Beadlemania Posted Wed Nov 1 10:00:01 GMT 2000 by TJ

OK, I _know_ I'm laying myself wide open for ridicule here, and I'm not about to start defending Beadle's About/You've Been Framed/People Do The Funniest Things/It's Beadle/Beadle's Box Of Tricks/Win Beadle's Money/Game For A Laugh etc etc, but I distinctly remember Jeremy Beadle presenting a very good and rather more serious in tone BBC2 series about great hoaxes many years ago. He was also good on Radio 5, and by all accounts his 1970s radio shows were utterly brilliant. A potential comic genius who got derailed by populism???

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Jon' on Wed Nov 1 10:07:32 GMT 2000:

YES - it was in the early 80s, on BBC2, 6pm-ish. He also did one about vaguely paranormal-type things, and he used to do one about great inventions for children's BBC1, that featured genuine inventor Wilf Lunn making contributions. What happened to him?

The inventions show ran for quite a while, and David Icke (remember him?) took over for the last season.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By Bean Is A Carrot on Wed Nov 1 10:17:38 GMT 2000:

There was a wonderful send of Beadles About on The Late Show, a wonderful early 90s Australia sketch show. It went as follows...

---

V/O: Chezchoslovakia 1941...

SHOTS OF GERMAN TANKS BLOWING THINGS UP WITH KOOKY SOUND EFFECTS

CAPTION: HITLER'S ABOUT

SONG: Watch out, Hitler's About!

---

What does this tell us?

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'tvspaulmoore' on Wed Nov 1 11:14:43 GMT 2000:

I think the NTNON sketch on Game for a Laugh accurately parodies Beadle for my money. Either way the bloke is beyond parody...

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By TJ on Wed Nov 1 17:20:10 GMT 2000:

Was the invetions show "Eureka"?

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Jon' on Wed Nov 1 17:22:45 GMT 2000:

May well have been. The Icke version was still going in the mid-80s, I think.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Jon' on Wed Nov 1 17:23:53 GMT 2000:

They don't do kids shows like that anymore, do they - educational, informative... think of all the stuff Johnny Ball did, and how Zoe's works stand next to them. It must break his heart.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Unruly Butler' on Thu Nov 2 00:30:50 GMT 2000:

Eureka was superb. (Sylvester McCoy, Julia Binstead, Wilf Lunn, Mike Savage et al).
The hoax show of which you speak was a spin off from an April Fool's Day special he did which I remember being equally good.
Maybe he's just an Edmonds / Tarrant / Evans type - good, natural, TV style spoilt by over exposure and an exhausting of fresh ideas.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Jon' on Thu Nov 2 09:41:51 GMT 2000:

You're wrong. Evans, Tarranyt and Edmonds never had any fresh ideas.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Facetious Pedant' on Thu Nov 2 10:38:19 GMT 2000:

Tarranyt did. He was great.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Jon' on Thu Nov 2 10:41:20 GMT 2000:

You're right, but they did lead to a lengthy jail sentence.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Unruly Butler' on Thu Nov 2 22:05:09 GMT 2000:

Edmonds had the idea of killing his audience in expensive stunts.
That was a good one.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By TJ on Thu Nov 2 23:56:06 GMT 2000:

In a helicopter gunship???

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'Peter O' on Fri Nov 3 18:09:32 GMT 2000:

(snigger) But what he doesn't know is that we're going to turn him into a circle of skin.

Subject: Re: Beadlemania [ Previous Message ]
Posted By 'tvspaulmoore' on Sat Nov 4 13:23:56 GMT 2000:

I seem to remember that at least every other Beadle's About set-up (usually involving builders or something) ended with 'and here comes PC Beadle to sort it out...'- the highlight being the fact that he'd wear a false beard... over his real beard!

Ha ha ha! Do you see? He already had a beard!

Priceless.

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