They must have the most awsome warm up act.
Wish I could see them.
Watson & Oliver - Series 1 Page 9
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Quote: sootyj @ March 13 2012, 10:25 AM GMTYeh the writing was REALLY poor. Who's writing this stuff? Are they actually getting paid?
If Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver are upset that their career is being undermined by poor material, they can take it up with their writers. By an amazing coincidence, they are called Lorna Watson and Ingrid Oliver. I wonder if they're related?
Goodness me...Kevin Cecil is a writer (and script editor) on this and he co-wrote the wonderful Armando Iannucci Shows.
(Though I suppose the obvious explanation would be that there are two Kevin Cecils working in British comedy and this is the other, unfunny, one)
Just one guy. As is his writing partner Andy Riley.
And although uncredited, reknowned writer Robert Popper also script edited the series (and exec produced).
Then this is bizarre.
I mean I could see the jokes, I could see how they were meant to work. Conceptually some of them were actually rather well concieved.
Like the Bond medley where they didn't really buy into it or Will and Kate as a vapid pair who are obsessed with their wedding.
Good stuff.
But the leaden timing, punchline forecasting and repetition made it so awful. This was worse than Horne and Corden.
What's up BBC? Because this isn't the first miss with a stellar pedigree.
It's so dated like something from ten years ago. On top of it all it's not really funny. They rely on cliches to get poor jokes. The Myleene Klass joke is barely amusing. I am tired of seeing Cambridge Footlights types get a show based on the fact they went to Oxbridge.
Quote: sootyj @ March 13 2012, 7:19 PM GMTThis was worse than Horne and Corden.
Perhaps that's the problem, maybe Watson and Oliver are comic actresses rather than comedians? Maybe they'd do better with someone else's material.
Quote: sunderland @ March 15 2012, 1:41 AM GMTIt's so dated like something from ten years ago. On top of it all it's not really funny. They rely on cliches to get poor jokes. The Myleene Klass joke is barely amusing. I am tired of seeing Cambridge Footlights types get a show based on the fact they went to Oxbridge.
One went to Oxford, the other to Edinburgh.
Do you honestly think TV bosses hand out series willy nilly to anyone who has the slightest connection to Oxford university?
A well known BBC writer described it once as "Armadillo syndrome"
Once you're through the hard crunchy exterior the inside is rather soft and squishy.
So once you're in, expectations drop.
Quote: zooo @ March 15 2012, 11:18 AM GMTDo you honestly think TV bosses hand out series willy nilly to anyone who has the slightest connection to Oxford university?
Yes.
Heh! Fair enough.
I wasn't sure about this - saw it for the first time the other day. I didn't mind watching it - but I don't think I laughed outwardly the whole way through.
Thinking about this show, I'm struck by some one's earlier remark that it was a lot like Morecambe and Wise. It is, or The Two Ronnies, thing is both those double acts were; well double acts and song and dance performers.
So all the bantering, mock bad song and dance was second nature. Where as for these 2 talented actresses it doesn't feel that way. I could picture in a more serious minded actorly sketch show like Big Train. But this show doesn't fit them at all.
Not least of all in episode one when camp old Barrowman who is a song and dance man blew them off the stage.
It just makes one wonder why you have such a strange, awkward mixture of writing, performer and style. It's like the whole thing isn't even slightly planned out.
On stage it all worked really well, so I don't think the commissioning is a problem or an oddity or a surprise. I just think it looks a little undernourished at this length and depth.
The James Bond parody thing was a stage highlight, for example. But with money for props and costumes and other actors it suddenly looks rubbish.
This feels a little like the We Are Klang telly stuff - brilliant live, but unable to translate that to a big forum without losing some of the charm. The home made feel being half the point.
Quote: Antrax @ March 16 2012, 11:53 AM GMTThe James Bond parody thing was a stage highlight, for example. But with money for props and costumes and other actors it suddenly looks rubbish.
Kind of reminds me of when Russ Abbott made the transition to BBC; the charm of the Madhouse had lain in the 'the let's do the show right here' quality, whereas the Beeb gave him the whole Two Ronnies big production number, with proper sets and actual dancers (rather than Bella Emberg in a tutu), and the whole thing just fell completely flat.