting Room' - two vicars awaiting final judgement, and the one Griff wrote, 'The Boat People', a really sad number with them both trapped on Mel's shitty little yacht.

It's hard to recall S&J sketches even a week after watching them - the Intershitty spoof ad was very well done.

QuoteMel is stuck in a lift with a borderline psychotic Griff demanding that he sings him songs...

Superb disturbing stuff.. nobody would bat an eyelid if it was Kevin Eldon & Mark Heap doing it.