The Story of Light Entertainment

[Lfbarfe]

Errors galore as well....The attempt to contrive the BBC1 globe announcing "no more Late Late Breakfast Show ever" was a bit fucked as they plumped for the late 70s model (somewhat out of date by 1986).

Unnecessary too, as there's an off-air of the proper announcement, complete with BBC1 Wales COW globe, in circulation.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Didn't Fry refer to Mike Smith as 'Smithy' as well? 'Smitty' surely?

[kaprisky]

Incidentally, this series is made by Shine, Elisabeth Murdoch's company.

I was in one of Shine's offices last week and the people on the desk a few feet away from me were attempting to rustle up some contributors to, and I quote "an end of year show, looking back at the last five years of memorable celebrity incidents..." [well, that was the description that I managed to eavesdrop on].

Phonecalls to people as varied as the Krankies and Richard Blackwood were made, the latter of which was contacted specifically about his part in the Brass Eye Special. There was even a schedule written up on one board full of specific contributors, although I can't remember what the other names were... or indeed if the Krankies or Blackwood wanted to participate.

The rest of their work seemed to consist of making phonecalls and scouring tabloid newspapers for any other ideas. However, there were a load of tapes that seemed to come from the ITN Archive, probably for use in their shows.

[Narshty]

Didn't Fry refer to Mike Smith as 'Smithy' as well? 'Smitty' surely?

Well, Sarah Greene refers to him as 'Smithy' in Ghostwatch.

[Ray Le Otter]

Was I the only one watching this week then?

Getting increasingly annoyed at the attempt to shoehorn Little Britain into every episode of this series. Me & the missus were delighted at the Max Miller footage though - bloody funny stuff. And Stanley Baxter was great - his story about being sacked from ITV by John Birt and then again from BBC by... John Birt was amusing. Didn't know about the Sayle vs Elton row either.

Usual gaffs though - apparently French & Saunders were discovered on Saturday Live. Yeah right. So no-one noticed them on peak time BBC1 in Happy Families... or in the Comic Strip Presents.. or The Young Ones...  or Girls On Top...  shoddy research.

Amazing sudden burst of vitriol against Ben Elton though from Mark Steele.

[Lfbarfe]

Stanley Baxter was great - his story about being sacked from ITV by John Birt and then again from BBC by... John Birt was amusing.

Very soon to make another apperance in the profile of him I've written for the Oldie.

I liked Charlie Higson's comment about Ricky Gervais and ironic racism/spaz baiting.

[Morgan]

I liked Charlie Higson's comment about Ricky Gervais and ironic racism/spaz baiting.

Ooh, what did he say?

[SimonJT]

He didn't mention Gervais specifically, but he said (paraphrasing) "It's all a con, this irony. A lot of them mean what they say".

[neveragain]

It seemed Gervais-based. 'They just wish they could say it for real.'

[weirdbeard]

"It's a con.  It's not irony at all.  They'd love to be able to just go out and do that  stuff anyway.  But there is an idea of  like "ooh, I'm being risky here, I shouldn't be saying this, aren't we naughty?".  But scratch the surface with most of those people and they probably mean it underneath."

That was after a "spastics" clip and a Thora Hird/wheelchair joke from his Politics show.

[SimonJT]

My paraphrase was rubbish, wasn't it? My memory is shit.

[Ray Le Otter]

"It's a con.  It's not irony at all.  They'd love to be able to just go out and do that  stuff anyway.  But there is an idea of  like "ooh, I'm being risky here, I shouldn't be saying this, aren't we naughty?".  But scratch the surface with most of those people and they probably mean it underneath."

That was after a "spastics" clip and a Thora Hird/wheelchair joke from his Politics show.

Emperor's New Clothes, anyone? Even if he didn't mean to aim at Gervais, nice dig anyway.

[Glebe]

I've been missing this series, only caught this week's episode. Very interesting.  Pity Doddy didn't pop up in person.

It would (obviously) be facinating to see Morris pop up on something like this. Has he ever appeared on TV as himself, except breiefly at a comedy awards show?!

[23 Daves]

I do constantly need to be shown clips from the "Politics" show to remind me of how loathsome Gervais' stand-up material can be.  It's easy to forget (largely because I avoid long-winded Gervais discussions on Comedy Chat, I suppose!)

The wife drunkenly said of Gervais in a tone of utter disgust: "The only reason he gets away with all this material is because he's so fat".  At that point there was so much alleged "irony" and unintentional irony in the room that my head almost imploded.

That said, it does aggravate me the way the last series of "Little Britain" almost never seems to get picked on for its un-PC features, which has to be equally guilty in part.  This is a programme, lest we forget, that was reviewed in the Daily Mail as being "delightfully politically incorrect".

[Little Hoover]

Higson's has worked with Lucas & Walliams hasn't he, which makes the comment quite intresting.

The other thing I learnt from this show is that the reason I don't get Little Britan is  because at the age of 19 I'm too old.

[Glebe]

The reported animosity between Alexie Sayle and Ben Elton is interesting....the worked together on The Young Ones, of course.

[Ray Le Otter]

The reported animosity between Alexie Sayle and Ben Elton is interesting....the worked together on The Young Ones, of course.

It was the accusation of plagarism that intrigued me. The usual shoddy research meant that we didn't know when this happened - it certainly can't have been 1981 to 1984 during the Young Ones period or else they wouldn't have worked together, so I'm guessing after this, when Elton's popularity and fame was rising.

[The Mumbler]

Actually, I think Sayle didn't like Elton from pretty early on.  Elton only started doing stand-up in February 1981- he gave the exact date in some interview, and he admits that Sayle was a huge influence on his early style.  But then, Sayle was a huge influence on just about everyone who did stand-up for years.

Elton has also said that he only started doing stand-up as a way of getting his written material noticed.  He had written "about 20 plays" at university.

[lipsink]

apparently French & Saunders were discovered on Saturday Live.

Yeah, what the fuck was that about??

I was pissed off at that cunt Mark Steel slagging off Ben Elton. Let's see him do something as important as The Young Ones or Blackadder then.

[sproggy]

I was pissed off at that cunt Mark Steel slagging off Ben Elton. Let's see him do something as important as The Young Ones or Blackadder then.

Oh come on, that was laugh out loud hilarious, and to a certain extent true when applied to his stand-up.

[lipsink]

I hate Ben Elton's standup too but Mark Steel's delivery does my fucking head in too. All that "Maaarxsisssum wassschh faaanded on the prinssssciple that..." Oh fuck off!!  I just think Steel wants to disassociate himself with Elton just in case people thinks he's like him. It just reminds me of all those Socialist groups that hate eachother.

[Glebe]

I'm always getting him mixed up with Mark Thomas.

[SimonJT]

A handy way to remember: Steel is the one that talks out of the corner of his mouth.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Steel is also the less amusing of the two, Less amusing than Mark Thomas. What a ghastly epitaph that would be for anyone. Mind you, I did laugh at Thomas' comment on that doc, mainly because it was so unexpected amidst a sea of such unending reverence, but if he really does think that Blackadder and The Young Ones were shit, well he's an even bigger twat than I thought.

[rudi]

Less amusing than Mark Thomas. What a ghastly epitaph that would be for anyone.

Ha ha ha ha ha!

I literally 'LOLed' then.

[The Mumbler]

Another thing Shine made: that Celebrity Mingers doc for Sky that Nick Frost narrated.

[Marv Orange]

Wasn't Mark Steel another that said he has never liked Ben Elton from the start?

[benthalo]

Keep up, Marv!

[The Mumbler]

Joan Rivers was on this tonight (Chat Shows) claiming that she was passed over for Johnny Carson's Tonight Show after his retirement from NBC in 1992 because of "being a woman".  Nope.  It was because, after being a regular guest host on The Tonight Show in the mid-80s, she buggered off to Fox to present a talk show in the same slot as Carson's show.  Which really didn't last long at all, but succeeded in making her an enemy of his.  And Carson chose his replacement (Leno).

[Peter Rain]

I was half-hoping they'd show Thurston Lowe during the Time the Place section, but they went for another live disaster instead.