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Little & Large Xmas special 1980. Extraordinary.

Started by Brundle-Fly, December 22, 2012, 02:49:13 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Mark Steels Stockbroker

I've remembered the greatest L&L-related moment, which was actually on Baddiel&Skinner Unplanned:

Quote

MAN IN AUDIENCE: <Comment indecipherable due to him laughing at himself>

FRANK: Yeah, <laughing>

DAVID: What was that?

FRANK: Dunno, but it sounded like a joke, and that's always been good enough for Eddie Large...


Deader Kata Mosser

As Benny Hill has been mentioned a couple of times here recently I remember two different silly skecthes discussed at school around the mid 80s, one from Benny Hill, probably on his last legs creatively, and one from Little & Large, any creative legs they ever had being hard to fathom how they were strong enough to get the pair where they did, much like Hitler's bullshit about the impossibility of a bee flying. Anyway.

Sketch one - Benny Hill. A queue of customers wait impatiently outside a bank. Finally the bank manager turns up, and opens up  - using a key that had been hidden under the doormat outside the bank. Hahaha, this was considered silly but very funny.

Sketch two - Little & Large. An ice cream man (probably Sid, if they could trust him with such a tricky role) was selling ice cream and cheeky old Edddie gets a TRAFFIC CONE and fills that up with ice-cream. The consensus in the classroom was that this was the shittest joke ever that made no sense.

Did Benny Hill's sketch make much more sense? Maybe the joke was just better. There really isn't much of a joke in the Little & Large sketch, and the fact it even cost money to shoot, with a real ice cream van and a real traffic cone just underlined how worthless it was. You probably can't judge both series on those examples, they just sprang to mind, but I do recall Little & Large being a seminal 'how does this shit get on TV?' talking point for little DKM.

DrGreggles

I was dragged to a Little & Large gig by my parents when I was 6 or 7.
Even then I found them more annoying than funny.

Barrymore was supporting, and I recall finding him hilarious!
My Dad nearly chinned him though.

Quote from: DrGreggles on December 24, 2012, 07:20:09 AM
Barrymore was supporting, and I recall finding him hilarious!
My Dad nearly chinned him though.

There's obviously a story there so please tell it.

DrGreggles

Quote from: Default to the negative on December 24, 2012, 07:24:54 AM
There's obviously a story there so please tell it.

Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid.
It's just that Barrymore and my Dad have differing opinions on audience participation.

Gavin M

I do recall Eddie being affable and quick-witted when he was on the first series of Fantasy Football League back in 1994.  However I also recall an interview he gave the year before in (the much missed) 90 Minutes magazine where he bemoaned the Man City board for no longer letting him in the changing rooms to talk to the lads before a game, which says more about how football has changed than anything else, really.  He also said that the problems at the club weren't really the fault of its Chairman Peter Swales, so it was amusing to see him naming his FFL team Swales Out City (which he renamed Franny's In City, in hindsight the ultimate frying pan/towering inferno scenario).

kidsick5000

Quote from: DrGreggles on December 24, 2012, 10:42:01 AM
Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid.
It's just that Barrymore and my Dad have differing opinions on audience participation.

few words giving a perfect picture

SteveDave

I swear I saw a show in Blackpool in the early 90s with Little & Large, The Chuckle Brothers & Gerry & The Pacemakers. Though the latter might just've been Eddie Large with a guitar. I can't remember. I do remember sulking because my parents wouldn't buy me a Freddie Kruger knife glove thing.

SteveDave

Also seeing Eddie Large's managements website I notice that Stu Francis is on their books too.

http://www.jomartinmanagement.co.uk/details.php?name=Stu-Francis_Comedian

I wonder if he's got any copies of his single "Ooh I Could Crush A Grape" b/w "I Told A Fib" going spare?

Tiny Poster

Christ, that horrendous song about the kids characters having a "rude" party is lodged in my head. It's sub-Two Ronnies, if you can comprehend such a thing

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Was the bouncy toy town song a regular sketch at all? I have a distinct memory of the lyric "one of the toys made a very rude noise and we all fell down" but it wasn't in that routine. It's plagued my mind since primary school.

Quote from: Gavin M on December 22, 2012, 03:44:12 PM
Syd's still got it!  (By it meaning a promotional video for the Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy7826kkIk

"It's a shit business..."

Oops! Wrong Planet

Did Eddie really imitate Tina Turner on the show or was that just something the Mary Whitehouse Experience made up?
"Syd, I'm Tina Turner I am, I'll be your private dancer..."

SavageHedgehog

Quote from: Tiny Poster on December 24, 2012, 11:28:35 AM
Christ, that horrendous song about the kids characters having a "rude" party is lodged in my head. It's sub-Two Ronnies, if you can comprehend such a thing

It's the one about "old horror movies" that hasn't fully left my brain since. Was that even suppose to be funny, or was it just supposed to be nostaligic?

L and L's Country and Western sequence.  The video quality's somewhat dodgy at the start but settles eventually.  I'd almost forgotten that Eddie Large used to do Rab C Nesbitt as one of his impressions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfWD9OVxUkM

Rev

Quote from: Lfbarfe on December 22, 2012, 05:32:23 PM
Didn't he have a heart transplant? That's going to take it out of you a bit.

Yes - and I think I've mentioned it here before, but a couple of years back I had TalkSport on in the background during some dead hour of the night and he called in.  What began as a brief comment about something or other turned into a lengthy impromptu interview on the subject of what an absolute cunt Syd Little is.  They don't talk anymore, things having completely tipped over while Eddie was recovering from the operation.  'Oh yeah, he wanted to be my friend then, he was always on the phone, telling me to get out of bed and get on stage and make some money for him'.  It was thrilling and unexpected stuff.

QDRPHNC

Quote from: DrGreggles on December 24, 2012, 07:20:09 AM
I was dragged to a Little & Large gig by my parents when I was 6 or 7.

I saw them in the Isle of Man, probably around the same age as you. The only bit I remember was Eddie Large getting out an Orville puppet and when Orville said "I can't", Eddie said, "You can," and booted him up the rafters. Quality.

biggytitbo

Is it true that, in the mid 90s inspired by Seinfeld, channel 5 commissioned a British version starring Eddie called 'Large'?


I don't know what happened to it, it obviously never made it to the air, wonder if the pilot is knocking about anywhere?

mbedd

Quite like Benny Hill's black and white stuff, very underrated - Little and Large however is still quite baffling comedy wise- I have a lovely memory of doing a CD ROM thing for a college in St. Annes and having the fortune of seeing Sid Little decorating there. His kid went there apparently, which is why he was helping paint the place. Christ he was bitter about Large, big surprise at the time. Even more of  a surprise when they got back together for that shooting stars episode, because it sounded like Little wanted to eat Large's face off when I questioned him about stuff.

Oops! Wrong Planet

I remember someone on NOTBBC a few years back saying he was waiting at a Nottingham bus stop when Syd and Eddie walked past (they were doing a panto season there) and he overheard Eddie addressing Syd as "Supersonic" in what what was apparently a private conversation.
He might have been playing it up for onlookers, but perhaps there was some animosity there.

DrGreggles

Wasn't the Shooting Stars appearance from one of the early series - before Large's heart problem/retirement.

kaprisky

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on December 24, 2012, 01:12:44 PM
Was the bouncy toy town song a regular sketch at all? I have a distinct memory of the lyric "one of the toys made a very rude noise and we all fell down" but it wasn't in that routine. It's plagued my mind since primary school.

At the end of Jasper Carrott's Beat the Carrott LP he sings a song called 'Day Trip to Blackpool'. According to the notes on discogs it is a cover version of a song called Day Trip to Bangor, written by Debbie Cook - "and the rain came dowwwwnnnnn".

Quote from: Deader Kata Mosser on December 24, 2012, 01:36:28 AM
Did Benny Hill's sketch make much more sense? Maybe the joke was just better. There really isn't much of a joke in the Little & Large sketch, and the fact it even cost money to shoot, with a real ice cream van and a real traffic cone just underlined how worthless it was. You probably can't judge both series on those examples, they just sprang to mind, but I do recall Little & Large being a seminal 'how does this shit get on TV?' talking point for little DKM.

REALLY??????????

Do you mind me asking, how old were you at the time?

I just find it hard to believe that primary schoolchildren would be discussing the output of television at such a young age. Especially as I'm an absolutely brilliant comedy writer, yet didnt realise HIGNFY had writers til I was about 22.

Therefore, you should have a multi-album comedy deal by now. But I doubt you do.

Danger Man

Quote from: Ralph Cifaretto on December 24, 2012, 11:21:44 PM
yet didnt realise HIGNFY had writers til I was about 22.

Most people never realise....the lucky bastards.

Deader Kata Mosser

Quote from: kaprisky on December 24, 2012, 11:01:01 PM
At the end of Jasper Carrott's Beat the Carrott LP he sings a song called 'Day Trip to Blackpool'. According to the notes on discogs it is a cover version of a song called Day Trip to Bangor, written by Debbie Cook - "and the rain came dowwwwnnnnn".

Big hit for Fiddler's Dram in the 70s. Probably on YouTube. Bit like All Around My Hat by Steeler's Wheel.

Quote from: Ralph Cifaretto on December 24, 2012, 11:21:44 PM
REALLY??????????

Do you mind me asking, how old were you at the time?

I just find it hard to believe that primary schoolchildren would be discussing the output of television at such a young age. Especially as I'm an absolutely brilliant comedy writer, yet didnt realise HIGNFY had writers til I was about 22.

I was the teacher, haw! No, we weren't at primary school, we were about 12. Perfect age to realise Little & Large were shite.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Quote from: Deader Kata Mosser on December 24, 2012, 01:36:28 AM
Sketch two - Little & Large. An ice cream man (probably Sid, if they could trust him with such a tricky role) was selling ice cream and cheeky old Edddie gets a TRAFFIC CONE and fills that up with ice-cream. The consensus in the classroom was that this was the shittest joke ever that made no sense.

The point is that Eddie (a very fat man) is a glutton who is so desperate for ice cream he is willing to fill the largest container available, which happened to be a traffic cone, since he was in the street. Now I've explained it I expect your reply to commence "LOL".

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Quote from: DrGreggles on December 24, 2012, 07:20:09 AM
Barrymore was supporting, and I recall finding him hilarious!
My Dad nearly chinned him though.

There are quite a few stories on the lines of "Barrymore was a really good comedian when he was doing warm-ups and support slots,  before he got madeover in to a mainstream star and then it all went wrong for him". Richard Herring said that L&H briefly had a chance of writing for him at ITV in the early 90s, and found him a genuinely funny and inventive performer.

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Quote from: mbedd on December 24, 2012, 08:27:46 PMChrist he was bitter about Large, big surprise at the time. Even more of  a surprise when they got back together for that shooting stars episode, because it sounded like Little wanted to eat Large's face off when I questioned him about stuff.

No more surprising than a Stone Roses reunion. Amazing what the offer of money will do to desperate-for-cash middle-aged men with nothing else to live for.

Jumble Cashback

I seem to remember Eddie Large being 'Gotcha'd' on Noel's House Party.  Funny, isn't it, how Noel only ever pranked minor, D-list celebrities, rather than, say, Sean Connery or someone?  One would almost think that he specifically targeted people he knew would be desperate enough for exposure and the appearance fee to come on the show and discuss the hilarious piece of personal hell that Noel put them through.  This seems even more cruel when one considers that, due to budgetary restrictions (and a few past, er, mistakes), Noel couldn't really attempt anything too outrageous or enjoyable, but instead had to stage things like an interminable traffic jam when the unfortunate minor star was trying to get to an important meeting, or a very rude and obnoxious heckler interrupting a stage show which the nominated luckless entertainer had worked countless hours to craft.  There was no joy to these dupes, nothing to look back on and laugh; merely a deeply frustrating day spent in the company of fake policemen (the impersonation of which is, I'm pretty sure, a crime) and hidden cameras.  Noel was doing slightly better than these low-level, washed-up performers, so he decided he'd just do a big piss on each of them and watch as they came begging to lick it up.  This is among the many reasons why he is an unfaltering, 24 carat cunt.

Deader Kata Mosser

Quote from: Mark Steels Stockbroker on December 25, 2012, 10:38:10 AM
The point is that Eddie (a very fat man) is a glutton who is so desperate for ice cream he is willing to fill the largest container available, which happened to be a traffic cone, since he was in the street. Now I've explained it I expect your reply to commence "LOL".

LOL!

But... wouldn't the ice cream man have simply said 'no, I'm obviously not going to fill up that traffic cone with ice-cream'? But as per my example, would not Benny Hill the Bank Manager not have hidden the key to his bank under the doormat? Could Vic & Bob, or many others made the 'traffic cone ice-cream' sketch a work of fabuolus surreal whimsy? Maybe it was, it sounds funny now. Traffic cone, LOLRANDOM! Cos he's fat!

No. It's just Litttle & Large being shite. But who would erase them from history? Only a mad cunt. They serve a purpose. To show how weird people from the past are.