Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 21st February 2022, 4:35 PMAnother brilliant one by Graham McCann on Barry Cryer "The Master Craftsman"
Superb seeing the Mark Lawson interview repeat during the week. He's such a good interviewer - all of his are brilliant, but this one was special, and I'm going to burn it to DVD for posterity.
Excellent latest on Michael Mills. I've seen his name often enough in the credits but didn't know what he actually did.
And he married Valerie Leon !
Another engrossing chronicle. Producer/director Duncan Wood.
A real eye opener for me into the work and thought that goes into creating a 30 minute sitcom.
It's not just the script and acting.
Yet another superb Comedy Chronicle from Graham McCann, the comedy historian who I have, for a number of years now, hung onto his every word, whenever he appears in some television review/look back etc. The man is a mine of comedy information.
This time, it is in my own back yard of The Goon Show, with a potted history of The Last Goon Show of All, which I remember well going out on radio and TV, both of which I have recordings of.
Lots there in his piece I didn't know about how the show took a very long time to come to fruition, especially with Spike blowing hot and cold, and the number of people trying to get him to commit. It's wonder it ever got off the ground, and am so glad it did.
AND, I'm glad it was finally pointed out what I'd been saying for years on this forum, that Michael Bentine had no right to appear in the masthead photograph for The Goon Show thread, as one of Milligan's conditions was that Bentine was to have nothing to do with this final broadcast - it certainly would have ruined the evening.
AND, Aaron ? I can't tell you how pleased I was to see "my" choice of the best Goons photo was used to head Graham's tribute (see above). I'm sure you wouldn't deny me that mention, and (I sincerely hope I don't regret this) have one last reconsider, having now seen Mr McCann's choice of photo being the same as mine.
runs away and hides............
It was my choice.
Oh............then maybe?
Might I also persuade you to have another listen to a Goon Show? I feel sure you would enjoy them if only you would listen to the plot and not look on them as just being a load of funny voices.
Try
"The Man Who Never Was"
"Ye Bandit of Sherwood Forest"
For starters ?
Another excellent article by Graham McCann on Mike and Bernie Winters, a comedy duo that never seemed to quite gel with the TV general public.
I remember them just being so-so and the memory was refreshed recently via one of Network's "Big Night In" DVDs, which featured one of their "Big Night Out" shows for ABC TV. Surprisingly, it was better than I remember than what was in my memory, but nothing I would watch again, as I would with any Morecambe and Wise show, which they were of course, often compared to.
The only thing I would take Graham to task with, and this maybe because he was being polite, was their appearance at the English comedian's graveyard - the Glasgow Empire, when somebody in the gods exclaimed "F**k! There's two of them", after Mike's silent walk on stage was followed by Bernie. This I have read from two or three sources, so I like to think it is correct.
What I would like to see is the Michael Winner "The Cool Mikado" film mentioned that they appeared in, in 1963 with the likes of Frankie Howerd and Tommy Cooper - apparently it severely bombed, and was a total disaster. There is a couple on eBay for sale, but I'm not paying nearly £10! ?
You probably found this already - but I thought it might appeal - the'Press Kit' for the film. https://wke.hosting.nyu.edu/wke/press/coolmikado/coolmikado.pdf
Thank you for that - most interesting. Apparently only Stubby Kaye came out of it with any credit.
Very much enjoyed the Charlie Drake/Peter Gabriel offering.
I presume that all these are going to be a bundled into a book someday?
I should imagine it would do well, gracing any comedy/show-biz lovers shelves.
Yes, another brilliant article by Graham, and none of which I knew about. I have a DVD somewhere of the doc. they did on him just before he died (Drake), when he was living with his brother Ted in a small flat - he was a very bitter man in the end.
And yes, they would make for an excellent book, which I would certainly buy.
Mr McCann was a practical man...
Another superb one from Mr McCann......................
https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/in-celebration-eric-sykes/
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 24th April 2023, 11:34 PMAnother superb one from Mr McCann......................
And yet again, another superb piece of work on this time, Jewel and Warriss, dispelling the myth that in the end they split up because they hated each other so much, and I wonder if that was a non-truth with Jewel's sitcom partner Hylda Baker, because quite often when they were working together in "Nearest and Dearest", there were moments when you could see them trying not to smile, which indicates to me that there was certainly no hate there.
Ho hum.
But the other thing I had to laugh about, was when they went over to America to appear on the Ed Sullivan show (it's an old one, which I'd heard before from Eric and Ernie, when Sullivan announced them as Morrey Camby and Wise - there are other ones in Graham's Chronicle here), as I always thought that Sullivan looked and sounded one sandwich short of a picnic . It's amazing to me that Sullivan became as big and powerful on American TV that he did, and this just creased me up from Graham's article :-
"Described by one critic as 'a man with no perceivable talent', and by another as 'the only dead host of a live show', Sullivan was an improbable TV star. He had the shifty, distracted air of a man who was expecting to be arrested, and moved with all the grace of a badly-handled string puppet. He was, nonetheless, a hugely powerful figure who could make or break careers with his often impetuous and capricious decisions."
A must read for any fan of comedy - as are ALL Graham's Chronicles
These are the Chronicles I'm most proud of being able to publish. It's important we don't forget the legacy others have gifted us and the superstars of yesteryear.