The TV adaptation of Radio Active (1981-87), running from 1989 to 1993. No masterpiece, but full of great bits and pieces...and unashamedly performed with a cockiness lacking in most sketch shows today. No weekly Phil Pope music parody in it, unfortunately...but that’s telly. Angus Deayton’s table tennis-playing vicar a permanent favourite.
1.
Both Radio Active (8/9/81 - 2/1/88) and KYTV (12/5/89 - 22/10/93) worked on a principle of over-recording material for each show - the idea being that a shorter edit could be made of the better bits. Lots of Radio Active and KYTV sketches even finish halfway through (suggesting that they’d reached their peak by then). Most of this material is simply discarded, although in the ‘KY Tellython’ episode (17/3/92), visual clips from various cut sketches are played during the end credits.
[NOTE: The practice of over-recording isn’t rare. Monty Python Flying Circus used to run at 35 minutes before being edited back. Lee & Herring’s Fist Of Fun could clock up 45 minutes of usable material per show, with some sketches held back and re-used later on. Punt & Dennis’ topical vehicles The Now Show and It’s Been A Bad Week often record about seventy minutes of usable material, most of which cannot ever be re-used.]
2.
KYTV’s second series (17/3/92 - 21/4/92) was unwisely scheduled for 8:30pm, perhaps before BBC2 had checked its contents. For the first transmission of ‘KY Tellython’ (Show 1), an escalating joke featuring Robert Llewellyn as a regional participee performing elaborate visual stunts with a failed sound feed was shorter than its repeat broadcast. The initially cut scene featured Llewellyn with a huge strap-on inflatable carrot for a cock (and an inflatable woman staddling the end), thrusting madly. This sequence was deemed unsuitable for the timeslot, and was only reinstated for the post-watershed repeats the following year.
Curiously, a sequence showing Llewellyn being whipped in bondage gear wasn’t cut for the 8:30pm broadcasts, nor were some bare-breasted Frenchwomen in the following show. However, the final episode (‘Talking Head’, a parody of sex discussion shows) was moved to 9:30pm for its initial broadcast.
