>It's just it's always sounded a bit Morris-ey and good....

Why, does it go around singing #Ev-er-y day is li-ike Su-un-daaaaaaay#?

A-hahah! Do you see what I've done there?

Spartan, I want my bloody book back, you thieving bastard.

It's my book now...

Apparently, it was very good and well ahead of its time, although too innovative to get am enthusiastic reception from joe public. It was written by NF Simpson and featured Eleanor Bron and John Bird. It ran for six weeks in late 1969 and was made in colour. Apparently, none of the tapes have survived.

N.F. Simpson? Word up to Simmo!
I didn't know he did TV. I was raving that last week's One Foot In The Grave really reminded me of N.F.S. and couldn't believe TV was embracing his style so late, when all this time he had apparently invented The Day Today.
Wow. Any more stuff? Fill my face with dada fact!

nf simpson invented the day today? justify that please, you silly manservant. £50 says you're wrong.

j xxx

I refer you to TJ's post earlier in this thread. Though, as has been established in the Who's Who thread, he is merely me in another guise.

The Mighty Butler

This is a great thread.

Unfortunately, no-one's heard of 'World in Ferment'.

So look it up somewhere.

And save this thread from extinction.

The info I have on it is minimal. However, my Dad used to watch it, so I'll ask him...

Nope. Never heard of it.

He has, actually. I just asked him.

Would a show with "Ferment" in the title even get commissioned this days?
Surely not enough target-marketed consumer units would know what it meant.

East Anglian indie guitar sensations Catherine Wheel released an album called 'Ferment' in 1991 and... it wasn't very popular. So that proves your point.

>The info I have on it is minimal. However, my Dad used to watch it, so I'll ask him...

>>Nope. Never heard of it.

>He has, actually. I just asked him.

So what did he say?

He said it was very good, "a bit like a primitive Armando Iannucci", and also suggested that I should investigate "A Series Of Bird's" and "Where Was Spring?". Bron, Bird and Fortune shows, they were.

Would a Best Of Bron, Bird & Fortune on video be totaqlly out of the question? Or just a Satire Selection (incl. TW3 / Frost Report etc).

Have all the tapes been wiped? Would the NFT do a season? Quite keen on catching some more of this stuff...

As far as I know, very little survives of any of the shows. Mr. Halo might know a bit more about this...

Roger Wilmut writes of it in From Fringe To Flying Circus (Methuen, 1980):

'Bron and Bird appeared in a BBC2 series, written by NF Simpson, called World In Ferment; it ran for six episodes from 23 June 1969, and was a rather bizarre parody of current affairs programmes such as Panorama and World In Action.'

And that's all there is. In what is in otherwise a pretty thorough, well-researched book.

Why is it out of print?

I dunno, but all his other books seem to be out of print too. Anyone know of anywhere that might stock them?

You just have to be lucky- I randomly found a copy of 'Didn't You Kill My Mother-in-Law?'.

No, you can't die...