Hale & Pace query

[Rev+]

I've been enjoying the Hale and Pace repeats that follow the Python ones - on the exciting and spangly That's TV - a bit more than I expected to.  Generally ropey, but there are laughs there now and then. But let's have a look at this, from Wikipedia:

This became the series in which the Prisoner sketch was first shown. It proved so realistic that Lisa Blair rang up LWT asking why Val Lehman had reprised the role of Bea Smith for another one-off episode.

What?

[madhair60]

h&p@bbc

[Rev+]

Which featured Norman's famous 'fuck'.  On the BBC!  Women watch that!

[Johnny Yesno]

The 'Prisoner sketch'? Don't they mean the Prisoner: Cell Block H sketch?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Yes. The text quoted by Rev still makes no sense, though.

[markburgle]

I liked that Mr Popular sketch with the no-mustache one plays an infuriating bloke who thinks he's funny and well liked

[dothestrand]

I was far too young to have watched Hale and Pace when it was on, but besides the Billy and Johnny innuendo, I remember the R Sole agents song most of all.

[Icehaven]

Apart from that Stonk single they did for Comic Relief the only thing I can remember about them is a few lines from a song about shaving your head;

Shave your head
Look like a Hare Krishna
Shave your head
No need to use conditioner

and it might not even have been them.

[Twilkes]

They had a ginger song I'm sure, 'dunking ginger nuts' while crouching down in the sea.

And the 'car as extension of penis' sketch, with a nice double punchline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WnzdPnzaQc

[Indomitable Spirit]

Watched a bit of this last night. As a man of a certain vintage, I have very fond memories of H&P as it was literally THE comedy show that would dominate playground chat on a Monday morning, so was quite excited to watch a full episode having seen bits and bobs on Youtube.

There was a very long sketch about a man (Hale) being interviewed about a book he'd written about The Beatles, but it became clear he didn't know very much about The Beatles, so it was full of mistakes. The mistakes, for the most part, were literally just getting one letter of someone's name wrong (John Lemon, Eleanor Rogby) and Hale played the author as a sort of posh academic with long blonde hair which didn't really ring true. There was just a laziness and lack of precision with the writing that made a pretty lame idea even unfunnier in practice.

A later sketch that parodied Antiques Roadshow, where a woman brought in one of those hard, plastic vibrators you'd get in the 80s for appraisal, did raise a laugh for the sheer crudeness of the imagery.

The final sketch was a musical parody (obvs) of a Simon & Garfunkel-type band playing on a TOTP-type show. The humour was derived from the lyrics of the song referencing how old tellies used to be a bit a dodgy, so the lyrics would be about strobing and then a bit of strobing would happen. It was pretty weak, though the attention to detail when replicating old TV faults was quite accurate - not quite Enfield level but decent all the same

On the whole it was thin gruel, but I will continue watching every night as my life is quite empty.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Yes. The text quoted by Rev still makes no sense, though.

Seems pretty straightforward? She thought the sketch was so accurate she thought she was watching the real thing and couldn't understand why Bea Smith was back on the show after the actress had left (although that does sound a bit implausible)

Apart from that Stonk single they did for Comic Relief the only thing I can remember about them is a few lines from a song about shaving your head;

Shave your head
Look like a Hare Krishna
Shave your head
No need to use conditioner

and it might not even have been them.

I think that might've been Bobby Davro.

[BeardFaceMan]

I'd say the first 2 series of H&P are pretty solid, it does start to go downhill starting with series 3 and although there is still some good stuff in there now and again, the less said about the last few series and the BBC show, the better. I think series 3 was when they really ramped up the crudity/nudity aspect of it so you're getting sketches like playing cricket with frogs and the Swedish exchange sketch (the one with Caroline Quentin). That kind of thing had always been there, obviously, with the baby in the microwave stuff etc but it was when they really started to lean into that aspect of things the show went off the boil. Fucking great pair of comic performers, though.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Seems pretty straightforward? She thought the sketch was so accurate she thought she was watching the real thing and couldn't understand why Bea Smith was back on the show after the actress had left (although that does sound a bit implausible)

That's what I mean, it sounds highly unlikely. It was a comedy sketch presumably soundtracked to studio audience laughter and featuring actors she'd never worked with before, how could she mistake that for a repeat of a drama she once starred in?

[Icehaven]

That's what I mean, it sounds highly unlikely. It was a comedy sketch presumably soundtracked to studio audience laughter and featuring actors she'd never worked with before, how could she mistake that for a repeat of a drama she once starred in?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Well that's always a possibility, yes.

[Natnar]

I seem to remember the Cat in the Microwave sketch getting a lot a press when it was aired and i wonder if after that they realised that the more "outrageous" they were the more publicity they'd get.

What was their early career/stand up like?

[idunnosomename]

I hate Hale and Pace

[robhug]

I remember H&P having the 10.30pm slot on a Sunday night and talking about it at School on Mondays, yet apart from "the two rons" I've got absolutely no recollection of anything they did. Don't think id fancy a re-watch either. Spitting Image and The New Statesman had the same slot I think and they were obviously great.

Norman Pace was a guest on Nick Hancock's Sloping Pitch Football Podcast recently. Really dull it was, surprised me just how much.

[studpuppet]

Biggest claim to fame? They were in the last ever 'proper' Doctor Who story.

[Jack Shaftoe]

The Billie and Johnnie stuff was really weird, because I knew it was filled with innuendo, but I could never work out about what. I keep meaning to watch it on YouTube and see if it makes sense, but what if it won't and I'm still as naive/innocent as I ever was? Doesn't bear thinking about it.

I have a vague recollection of an older comedy writer telling me that all the sketches they got on H&P were things that had been rejected from NTNoCN or Smith and Jones. If something got rejected from those two AND H&P, you knew to give up and move on.

[Famous Mortimer]

The 'Prisoner sketch'? Don't they mean the Prisoner: Cell Block H sketch?

It was known as just "Prisoner" in Australia, though.

[non capisco]

The 'man who can't take anything seriously' Hale and Pace sketch is excellent. Hale just has the perfect face for the central idea.

[Jack Shaftoe]

Can't find it on YouTube but I always liked the one about toddlers being drunk. One of them would ask a small child a question, the child would make some nonsensical reply and H or P would shake their heads sadly and say with fake concern 'Tragically, this child is completely pissed', then repeat. Perfectly suited their deadapan/sniggering performance style and one of those Fast Show style things where you know what the punchline is so you can just enjoy the buildup.

[Bad Ambassador]

Hale and Pace continued their charity work with a 1992 stint as spokespersons for the National Egg Awareness Campaign.

[idunnosomename]

I am aware of eggs

[jobotic]

They did their job then.



What I hate about them is that people at work of a certain age will put up signs saying thing like

Please wash up your plates and cutlery AND put them away. By order of The Management.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The 'man who can't take anything seriously' Hale and Pace sketch is excellent. Hale just has the perfect face for the central idea.

Yeah, he really did (and presumably still does) have an inherently funny face, like a cheeky St Bernard.

[BeardFaceMan]

Hale has the best cheeky chappy face in existence. He nearly made me die one night. I was off school with bronchitis and allowed to stay up late to watch H&P on a Sunday night, and it got to a Billy & Johnny sketch where Johnny is in hospital having a vasectomy. When it got to the bit where Johnny is peeling a banana and Billy finally cottons on and does one of the greatest reactions I've ever seen, I fucking lost it, wheezing and screaming like I was under attack, I literally couldnt breathe, I nearly passed out and I woke up my mum with my nonsense and she had to come down and turn the tv off to stop me from laughing/coughing/dying.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154654686922925

I mean, look at his little face (from about 2:13 onwards).

[Johnny Yesno]

It was known as just "Prisoner" in Australia, though.

Ah, good point. They knew UK viewers would wonder what happened to the big white balloons.

[Johnny Yesno]

Hale has the best cheeky chappy face in existence. He nearly made me die one night. I was off school with bronchitis and allowed to stay up late to watch H&P on a Sunday night, and it got to a Billy & Johnny sketch where Johnny is in hospital having a vasectomy. When it got to the bit where Johnny is peeling a banana and Billy finally cottons on and does one of the greatest reactions I've ever seen, I fucking lost it, wheezing and screaming like I was under attack, I literally couldnt breathe, I nearly passed out and I woke up my mum with my nonsense and she had to come down and turn the tv off to stop me from laughing/coughing/dying.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154654686922925

I mean, look at his little face (from about 2:13 onwards).

That's still pretty good. Nice digs at the police and the lack of NHS beds.