Being of a similar vintage to Martin Penney, I share many of the TV memories he so vividly conjured up a few days ago. And a few different ones.
In very young days I certainly watched Andy Pandy and the Flowerpot Men. I’ll resist the temptation to compare their dialogue to certain current-day politicians….
Strong memories of TV shows, though, start with their part in a weekly Saturday ritual.
Actually, it must have been fortnightly rather than weekly, but I have no recollection of the intervening Saturdays. In my memory City were always at home. I’d catch the coach to Carrow Road from Gorleston Station, returning home to beans on toast for tea, and Doctor Who before walking back to the station to get the Pink Un and re-live it all.
It must have been around 1964-65, with youngsters Kevin Keelan and Dave Stringer starting their City careers. I recall few specific games, though certainly a general sense that the second tier was our natural place.
The most exciting thing was the arrival of Hugh Curran, for whom we paid Millwall the princely sum of £13,000 and who quickly became my hero.
The changing incarnations of The Doctor didn’t bother me, though I was usually sorry – a good reflection on the show – to lose whichever actor was leaving.
It’s a jump of almost a decade to the next powerful TV memories. At college, the bar was usually full but the TV room empty – except for two occasions in the week when it was packed to the rafters. One was Match of the Day (we were an intellectual lot).
The other, in its original run, was Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And original was the word. We may have been supposed to be memorizing Goethe and Victor Hugo, but what actually seared itself on our minds was Python dialogue: the Lumberjack and Philosophers songs, Cheese Shop, Election Night, Upper Class Twit of the Year Show, the Loganberry Maniac defence mentioned by Martin.
And two sketches that our recent politics have repeatedly reminded me of: the Argument Sketch and the Dead Parrot.
All brilliant.
Some may robustly challenge that assessment – I’ll just say I wasn’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition…
Actually, I’ve skipped one that I was surprised to see missing from Martin’s piece and the follow-up comments. In 1967-68, with only 17 episodes ever made and involving the longest opening credits ever, a riveting piece of imagination (at least for me): The Prisoner.
Complete self-indulgence by a writer-actor is usually a recipe for bad drama, but not this time. Patrick McGoohan’s tour de force was a landmark of the week. When I finally visited Portmerion, it was hard to resist crying out “I am not a number. I am a free man!”
The cop show I remember from the early Eighties is Hill St Blues. Up to then, I hadn’t much enjoyed either comedies or police dramas from the US – whatever was funny about I Love Lucy? – but suddenly they seemed to blossom and leapfrog ours.
Stripped of the lame plots and canned laughter of their predecessors, shows like Hill St Blues and The Golden Girls had a sharpness and humanity that many of ours had lost. Maybe it was also me growing up.
Speaking of which, I was ready in 1987 for my next (and so far, last) great TV passion: Inspector Morse.
As I recall, the writers had to work hard to persuade sceptical TV producers of their idea to lengthen the detective story from its standard one hour to two. If you got the right quality of writing and acting, they argued, the extra scope for story and character development might hold an audience.
And boy, did it. The mobile phones are hilariously dated, but nothing else is.
To my wife’s bemusement, I’ll often look at the TV schedule and decide I’d rather re-watch a Morse I’ve seen many times over.
No doubt there are other Morse fans out there with personal favourite episodes. Mine would be Second Time Around from Series Five.
A bit of Morse trivia, by the way. The writer Colin Dexter was a crossword compiler (hence the frequent references in the show); two of his competitors were called Morse and Lewis. He’d often work out plots and puzzles as he walked along the riverbank, usually passing a boathouse called Endeavour.
Of course, I enjoy lots of today’s television – dramas like Broadchurch and Bodyguard are excellent, and I’m sorry I never got into Line of Duty.
But nostalgia ain’t what it used to be….
Just off a tad from TV. I was lucky enough to get tickets at Theatre Royal for Monty Python. I honestly do not believe I laughed so much as I did that night, they were absolutely ruddy brilliant, nearly everything was off the cuff. I also pulled a couple of sickies to go and watch them record in the City. The Queen own Highland Kamikaze Squad. Off the battlements of the Castle.
I do not think my father quite got the Prisoner, so we never got to see it, he also made us suffer Stars & Garters, think it was live from London Club or Pub, with Kathy Kirby .
One of my favourites was Love thy Neighbour , You don’t get to see reruns of that one, another was Nearest & Dearest with two of the old school comedy actors/performers. Hilda Baker and Jimmy Jewel. Years later I tried to get my children to watch it on Youtube, sadly I had to agree with them it was terrible. funny how somethings stand the test of time and others do not.
I would not miss the Two Ronnies, nor anything with Ronnie Barker. Porridge, Open all hours and one often forgotten series Clarence.
More modern ones are Criminal Minds been with that since first episode, soon to finish, like Without Trace, in the USA version they always ended with real appeal for missing people, one or two were found. I read the whole cast offered to take 50% pay cut to keep the show running as they saw it a very worthwhile thing to.
As I write I think of other great pieces of TV better save the for another day
Clarence indeed, thanks for that one, the great RB as a partially sighted removal man!
Mash & Taxi were a couple of American imports that I really got into but they’re probably 70’s – early 80’s.
An earlier memory, Bootsie & Snudge I think it was called and have vague recollections of sitting with Dad whilst he roared with laughter.
Anyone remember what was on TV when news of JFK assassination was announced? I was only 7 but clearly remember we were all watching Take your Pick when it was interrupted by a news bulletin.
This could run till the new season starts!!
Hi Colin
I believe Bootsy – as in “excused boots” – was played by Alfie Bass.
I couldn’t squeeze a single grin out of it but just like your memories my old boy loved it too.
Mind you he had The Navy Lark and Round the Horne on the radio whenever they were on, at weekend lunchtimes which I did enjoy – mainly because of the silly accents I guess.
Julian and Sandy was quite daring for the time. I didn’t understand the inferences way back then.
None of it ever to be repeated!
Hi Lad
I’ll do a wrap-up at the end of the week but in the meantime I must say that Nearest & Dearest made me laugh as well.
Jimmy Jewell and Hylda Baker – plus Walter as in “has he been?”
Pledge’s Purer Pickles or something like that.
Both ex Music Hall performers as I recall, Jewell and Baker.
I can agree with you on Morse (and Lewis). As an Oxonian I saw Colin Dexter many times at the pub in Summertown and he started a 5k I ran by saying he was responsible for the most deaths in Oxford. I think he killed a few in my home village (Kidlington) and on the canal in the neighboring one (Thrupp).
It was always fun to see the geography of Oxford butchered as Morse would go into an alley one side of town and reappear the other.
What an excellent take on Python, Stew.
Like Lad (above) I was lucky enough to see them at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane, not our version near the Assembly House).
The merch was minimal but my mate Barry bought a poster of the Bruces sketch which had some great illustrations from Terry Gilliam on it.
“No member of the faculty must be seen not drinking” and all that.
As for Rule One, well I’m not quoting that in 2019. Although Graham Chapman was quite happy with it at the time, so possibly I should. But I won’t.
After the show had finished they flashed up a message on the backscreen after endless demands for further encores.
It simply said: Pi$$ off. Go home.
And as for GG’s choice of clip it couldn’t be bettered.
Nice one!
Thanks for the excellent comments!
Any listing of TV favourites will inevitably miss out some gems. Martin’s article, and the various responses, have rightly highlighted some great comedy. We’ve had the privilege of seeing some comic genius on our screens, from Tony Hancock through Tommy Cooper, Leonard Rossiter, Ronnie Barker and others.
The sketches where Barker completes Corbett’s sentences are works of art. And some of their musical numbers. In addition to those cited by Martin, I remember their version of “A policeman’s lot is not a happy one”, where the last three syllables of the verse are repeated (“happy one” etc). The last verse was about Venetian gondoliers, as I recall, with a final line “As they ply their trade along that far canal ….. Fancy that”