With you on 'First Atheist Tabernacle Choir':
"Hallelujiah, *don't* perrrraise the Lord!"

One of the few 7" singles I've kept from when I was a nipper.

Its 84-87 period has been all but forgotten - people (Bremner, but then who cares about him?) tend to lazily lump it into "weak satire show" category. But if it went off the boil later, its first few series (esp 2 & 3) were marvellous. Does anyone know why no sell-through videos exist of the early years? I have a copy of Rubber Thingies, but nothing else. (I'm not counting that 50 Sketches Compilation, btw)

>Its 84-87 period has been all but forgotten - people (Bremner, but then who cares about him?) tend to lazily lump it into "weak satire show" category.

Didn't make myself very clear there - Bremner was in the first couple of series (I think), but very quickly turned against it once he had his own series on BBC2 as the new Mike Yarwood (although I'm sure he preferred to think of himself as the new Jonathan Swift).

It were boss.

>>the new Mike Yarwood
>
I meant the new Paul Squire, sorry. Yarwood was much better.

Oh no, I've started answering my own postings.

There were 3 sell through videos from the early series, Rubber THingies, Spit with Polish and one other that I forget. They were also sold as a boxed set.

The 10 years of Maggie special from it's later years was rather good (wasn't that where the Putting out the writs) song came from?, but the earlier stuff was much better, if somewhat baffling.

Who remembes the song about RS-232 with the puppets waving serial cables about?

I'm sure I wasn't dreaming...

"Who remembes the song about RS-232 with the puppets waving serial cables about?"

I do. It had Streisand and Status Quo doing songs about the RS232.

"Ten Years Of The Sound Of Maggie" had Douglas Hurd singing 'Pinstripe Wizard' in honour of Lord Young. Classic.

The 'Talk Bollocks' sketch was pretty good, as was the one where Orson Welles lived his life backwards.

BTW, I think the third sell through video was called 'A floppy mass of blubber', or something similar.

Pinstipe Wizard was wonderful. Labour Party "think we'd better think it out again" thingie (origins escape me at the moment) was also good.

And I am so glad the RS232 thing wasn't imagined. These days, you'd get a sizeable audience of Star Trek fans laughing at it, back in the mid 80's... well...

ZX81s didn't have RS232.

But then Grant & Naylor were computer Operators whilst doing their time writing Spitting Image and Son of Cliche so....

Dave Hollins Space Cadet anyone? Or the far superior Captain Invisible and the See Thru Kid?

The spoof computer magazine in the Spitting Image book was pretty good. Actually that book was very cool to have a school. Along with the Young Ones book.

The other early vid was called 'A Floppy Mass Of Blubber'. All three usually turn up in Cash Converters from time to time.

It was very good during the miners' strike. "A small trickle of fingers"