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March 28, 2024, 04:00:48 PM

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never seen Look Around You

Started by madhair60, July 21, 2022, 01:13:01 PM

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non capisco

Quote from: wrec on July 21, 2022, 07:13:24 PMEarworm as soon as I saw the thread title.

Been constantly in my head ever since the rise of Emma Raducanu.

Bennett Brauer

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 21, 2022, 07:05:25 PMWas Nigel Lambert going slightly potty though? I took it as just common usage in the language of the odd LAY universe, hence Peter Packard saying it in LAY 2. Repeating this gag was hardly that intrusive in the second series and certainly not worth getting pissed off about such a minor detail.

Write that down.

Agreed. Unfortunate that it spawned too many imitations in forum posts though.</guilty>

LAY2 had loads of throwaway gags on top of the broader jokes. Just thinking about the brief glimpse of a label on a single 'Benson Rock' by The Bensons is still enough to set me off giggling.
And this as well, obviously:
 

DrGreggles

Len Pounds is such a great name

Pimhole

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 21, 2022, 07:05:25 PMWas Nigel Lambert going slightly potty though? I took it as just common usage in the language of the odd LAY universe, hence Peter Packard saying it in LAY 2. Repeating this gag was hardly that intrusive in the second series and certainly not worth getting pissed off about such a minor detail.

Write that down.



OK maybe he's not going potty, but no, the use in the 2nd series was massively intrusive. It broke the self-contained world of both series.

Maybe if they'd made S2 under a completely different title it woudn't suffer so much in comparison to the frankly perfect first series.

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 21, 2022, 11:00:56 PMLen Pounds is such a great name

Leonard Hatred.

purlieu

My favourite moment in the first series is the sublimely timed closing credits for the episode that ends with "next week, we'll be looking at dynamite". One of the funniest images ever.

The second series isn't helped at all by opening with quite probably the two weakest episodes, music and sport. I think it genuinely picks up after that. Ok, music has Synthesiser Patel and Machadaynu, but otherwise I find those two episodes slim pickings. The chipmunk voice reggae song is probably the nadir, with the "I really don't know" woman coming in close second. On the plus side, Leonard Hatred is such a wonderful name and brilliantly suited to Mark Heap. The scary image appearing briefly in the chaos of the live episode is another memorable moment.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Brundle-Fly

Quote from: purlieu on July 21, 2022, 11:13:14 PMMy favourite moment in the first series is the sublimely timed closing credits for the episode that ends with "next week, we'll be looking at dynamite". One of the funniest images ever.

The second series isn't helped at all by opening with quite probably the two weakest episodes, music and sport. I think it genuinely picks up after that. Ok, music has Synthesiser Patel and Machadaynu, but otherwise I find those two episodes slim pickings.

Come on, no love for profiterole chef, Anthony Carmichael. "I'm rapping, I'm rapping, I'm rap, rap, rapping..."

purlieu

Ah yes, I somehow forgot about him. Ok, three good jokes in that episode.

JamesTC



petril

the best bit of the second series is Synthesiser Patel sneaking a casual "bastards" into the conversation

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Captain Z on July 22, 2022, 01:07:37 AMMEDIBOT

"What are you feeding him?"

"Hundreds and thousands, he loves them!"

The Mollusk

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on July 21, 2022, 11:16:03 PMHelvetica Scenario!

Terrified me the first time I saw it and still makes me feel really uncomfortable now.

Magnum Valentino

Synthesizer Patel is on of the most endearing one-off characters ever and I think about him all the time and both series of this are excellent. Took me longer for series 1 to click but it is arguably the better one. I'm not familiar with any of the parody sources so don't let that put you off, it's really not the case that it's only funny because it looks like something else. The jokes, names, tone and mindset are all incredible.

And it's CLIVE Pounds!

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: madhair60 on July 21, 2022, 03:31:23 PMyeah I watched four minutes of the first one and didn't even smile, so chalking up to another nostalgia fave for creaking old CaB

Don't be silly.

madhair60

I shall be as silly as I please as often and for as long as I please

AsparagusTrevor

Quote from: non capisco on July 21, 2022, 10:55:20 PMBeen constantly in my head ever since the rise of Emma Raducanu.
Ha! Thought I was the only one.

Crenners

First series was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen at the time. Extras on the DVD are also amazing, I remember my mate putting on some kind of Ceefax extra morning after a party and being on the floor crying with laughter. Think it was the boys and girls names bit. Partario and Womana.

Replies From View

Series 2 annoyed me with its bouts of self-conscious whimsy.  If they'd played it straight, and had absurdity without the strained wackiness, it would have been much stronger.  Using the Tomorrow's World format was a good idea but they bungled it.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth


Bad Ambassador

The long preamble at the start of one S1 episode, showing a woman laboriously going through the motions of making an apple crumble. Eventually, "Can you guess what today's programme is about? That's right, it's about [abrupt cut to Niagara Falls] water."

DJ Bob Hoskins

Quote from: Replies From View on July 22, 2022, 09:59:27 AMSeries 2 annoyed me with its bouts of self-conscious whimsy.  If they'd played it straight, and had absurdity without the strained wackiness, it would have been much stronger.  Using the Tomorrow's World format was a good idea but they bungled it.

I'm with you on this. As others have said, the good bits were terrific but overall it just seemed a bit too self-consciously zany a lot of the time. Stretching it out to 30 mins meant that most episodes ended up very uneven.

Actually the thing that annoyed me most about it was the CGI portal that the guests walk through. For a show that aped the early 80s TV aesthetic so well it seemed like an anachronism.

Didn't someone from CaB provide the graphics for the 'computer games' segment in S2? That was a real highlight. Loved the casserole restaurant stuff too.

Anyway, Series 1 is one of my fave comedy things of all time. As a pastiche it is pitch-perfect and as a comedy, it's just wall-to-wall gold*

*or possibly another metal, like 'brown iron', also known as




DrGreggles


Pink Gregory

Quote from: Replies From View on July 22, 2022, 09:59:27 AMSeries 2 annoyed me with its bouts of self-conscious whimsy.  If they'd played it straight, and had absurdity without the strained wackiness, it would have been much stronger.  Using the Tomorrow's World format was a good idea but they bungled it.

I broadly agree but I think another go at the format of the first series would have dulled the whole thing in retrospect.  It's such a niche, lightning in a bottle brilliant idea that I think one whiff of the concept running out of steam would have taken the shine off it.

DJ Bob Hoskins

In fairness to Series 2, it contains one of the best little quirks of the entire Look Around You 'universe', namely the fact that there exists a second verse to Happy Birthday.


Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Replies From View on July 22, 2022, 09:59:27 AMSeries 2 annoyed me with its bouts of self-conscious whimsy.  If they'd played it straight, and had absurdity without the strained wackiness, it would have been much stronger.  Using the Tomorrow's World format was a good idea but they bungled it.

You could argue Look Around You 1 and 2 is the very definition of whimsy though.

At the Look Around You 1 10th anniversary screening and Q&A at the BFI, Popper and Serafinowicz revealed they were extremely disappointed with the CGI door in LAY 2 saying it wasn't what they'd ask for at all but they were stuck with it. They also said that they had to cut a load of stuff for some reason, which meant each episode was running short by several minutes so that's why the Teletext data sections were added to fill time.

They'd made this 'intermission' film especially for that evening.


 

Replies From View

#56
Quote from: Pink Gregory on July 22, 2022, 10:31:40 AMI broadly agree but I think another go at the format of the first series would have dulled the whole thing in retrospect.  It's such a niche, lightning in a bottle brilliant idea that I think one whiff of the concept running out of steam would have taken the shine off it.

I think the Tomorrow's World conceit was a great one, and would have made Look Around You work in a 30 minute format; it just seems they had other ideas they wanted to bundle in that they would have included regardless of the context. 

Really if they'd grown all of the ideas from the rich potential of the Tomorrow's World theme and atmosphere, there's no reason it shouldn't have been as strong as series 1.


purlieu

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on July 22, 2022, 10:38:36 AMThey'd made this 'intermission' film especially for that evening.


 
I absolutely adore this, one of my favourite Popper/Serafinowicz things. From the incorrect timing to the weird pronunciation right at the start, it's just incredible. I do think they're better at that kind of thing rather than the longform studio presentation style, which might be why the 'filler' sections of LAY2 are among my favourites, like the episode that starts with a rundown of what's in the pop charts at the time.

neveragain

Or the "Programmes this week on BBC2" bits. Brilliant stuff.