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00:00Squeezy Cheesy Peas!
00:03Very little telly of any kind reveals as much about Britain and the way we live as the sketch shows.
00:09When I caught Gerald, he was completely wild. Wild! I was absolutely livid.
00:14All life is here.
00:15Can I help you?
00:16Yes, you'll face my arse!
00:18No class, occupation, region or community has escaped parody.
00:23I'm flying, Jack! I'm flying!
00:25Are we the baddies?
00:27They've supplied catchphrases that quickly became the unofficial language of Britain.
00:31That is so unfair! I hate you!
00:34You are awful.
00:36I like you.
00:39I'm Paul Whitehouse.
00:41And I've spent a huge chunk of my career writing and performing in comedy sketches.
00:46I'm dead.
00:48Dead.
00:49So, who's better than me?
00:51Me.
00:52To look at the history of short form comedy.
00:54My name is Michael Payne.
00:56Well, you can probably think of loads of people, but tough.
01:00You're stuck with me.
01:02Brilliant!
01:05Our comedy journey kicks off in the 1970s, the defining decade for the TV sketch show.
01:30But first, a little history lesson.
01:36When the comedy fish crawled out of the prime audio soup of the music hall and stood on two legs,
01:42it evolved into sketch comedy and became a fixture on the radio.
01:47This was the first, with loads of characters and catchphrases.
01:50It's the boss!
01:52Hello, boys. How are you?
01:54And hey, presto, comedy was in our arms.
01:57Don't forget the diver, sir. Don't forget the diver.
02:01Hello, it's you, is it? Well, introduce me to that octopus, will you?
02:05Tommy Handley was one of the biggest stars of the 30s and 40s.
02:09His big hit radio show was It's That Man Again, or Itmar for short.
02:13Every penny makes the water warmer, sir.
02:16Well, here's something to go and boil your head.
02:18This is where the sketch show we know and love today was evolving.
02:22Recurring characters, over 70 of them to be precise, each with their own catchphrase.
02:28Can I do you now, sir?
02:35It seems pretty unfunny to a modern audience.
02:38Can I be of any assistance?
02:41Exactly like Arthur Atkinson from The Fast Show was meant to be.
02:45What's that you've brought me, Chester, you great lump? A nice pie?
02:49Yes, I've baked it myself to cheer you up.
02:52Oh, yes.
02:55Thank you.
02:57We even showed a crowd laughing uproariously at such bewildering comedy.
03:10Hot on the heels of Itmar came those giants of radio comedy, The Goons.
03:15Devised and written in the main by Spike Milligan,
03:18his surreally brilliant cast of characters were vividly brought to life
03:22by Michael Bentine, Peter Sellers and Harry Seacombe.
03:26Nearly 70 years on, a lot of Spike's stream of consciousness is totally baffling.
03:33Come out from behind that wall or I'll throw this at you!
03:36Put me down!
03:40Enter Bluebottle wearing crash helmet.
03:43Pause is for audience applause, not a sausage.
03:48The Goons were a massive success.
03:51But when radio gave way to television,
03:53their dominance of the comedy landscape cruelly came to an end.
03:57The sheer silliness of it opened the door to a brand-new kind of comedy.
04:01And although they were a bit early for me and my generation,
04:04they certainly paved the way for almost everything else you're about to see.
04:10Not least, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore,
04:13who rose to fame via Oxbridge and the Theatre
04:16and arrived on our black-and-white sets
04:18with a mixture of silliness and satire that had never been seen before.
04:22It seems hard to believe now,
04:24but the idea of discussing highfalutin ideas in mundane settings was completely new.
04:29Their stripped-down men-in-pub chats
04:31allowed Oxbridge Pete and Dagenham Dud
04:33to effortlessly and disarmingly cross the class divide.
04:37I was just about to drop off when suddenly...
04:40tap, tap, tap at the bloody windowpane.
04:45I looked out, you know it was a bloody Greta Garbo.
04:51The art gallery sketch is one of my favourites of all time.
04:55It perfectly pinpoints everything that was wonderful about Pete and Dud.
04:59It's a joy to watch and hasn't really dated at all.
05:02When I last saw you, you were in the Pissarro, weren't you?
05:05That's right.
05:06Well, I said I'd meet you outside the abstract,
05:08we'd go through the El Greco, up the Van Eyck,
05:10and I'd see you in front of the bloody Rubens.
05:14I'll sit.
05:20Garbo, what do you say, Dad?
05:22A lot of po-faced comedians and producers frown on coaxing,
05:26but they didn't care, and much better it is for that too.
05:29Pete and Dud assumed you were just as smart as they were
05:32and didn't adjust their references or patronise us.
05:35My Aunt Dolly would have done it for nothing.
05:40She does anything for nothing, doesn't she?
05:44Build the old car.
05:48Never afraid to improvise,
05:50watch Pete's gimlet eyes and murderous intent
05:53as he tries to unsettle Dud in front of a live audience.
05:56What a brilliant pair.
05:59It's worse than the paintings, my family.
06:02Timeless excellence, still incredibly razor-sharp,
06:05it cannot be underestimated just how influential Pete and Dud were.
06:10London was swinging and with it to welcome the 70s.
06:14The capital zipped into the new decade.
06:19When the 70s arrived, it was a technicolour fiesta
06:22promising a new era of fun and frivolity.
06:25It was party time, time to let rip and let 1970 know it was welcome.
06:31No act from the early years of TV comedy
06:34is more fondly remembered than Morecambe and Wise.
06:37The boys cut their teeth in variety theatre,
06:40joking, singing and dancing their way onto our TV screens in the 50s.
06:45By the 70s, their sketches had evolved to another level,
06:48so much so that half a century on, they are still genuinely iconic.
06:54Oops, cliché clexon.
06:57Take the very famous but utterly perfect Breakfast Sketch from 1976.
07:02It's silent comedy at its very best
07:04and shows off their considerable talents as physical performers too.
07:23The Morecambe and Wise Christmas special was the queen speech of comedy,
07:27with half the nation crowding round their TV sets to watch.
07:30Every star in the 70s firmament,
07:32from award-winning actors to chart-topping pop stars,
07:35stepped out of their comfort zones with Eric and Erne.
07:40Here's Shirley Bassey, like all the stellar guests,
07:43not hamming it up but playing Shirley Bassey.
07:52And retaining her dignity, despite the very best efforts of the duo.
08:01LAUGHTER
08:12It's common now to see newsreaders throw off the shackles of the desk,
08:16host panel shows and do barnstorming turns for charity.
08:20But back then, it took the nation by storm.
08:23Angela Rippon made headlines on Eric and Erne's famed 1977 special
08:28just by showing the nation she had legs and she could actually dance.
08:33Well, when you finally get to spot them...
08:36Hello, Angela.
08:44We got nothing to put on a clean white suit, boy...
08:48They took the same gag to even greater heights with this routine,
08:52which starts out as a fairly straight duet from South Pacific.
08:56MUSIC PLAYS
09:02But morphs into a technically extravagant piece of choreography
09:06with an unexpected cast of TV stalwarts.
09:10Can you see the drawing between acrobatic stuntman and ageing TV broadcaster?
09:17Because I can't.
09:22Marvellous, isn't it?
09:26How many orchestra conductors have become household names?
09:30Well, one, Andre Previn,
09:33or Andre Preview, as he would always be known after this.
09:37Probably because no-one expected someone from the po-faced world of classical music
09:42to have such a brilliant sense of humour.
09:45Eric, say hello to Mr Preview.
09:47Ah, Mr Preview, how are you?
09:49OK, so we've seen it a lot.
09:51Greek, with him and him.
09:53But it really does stand the test of time.
10:00And not just for some excellent banal piano.
10:04The one thing that always really leaps out for me...
10:07You're playing all the wrong notes.
10:10..is Eric's scarcely suppressed mock fury
10:13as he bares his teeth in a Bogart-like way.
10:16He really does look like he might actually lamp Andre
10:19before he delivers the immortal line.
10:23I'm playing all the right notes.
10:26But not necessarily in the right order.
10:31While Eric's deliberate tunelessness makes this such a cracker,
10:35if it's cringingly bad piano playing you're after,
10:38look no further than Les Dawson.
10:40All those hours of practice, Les,
10:42just to get good enough to be this bad.
10:54And that faux sincere smile.
10:56Oh!
10:59Les Dawson, the quintessential northern comic
11:02with an elastic face and a sublime command of the English language.
11:06There's much to admire in his sketches,
11:09and perhaps his most famous creations are Sissy and Ada.
11:13With Roy Barclough alongside,
11:15they gurned and gossiped with great comedic skill.
11:19I've always believed in keeping it on council.
11:22But I heard Sissy Williams' suit,
11:25remember the one about that funny fella?
11:27Yes, yes.
11:28Told me that they used to make love every Sunday
11:31to the gentle chimes of the church bell.
11:33Eee! Fancy.
11:35What did he die of?
11:37He died last Sunday. Fire engine went past.
11:41Like many great comic creations,
11:43Sissy and Ada evolved from real characters.
11:46Ones Les would have seen in his youth.
11:48The Mill Women of Manchester,
11:50who lip-read gossipy snippets over the clattering of the looms.
11:54And there's more than a passing resemblance
11:56to characters created by stage and radio comedian Norman Evans,
12:00like his wonderful Aunt Dollful.
12:02You're not looking too well, are you?
12:05I brought some flowers.
12:07I thought if I was still late they'd come in handy,
12:10but I see you're still here.
12:12I tell you what, it's a very awkward bend at the top of the stairs here
12:17to get a coffin down, isn't it?
12:19Scrape wallpaper a bit, won't they?
12:21Ha! Great voice.
12:23But in Sissy and Ada, Les and Roy nailed the characters
12:27with the overblown mannerisms and malapropisms...
12:30You try saying that.
12:32..as with the piano playing.
12:34It's the slip-ups that bring the laughs.
12:36Our Phyllis has really got to do it this time.
12:38Has she?
12:39She told me last night she'd forgot to take a contradictive pill.
12:43Well, I'm not surprised she's ignorant.
12:46Three months.
12:50Les also knew the value of good old-fashioned physical comedy.
12:54Take this spoofed chat show where two intellectuals
12:57appear to be trying to deconstruct the philosophy of comedy
13:00while doing something else entirely.
13:03Another condition of mine is that true humour
13:06is always somewhat quintessentially, basically intellectual.
13:10You understand what I mean?
13:12By this, I mean we do need in our comedy
13:15the short, sharp crackle of an Oscar Wilde epigram.
13:20Very true, very true.
13:22We need the gloss of a goldsmith.
13:24Yes, I see.
13:25And above all, we need the subtle satire of a Swift.
13:30A mainstream 70s northern comic doing a sketch deconstructing comedy
13:35was an unusual sight at the time,
13:37more reminiscent of something you'd expect to see in a later decade
13:40in Not the 9 O'Clock News or Michelin Where.
13:43Jolly comedy a lot.
13:50It was inevitable that one of them was going to lose it at some point.
13:58One thing they loved in the 70s was a good old-fashioned comedy vicar.
14:04May I ask you, sir, as a man of the cloth,
14:07how much value do you put on a marriage these days?
14:10Including the organist?
14:12About 15 quid.
14:13More Dick later.
14:15You are awful.
14:16It must have been divine inspiration that saw us write this homage for John Thompson.
14:21Thank you for your generous donation for this year's Harvest Festival.
14:25I can't wait to get my hands on your juicy ripe melons.
14:31So far, we've managed to trace the evolution of sketch comedy
14:35from the musicals through radio and onto our TV screens,
14:39arriving in the glorious era of TV comedy that was the 70s.
14:47Now, for the sublime and the ridiculous, and I don't mean that in a bad way,
14:51welcome to the biggest sketch comedy star of the decade, Benny Hill.
14:56He was the master of mainstream TV comedy,
14:59bringing his unique brand of music hall ribaldry
15:02to over 20 million homes in the 1970s.
15:06Benny was seen at the time as saucy postcard humour.
15:09However, by the end of the 80s, despite his shows being huge in America,
15:14he was falling foul of that you can't say this.
15:18And so, much of his peculiar genius has been lost in the mists of time.
15:23Which is a real shame, because Benny Hill was much more than a baldy burlesque performer.
15:28He obviously had a brilliant comedy brain.
15:31Throw open wide your window, dear.
15:36Benny was also an up-and-coming comedian.
15:39He was known for his humor and his humorous side.
15:42Throw wide your window, dear.
15:46Benny was also an unlikely chart-topping pop star.
15:49Ernie loved a widow, a lady known as Sue.
15:53She lived all alone in Lily Lane at number 22.
15:57They said she was too good for him, she was ordinary, proud and chic.
16:00But Ernie got his cocoa there three times every week.
16:04They called him Ernie.
16:06Ernie!
16:08And he drove the fastest milk car in the West.
16:11Ernie wasn't just a catchy tune, the lyrics are wonderful.
16:15And he looked up in pain surprised at the concrete hardened crust
16:19of a sale book pie caught him in the eye and Ernie bit the dust.
16:23Poor Ernie.
16:24Beat that, Shakespeare.
16:25Ernie!
16:26And he drove the fastest milk car in the West.
16:31The Benny Hill Show ran for four decades
16:34and remarkably, he wrote most of the sketches himself.
16:37Eighteen months ago, Edith Clackett worked for Thames TV.
16:41He often lampooned the medium of telly itself.
16:44And I love this one where the brilliant Henry McGee
16:47plays an interviewer grappling with new satellite technology.
16:50Do you still get the TV Times?
16:53Highly comic confusion ensues as glitching and delay
16:57causes a disconnect between question and answer.
17:01What's it like being married to a 70-year-old VCOT?
17:06Well, I don't get it as often as I used to.
17:13I used to look forward to Thursday mornings
17:17and the postman's visit, but when I do get it, I think of you, Alan.
17:23And all my friends at Thames Television, happy days they were.
17:27I believe your favourite wedding present was a French poodle.
17:30He's nearly 75 years old, you know.
17:33It's nearly two years since I was down that way.
17:37Yes.
17:38It's a long time since I saw you in the flesh.
17:41Alan, you wouldn't recognise the old place now.
17:47There's a motorway going...
17:52..going right from the tips of the Alps.
17:55Right the way down to the Massif Central.
18:00There's still one or two out-of-the-way places,
18:02but it's full of tourists nowadays.
18:04His Eurovision émigré is great
18:07and a precursor to the Two Lonnies classic mastermind sketch.
18:10Though, to be honest, it's not quite as good or precise.
18:15Good evening, your name, please?
18:17Good evening.
18:18You have chosen to answer the question before last each time,
18:21is that correct?
18:22Charlie Smithers.
18:23The brilliant mastermind sketch takes Benny's idea
18:26to a new, funnier and even cleverer level.
18:29What is paleontology?
18:30Yes, absolutely correct.
18:32Correct.
18:33What's the name of the directory that lists members of the peerage?
18:36A Study of Old Fossils.
18:38Actually shown in 1980, it was written by David Rennick,
18:41the man behind Victor Meldrew.
18:43Who are Len Murray and Sir Geoffrey Howe?
18:45Berks.
18:46Correct.
18:47What is the difference between a donkey and an ass?
18:49One's a trade union leader, the other's a member of the cabinet.
18:54The two Ronalds, Barker and Corbett,
18:56were giants of the decade, and ever after,
18:59due in large part to Ronnie Barker's brilliant writing and wordplay.
19:03You're sweet, milady.
19:05Oh, thank you, sir.
19:07You're nuts, milord.
19:10He also, of course, proved his acting chops
19:13as the star of one of our greatest sitcoms ever,
19:16playing Norman Stanley Fletcher in Porridge.
19:20Ronnie Corbett also had a sitcom of his own,
19:23Sorry, which was huge at the time,
19:25and for my money, much underrated.
19:27Language, Timothee Chalmers.
19:29Correct.
19:30What is the difference between a donkey and an ass?
19:32One's a trade union leader, the other's a member of the cabinet.
19:36Language, Timothee.
19:39Now, this is perhaps their most celebrated sketch,
19:42a flawless marriage of writing,
19:44pitch-perfect comic timing and sublime acting.
19:47BELL RINGS
19:49Four candles.
19:51Four candles.
19:52My mum laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks at this one.
19:57Here you are. Four candles.
19:59No, four candles.
20:01Well, there you are, four candles.
20:04No, four candles.
20:06Candles for forks.
20:09For me, Ronnie Corbett's world-weary exasperation
20:13is just as funny as Ronnie B's confusing requests,
20:16an undoubted classic.
20:21However, I still think it's the mastermind sketch
20:23that stands at the pinnacle of their great achievements.
20:26Complete the quotation, to be or not to be.
20:29They're both the same.
20:30I started, so they'll finish.
20:33What is Bernard Manning famous for?
20:35That is the question.
20:38Correct. Who is the present Archbishop of Canterbury?
20:41He is a fat man who tells blue jokes.
20:46For all the fun of the 70s,
20:48there's something that regrates more than anything
20:50when looking back in sketch shows of the time.
20:53There were so few women stars.
20:56Mostly, when they did pop up,
20:58they were foils to the funny men,
21:00either as sex pots or harridans.
21:02And when a sketch demanded an articulate woman,
21:05the men usually stole the part.
21:08In years to come, when I see your name in lights,
21:11I shall say,
21:13I knew her when she was only horse's backside.
21:17It's hard to think of many 70s comedians
21:19that didn't dress up as women.
21:21Take Dick Emery, another comedy giant of the 70s.
21:24He took the obsession with cross-dressing
21:27and really ran with it.
21:28Excuse me, madam.
21:29Miss.
21:30Miss.
21:31I'm asking questions about family life and so on.
21:34How do you feel about mothers and fathers?
21:36Oh, I think it's a lovely game.
21:40I'd rather not.
21:41Please, no!
21:44Emery was a comedy chameleon.
21:47His ability to morph into an array of radically different guises
21:51was quite extraordinary.
21:52And one popular character was his funny biker,
21:55Dick's nod to 70s aggro and youth culture.
21:58Excuse me, can you tell me, are you married, sir?
22:00No, mate, I shouldn't have the bike.
22:02Well, it's not the same as having a little wife, surely.
22:05Listen, mate, you show me a bird,
22:06I can ride up the M1 at over a ton and I'll figure it out.
22:11And not forgetting his unconvincing bother boy.
22:16Yeah, wait a minute.
22:17Yes?
22:19Oh, nothing.
22:22Dad!
22:23I think I've got it wrong again.
22:26Each show opened with Vox Pops,
22:28a staple of 70s news and current affairs.
22:31Emery's microcosm of 70s culture is shockingly un-PC.
22:38Hello, Honky Tonks, how are you?
22:39Very well.
22:40Nice to see you.
22:41But he pioneered the idea of the returning catchphrase
22:44where the sketch almost doesn't matter
22:46as long as you get to the famous punchline.
22:48Well, it looks as though you and your boyfriend
22:50are in for a really dirty weekend.
22:52You are awful.
22:55But I like you.
22:57What a stupid idea.
22:59So much so that Harry and I and the Fast Show nicked it wholesale.
23:03Which was nice.
23:05Despite any current notions of political correctness,
23:08when I was looking back at Dick,
23:10ooh, matron,
23:11the character that made me laugh the most
23:13was that lovely young lady Mandy.
23:15Ooh, you are awful.
23:17So here goes.
23:18Tell me, miss, do you have good neighbours?
23:20Well, I live in a hostel for young women,
23:22and the girls are friendly,
23:23but we're having trouble with the manager.
23:25Oh, what about?
23:26Well, he objects to us having pin-ups on the wall.
23:28Oh, I see, so you girls are going to give in
23:30and take them down for him?
23:31Pardon?
23:32Or are you going to hang on to yours
23:34and stop him tearing them off?
23:36Oh, you are awful.
23:39But I like you.
23:40Like so much comedy of the era,
23:42Dick Emery relied heavily on the double entendre,
23:45perhaps because swearing on telly
23:47was taboo.
23:48Never mind you couldn't say it out in the 70s,
23:51there was a lot you couldn't say on TV in the 90s.
23:54So we got round it with some judicious cutting on the far show.
23:58Stand back, he's gone.
23:59Match.
24:00Woof!
24:01Like that.
24:02Anyway, flames have died down,
24:04he's dug down there,
24:05he's took out a tin of beer,
24:07he's gone to my mate Phil that.
24:09And was it cold?
24:10Was it?
24:11Although we loved Morgan and Wyse,
24:13Benny Hill and all the others,
24:15they were mainstream
24:16and kind of belonged to our mums and dads.
24:18What really caught our attention
24:20was the new alternative comedy.
24:22It came from the universities
24:24and honed its craft on sketch shows
24:26like Do Not Adjust Your Set
24:28and, at last, the 1948 show.
24:36When telly turned technicolour,
24:38these comedy partnerships went off in different directions
24:41to bring us such comedy delights
24:43as the goodies.
24:44This tandem-riding trio wore their intellect lightly
24:47and gave us a feast of silliness
24:49that had us rolling about the place.
24:51Ideas like the northern martial art of ekithump,
24:54where a black pudding becomes a lethal weapon.
24:57Tomorrow, I reveal the secret of ekithump.
25:01I reveal the secret of ekithump.
25:14One man thought this skit so funny
25:16he actually died laughing,
25:18and that's a fact.
25:24They were unfairly maligned by some as a kids' show,
25:27but we loved them,
25:28so much so that we ripped them off.
25:31Hooray!
25:47But it was the coming together
25:49of Cleese, Palin, Idle, Chapman
25:52and Terry's Jones and Gilliam
25:54that gave us Monty Python's Flying Circus.
25:58Bringing comedy into a whole new modern era,
26:01the Pythons were undoubtedly the biggest influence
26:04on my generation of comedians.
26:06Your wife, does she, er, does she go,
26:08hey, hey, hey, know what I mean,
26:10know what I mean, nudge nudge, say no more?
26:12She sometimes goes, yes.
26:13I bet she does, I bet she does, I bet she does.
26:15Know what I mean, know what I mean, nudge nudge.
26:17Suits you, sir.
26:18This was the stuff we'd be reciting
26:20in the playground the next morning,
26:22wetting ourselves laughing.
26:24Right, right, stop it.
26:26Always look on the bright side...
26:29Python may have arrived in October 1969,
26:32but I've put them in the 70s
26:34because that's where I remember them.
26:36And it is in that decade that they went stellar in America,
26:39selling out the Hollywood Bowl
26:41and incensing the censors with their subversive films and music.
26:45But where do you start?
26:46How do you choose?
26:47From the social satire...
26:49Ampstead wasn't good enough for you, was it?
26:53You had to go poncing off to Barnsley.
26:56The preposterous slapstick...
26:59or the outrageously stupid.
27:01This is a late parent!
27:05It's a stiff, bereft of life.
27:08It rests in peace.
27:09If you hadn't nailed it to the perch,
27:11it would be pushing out the daisies.
27:13It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.
27:17This is an ex-parent.
27:21I love all that.
27:22I'd like to have an argument, please.
27:24But for me, it's this perfect marriage of highbrow concept
27:28and downright silliness that makes the argument sketch my favourite.
27:32No, it isn't.
27:33Actually, yes, it is!
27:35Is this the right room for an argument?
27:37I've told you once.
27:39No, you haven't.
27:40Yes, I have.
27:41When?
27:42Just now.
27:43No, you didn't.
27:44Yes, I did.
27:45Didn't?
27:46Didn't!
27:47I'm telling you, I did.
27:48You did not!
27:50Oh! Oh, just the five-minute one.
27:52Fine.
27:55Thank you.
27:56Anyway, I did.
27:57You most certainly did not.
27:58Now, let's get one thing quite clear.
28:00This is futile.
28:01No, it isn't.
28:02I came here for a good argument.
28:03No, you didn't. You came here for an argument.
28:04Well, an argument's not the same as contradiction.
28:06Can be.
28:07No, it can't!
28:08An argument's a connected series of statements
28:10to establish a definite proposition.
28:12No, it isn't.
28:13Yes, it is! It isn't just contradiction.
28:15Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
28:18But it isn't just saying, no, it isn't.
28:19Yes, it is.
28:20No, it isn't!
28:22Argument's an intellectual process.
28:24Contradiction is just the automatic game-saying
28:26of anything the other person says.
28:27No, it isn't.
28:28Yes, it is!
28:29Not at all.
28:30No, look, I...
28:31Thank you.
28:35So that's my arrogant take on the birth of the TV sketch show.
28:39Now, where?
28:41Ready to order, sir?
28:43The 80s would take the baton and run with it.
28:47There was silliness...
28:51...satire...
29:02...and some very slow service.
29:16© BF-WATCH TV 2021