Galton & Simpson's Half Hour

Just heard this trailed by Radio 2 today. It's on Radio 2 Sat at 1.30pm

BBC Radio 2 marks the 60th anniversary of their writing partnership with a series of half-hour comedies starring Frank Skinner, Mitchell and Webb, Rik Mayall, June Whitfield and Paul Merton. They were written for television by Ray and Alan and especially adapted by them for radio. Radio Times Site

Hmmm. I wonder how this will work as Paul Merton's Hancock remake didn't exactly wow them all.

The scripts will be ace but I wonder if a modern-day stellar cast will do them the same justice as the originals. Mind it's worked with Wodehouse adaptations -so fingers crossed.

However for me some of the charm of the originals is just that, their originality - you feel that watching or listening to them you are getting in on a piece of comedy history as it is/was going down.

Apologies if this has been highlighted already but I couldn't see it.

I'll be listening. It's a shame it wasn't on last month when I was going through a crazy Galton & Simpson phase (in that time I watched all the Steptoes, all the Hancocks, The Rebel, The Galton and Simpson Playhouse, Dawson's Weekly and Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's), but I've got out of the phase. I think I'll make a point of taping them onto audio cassette.
Also to add on, the 'Galton and Simpson Radio Playhouse' is soon to be released on CD.

Mark mentioned this last week, I think it was. I was more excited before I read that they were existing adaptations, rather than entirely new shows!

https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/galton_simpson_half_hour/

Interestingly, Rik Mayall and June Whitfield are starring in one together. How well will they get on after all that slagging off Rik did about 'Terry & June'

I'm sure she can forgive such silliness.

Well she'd better hurry up in recording her episode, she must get home in case Terry's boss unexpectedly turns up for dinner.

Am really looking forward to these recordings. I guess the whole point of them is that they are shit but it doesn't matter because it's Galton and Simpson so therefore they are far more superior as writers for anyone to critcise any of their work. They are like the Beatles but without the dead wood of Harrison and Ringo.

Edited by Aaron.

Is that meant to be a dig at G&S?

I listened to the first twenty minute of it in the car yesterday, but reached my destination, but I liked it, I will listen to the rest of it on iPlayer. I really liked what I heard.

That woman's Scouse accent was terrible.

Problem is, remakes of G&S scripts usually have terrible actors star in them.

Whatever you think of them as stand-ups, or on panel shows, Paul Merton and Frank Skinner are both appalling actors. Plus, you'd think Frank Skinner might have taught the other actors how to do a proper West Midlands accent instead of a caricaturised "Oy luv yow" affair. The mix of his genuine accent and the exaggerated accents of his companions just sounded weird.

Quote: Aaron @ March 6 2009, 11:00 AM GMT

Is that meant to be a dig at G&S?

View original

What's Gilbert and Sullivan got to do with any of this? Keep on thread Aaron !

Haven't these scripts been done too often now..?

I listened to the Burt Reynolds one yesterday... Didn't really do it for me.

a) Rik Mayall was loud and aggressively bellowing in a cartoon style as usual, which only really works when someone is doing it back (like Bottom etc.. a different style of comedy).
b) It was not a suitable script for an update really. They added Brown and Cameron, but they ignored the internet (which would have solved the whole central issue of the plot). Surely, in a modern house with adults of all ages and kids there too, it would have occurred to someone to go online rather than call America...?

I tend to be rather pedantic, sorry.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ March 23 2009, 1:50 PM GMT

I listened to the Burt Reynolds one yesterday... Didn't really do it for me.

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Fair play. I personally thought it was great... especially the line about Gordon Brown and the monkeys.

Quote: Maurice Minor @ March 23 2009, 1:50 PM GMT

It was not a suitable script for an update really. They added Brown and Cameron, but they ignored the internet.

View original

I'd tend to agree with this though. They should just have left it set in the time period in which it was first written. Five seconds on a 3G mobile phone, and all would have been solved via IMDb.

The same goes for the Mitchell & Webb stuck car episode. They shouldn't have tried updating that because certain lines of the script obviously couldn't be modernised and thus stuck out when they were read out (e.g. the AA don't have to salute any more... but it was left in the script)