Sorry, I was busy drooling over Louis on the other side. How was The Royle Family?

Both Royle Family & One foot in the Grave where excellent BBC did the right thing moving the news from 9 to 10.

I'm sorry I missed it!
I was busy drooling over Lexa Doig on SKY ONE!

I thought One Foot Flew Over The Cuckoo's Grave was so good, I turned the telly off and ignored The Royle Family, which was the prog I'd actually been looking forward to...

That's the problem with launching two prestige shows at once: one may steal the thunder from t'other.
(The Day Today launching at the same time as Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer springs to mind.)

Anyway, One Foot was worth 1/2 an hour of your time if only for the double layered play on the age-old "woolly clothes shrink in washing machine gag".

Fine writing. Surprising, considering Renwick claimed to have had a nervous breakdown doing the last Xmas show and insisted he'd had enough...

I was surprised at the amount of gags (painting, mute dog, affair, brothel, tv delivery, window cleaning, Margarets 'pervert', Readers Digest etc, etc.) they managed to fit in, with any other show it might have felt like they were pushing it too far.
And isn't Janine Duvitski looking really rough?

>I thought One Foot Flew Over The Cuckoo's Grave was so good, I turned the telly off and ignored The Royle Family, which was the prog I'd actually been looking forward to...

I thought the Royle Family was so rubbish I turned it off after 5 minutes, mind you, I've not seen it before.

>Fine writing. Surprising, considering Renwick claimed to have had a nervous breakdown doing the last Xmas show and insisted he'd had enough...

The last Xmas special was probably one of the worst One Foot episodes ever. The idea of new neighbours was good, but they didn't work as characters and it was hard for them to do so after the history and magic of Deayton and Duvitski (sp?). And as much as I love his work, I don't think Tim Brooke-Taylor was a great choice as the new neighbour.

>The idea of new neighbours was good, but they didn't work as characters and it was hard for them to do so after the history and magic of Deayton and Duvitski...

Since Tim Brooke-Taylor wasn't in this week's are we to assume he's been written out?

And Deaton have Duvitski decided to move back?


...OK, I'll believe that. I also believe that the 11 O'Clock Show is better than Brass Eye. Ow, tray on head, ow, tray on head.

I loved every single One Foot apart from the last Christmas Special. Still haven't watched Monday's yet - will watch it tomorrow.

>And Deaton have Duvitski decided to move back?

No, but that's the thing- Deayton and Duvitski *still* live far away from the Meldrews (hence dialogue about how they went to stay the night with them, and how Margaret was on the phone to Pippa), so who *does* live next door?

>>And Deaton have Duvitski decided to move back?
>
>No, but that's the thing- Deayton and Duvitski *still* live far away from the Meldrews (hence dialogue about how they went to stay the night with them, and how Margaret was on the phone to Pippa), so who *does* live next door?

Isn't amazing how they keep running into each other?

Apparently Tim Brooke-Taylor was never contacted to participate in this series. My theory is that Renwick didn't think his character worked well and decided to ditch him in favour of having Victor and Margaret running into Deayton and Duvitski all the time.

BTW whatever happened to the other neighbour? You know, the one whose mother died.

Owen Brenman? He was really good in it too.

I agree about TBT - he is great, usually, but somehow he didn't really fit in on One Foot. I suspect they wrote him in because Deayton may have been unavailable when they were doing that 97 Christmas special.

>(The Day Today launching at the same time as Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer springs to mind.)

No they didn't. 'Smell' started in Autumn 93, TDT in January 1994.

'Royle Family' was great - give it another chance, Bean.

Hang on. I remember watching Smell Of R&M, swearing it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, then changing my mind by episode two because The Day Today had been on in the interim.

Is my memory as broken as an old clock?

And if you think Janine Duvitski looks rough in One Foot In The Grave, you obviously weren't watching that bizarre Inside-The-Family documentary that put endoscopes up her arse earlier this year.

She looked like a sort of zombie Bella Emberg.

>Is my memory as broken as an old clock?

Are you sure it wasn't 'Honey For Tea' or something?

Oh, and your memory does seem to be in that state. I promise you your dates are wrong.

>Hang on. I remember watching Smell Of R&M, swearing it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, then changing my mind by episode two because The Day Today had been on in the interim.

Smell Of R&M began on 21 September 1993, The Day Today on 19 January 1994. I still have the dates on my video copies.

As for One Foot (finally watched on tape last night), I thought "The Executioner's Song" was well up to standard. The number of plotlines that Renwick is able to triumphantly keep in the air is something that most comedy writers would kill for. The Royle Family was good too, although having heard work colleagues bumble on about Ali G impressions all week, I found those bits the weakest. Not that I'm trying to sound superior, you understand...

I've a dim recollection of Smell and TDT being on the same evening on BBC2, so maybe it was a repeat of one or the other, or that cobbled together Day Today mininews ?

I can definitely remember Smell of R&M starting in the same week (the night after?) Newman & Baddiel In Pieces - does that have any bearing on the matter?

>I can definitely remember Smell of R&M starting in the same week (the night after?) Newman & Baddiel In Pieces - does that have any bearing on the matter?

Well in that case Smell would have been late 93. Newman and Baddiel had done their Wembley gig and split up by the end of 93.

I think.

Newman & Baddiel In Pieces did indeed begin on 20 September 1993, the night before the Smell Series 1. The only thing I can think of is that The Day Today Mininews compilation series (screened late 95) might have been screened on the same Friday nights as the first series of Shooting Stars.

There was a small Smell of R & M on Christmas Night with the Stars around two weeks before The Day Today. Or am I thinking of the wrong year?

>There was a small Smell of R & M on Christmas Night with the Stars around two weeks before The Day Today. Or am I thinking of the wrong year?

Do you mean the same show hosted by Fry & Laurie that featured an Alan Partridge item as well? That was Christmas 94, and The Day Today was repeated on Fridays from 6 January 1995 on BBC2.
The At Home With Vic & Bob theme night was broadcast on 27 December 1993, and featured, amongst other things, the Shooting Stars pilot.

Yes, people! That's more like it! I appear to have started a row about TX dates. That's what this forum is all about! Keep it up, chaps.

Yours, with a broken clock for a head,
Butler

>Owen Brenman? He was really good in it too.

I hope to see him back before the series ends.

>I agree about TBT - he is great, usually, but somehow he didn't really fit in on One Foot. I suspect they wrote him in because Deayton may have been unavailable when they were doing that 97 Christmas special.

My theory is that Renwick thought it was dumb to keep having Victor and Margaret running into Deayton/Duvitski and so decided to do a new neighbour character, hence TBT. TBT didn't work, so these days it's back to Deayton/Duvitski.

I think TBT was chosen as the new neighbour as Renwick's a fan of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, The Goodies, etc.

Tonight's episode was very bleak, wasn't it?. Not up to the standard of last week's but lovely to see Renwick playing on the "How is Meldrew going to die" expectations with him appearing to have colon cancer for half the episode...

Very clever.

It's quite an uncomfortable feeling, I find, knowing that Victor is going to die. I know he's just a TV character, but he's been so masterfully created and portrayed, and around for such a long time, that it feels..well...weird!

I hate to agree with Danny Wallace's Funny Talk, but he's right that it's ruined the series that we know that Victor's going to die. Whether it's still as interesting trying to work or how he's going to die, rather than being surprised by it is the question.

Speaking of Danny Wallace Dave Gorman was giving away more tickets to his show through Danny's column. When you consider the number of tickets he's already given away in Metro you wonder whether anyone has actually paid to see him at all!

> The Day Today was repeated on Fridays from 6 January 1995 on BBC2.

I can certainly confirm that (like it needed to be confirmed) - it was day after I bought my first VCR. First thing taped: "Bottom", series 3, show 1 (9pm, 6/1). Second thing taped: TDT (9:30pm, 6/1).

The heads have started to go recently...

I saw that.............eeurgh

I've been buying pump soaps instead of bars of soap ever since (apparently they found it was the best place for growing bacteria!!

Ehh??

But surely, by knowing that Victor is going to die, it gives more mystery and potential for humour as to *how* he might die. Eg the suspected cancer that turned out to be him eating the blood sausage. I like Renwicks use of red herrings like that

>But surely, by knowing that Victor is going to die, it gives more mystery and potential for humour as to *how* he might die.

Just like the start of classic Cosby vehicle "Ghost Dad". Splendid.

And the first episode of that great new version of 'Randall & Hopkirk (deceased)'.

>Randall & Hopkirk

I stand by what I said - I think Renwick can pull it off.

(I used to be a big fan of Vic & Bob, many years ago.... only bothered watching 1 episode of R&H, just out of curiosity. My expectations were satisfied and from thence the boredom set in)

But.. Renwick = good in my book, at the moment.

Renwick, indeed, = good.

Odd isn't it that, out of the Renwick/Marshall comedy partnership (Whoops Apocalypse, Alexei Sayle et al), Renwick should produce a bleak masterpiece (One Foot), while Marshall should only turn out feel-good domestic toss like "2.4 Children"?

I only mention it because, according to rumour, while Renwick is reasonably well-adjusted, Marshall is a socially inept manic depressive and the basis for Marvin The Paranoid Android (true).

>Renwick, indeed, = good.
>
>Odd isn't it that, out of the Renwick/Marshall comedy partnership (Whoops Apocalypse, Alexei Sayle et al), Renwick should produce a bleak masterpiece (One Foot), while Marshall should only turn out feel-good domestic toss like "2.4 Children"?
>
>I only mention it because, according to rumour, while Renwick is reasonably well-adjusted, Marshall is a socially inept manic depressive and the basis for Marvin The Paranoid Android (true).

Did you see If You See God, Tell Him (1993) with Richard Briers, UB? Unlikely to be repeated, certainly not on BBC1, where it got a very uneasy response from the viewing public. One of the bleakest (and most brilliant) comedies I've ever seen. And the last thing Marshall & Renwick collaborated on.

Whoops Apocolypse was really funniest and shocking and I'm suprised it got made at all, especially on ITV.

The film's not very good at all, but it does feature a pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards as Lacrobat (John Cleese on TV).

Shame it'll never be repeated.

I meant to say either "really funny" or "the funiest show on ITV ever" but I got confused and said "really funniest", which makes no sense.

Leave me alone.

Didn't see "If You See God Tell Him".
What was it about?

Godfrey Spry, (played by Richard Briers in a hat), is a Victor Meldrew who gets hit on the head by a falling bill-board, rendering him a childishly naive and happy soul (played by Richard Briers in a grin), who belives everything he is told. In particular, he believes all advertising, and lives his life accordingly. With, as the Radio Times would say, Hilarious Consequences. Only they wouldn't say that, because it was very black and bleak humour, and not the RT's cup of tea at all. I didn't think it was as brilliant as all that, but I do remember at least one superb joke, when the inhabitants of a nursing home are being made to join in with a cheery sing song.

Incidentally, Renwick and Marshall are yet another product of that fine 1980's school for comedy writing: (and this is not meant as sarcastically as you might think) The Two Ronnies.

>Didn't see "If You See God Tell Him".
>What was it about?

It was about an elderly man Godfrey Spry (Briers) who, after suffering head injuries in an accident, had an attention span of just 30 seconds, and so therefore could only take notice of advertising culture. Very funny in places, but a lot of complaints from BBC1 viewers who felt it was mocking the mentally ill. One episode (the third of four) was put back a week, as it featured him being befriended by dozens of schoolchildren - it was to be transmitted the night that Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were sentenced for killing James Bulger, and the BBC got decidedly nervous. Not even UK Gold has ever repeated it.

And so another exciting round of 'Describe a largely forgotten comedy drama before 10 o'clock' draws to a close...! Beat you by 27 seconds. What are the chances of that happening?

>And so another exciting round of 'Describe a largely forgotten comedy drama before 10 o'clock' draws to a close...! Beat you by 27 seconds. What are the chances of that happening?

What's more, your description was better! (Although I suspect it you enjoyed it less than I did...)

Thanks lads. The nursing home episode rings a faint but pleasant bell.

Tonight's episode was INORDINATELY SUPERB.
Not funny, but the finest attempt to do a Tom Stoppard / Samuel Beckett fourth-wall breaking discourse on the nature of farce and comedy and the futility of existence that I've ever seen in a mainstream sitcom.
Almost as good as Del Boy falling through the bar.
Don't tell him, Pike.

I had to go out for a bit to look for the cat. I know the fly wasn't explained, but was Victor's letter to Mimsy?

No. But there was some fun with a phallic vegetable caught in a door.

>I had to go out for a bit to look for the cat. I know the fly wasn't explained, but was Victor's letter to Mimsy?

The letter was written by Victor on behalf of the chip shop owner who lost his finger (into a bag of chips bought by Victor) when his wife found him with her best friend in the chip shop and took a large knife to him.

To apologise to Victor for finding a severed finger in his chips he brings round a replacement bag and asks Victor to decide whether he should stay with his wife or leave her for her friend- Victor wiggles out of making the decision by suggesting he writes to Mimsy- but of course his writing hand is still in plaster, so Victor writes the letter for him, describing how he can't choose between his wife and her best friend...

Sorry if it's a bit lengthy but if you want Reader's Digest versions you've come to the wrong place.

Interestingly, there was a severed finger in the chips gag in the Dawson's Creek they showed as part of Fear Weekend on C4.

They both derive from the severed finger in the chips in the film 'The Hitcher'.

Hm. Maybe not 'interestingly'.

>I had to go out for a bit to look for the cat. I know the fly wasn't explained, but was Victor's letter to Mimsy?

Forget the fly. Did you find the cat?

Thanks tvspaulmoore for explaining that! Yes, it was during the chippy owner's visit that I went to look for the cat.

And, yes, I did find him, thanks for asking, anon. He was under a bush.

>He was under a bush.

Your cat is First and Second Anonymous!

>I hate to agree with Danny Wallace's Funny Talk, but he's right that it's ruined the series that we know that Victor's going to die. Whether it's still as interesting trying to work or how he's going to die, rather than being surprised by it is the question.

Well it has also been widly reported how he dies! Though I am wondering why the BBC went to such lengths to conceal the ending of a past Christmas special (alegedly recording the final scenes without an audience) and give away the ending to the whole series. I hope that this is another DR red herring, unless the BBC wanted to make it clear that there will be no more so we have to accept the other weaker sitcoms round at the moment.

David

My understanding is that it was David Renwick's decision to reveal Victor's death because he didn't want the tabloids leaking it unofficially. I think Richard Wilson did a Renwick-sanctioned press conference announcing the death.

The fat old man was Roy Hudd.

I love the line 'Potty-training Mr Creosote'. It's a great title for a punk album too.

One of the funniest I've watched - particularly the scene with Patrick & the misplaced cork! Shame the last one's next week.

And also featuring a performance from BBC's Head Of Comedy, Geoffrey Perkins - first time I've seen him in an acting role for years.

A-N-N-A KO-UR-NI-KO-VA

Brilliant.