Anyone remember this sketch and where it's from?

Hi all,

This is my first post, and I am hoping one of you can help answer a question that has been bugging me for years.

I remember seeing a comedy sketch, which I would guess (from the subject matter) was from 1985-1986, when I would have been 13/14 years old. We had recorded it on video and I watched it countless times, to the point I can remember it almost word for word.

Does anyone remember this, and more importantly what show it was from? I would love to try and see if it's on YouTube.

It starts with a turntable with a record playing. The voiceover says "First, there was Evita". A pair of hands appears, pulls the need from the record, picks the record up and smashed it against the turntable. LOL!

The next Lloyd-Webber musical to get the treatment is Cats. As the record plays, the hands scratches the needle across the record and dumps the stylus arm back on its housing.

Starlight Express is next. A cassette is playing, which is stopped and ejected, and smashed to bits with a hammer.

Requium....a shot of the record which then melts away under a burning flame.

Voiceover - "And now.....there's Phantom of the Opera". A CD is ejected.

Voiceover - "Sounds that will live with you forever". The CD is smeared with something like jam or chocolate spread and is put back in the CD player.

Voiceover - "Because some prat invented the compact disc!". The listener hold his ears in pain as the title track chorus is heard in the background.

I thought it might have been from Naked Video, but have looked through a lot of episodes without success. I have racked my brains to think of what other shows would have been around at the time that POTO came out.

If anyone knows I would be eternally grateful!

Feels like a Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch, but of course that ended a full four and a half years before The Phantom of the Opera opened...

I *think* this is from a Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones show. My guess would be The World According To Smith And Jones, but it could very well have been Smith & Jones.

Thanks for the reply Aaron.

I did think about Smith & Jones - I reckon it was a BBC show and must have been on at a later hour (hence the need to video it). They were certainly active at this time.

Only reservation with S&J was I can vaguely picture the final scene (which was the only one to show anyone's face) and I don't think it was either of them - I reckon it was a member of team of people (which was why I thought Naked Video).

Sounds like it could be something that Who Dares Wins did.

Or Jasper Carrott

Jasper Carrott! Think you may be onto the answer there Steve. Prat is definitely a kind of word he'd use.

I'd be really surprised if it's Who Dares Wins as I'm sure I've seen the sketch in question, but know I've never watched more than a couple of brief snippets of WDW.

I'm sure I remember that too...

Alas I can't help

Thank you for the replies all.

I certainly watched WDW and it was on late, so that is a bit possibility. I remember a few things from that. Used to watch a lot of Jasper Carrot too, but not feeling it was him for some reason.

I wondered about Kenny Everett too, but I've looked through sketch lists and can't find anything in the time period that would match with your description.

I realise this post is of very little help whatsoever. :/

I think it may be from Spitting Image

I remember them doing something similar
But thought the OP might remember if they were puppets

Certainly was not Spitting Image, it was a human being in the sketch.

I may take a punt on Naked Video series 2 DVD from 1986 - they did a sketch on the Compact Disc in series 1 which has got me thinking they may have done something similar in the second series.

Alexei Sayle's Stuff, maybe?

If the sketch features a CD, it would have been early 90s at the earliest.

Not really. They were commercially available in the mid 80s.