Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 28 2009, 11:14 PM GMTNot their best song at all, but coming at the end further proves it was a compilation, to sort of say that's it, we're off, ta ta.
Well, it was the closer of the final ever episode.
Not Again: Not The Nine O'Clock News Page 2
Quote: Tim Walker @ December 28 2009, 11:17 PM GMTI've always loved the song 'Kinda Lingers' myself. I think you have to appreciate that this was broadcast at a time when the word "cunnilingus" was considered a very taboo word for TV and so the question as to whether or not the song made much sense is rather irrelevant.
How can it be irrelevant! Surely the joke has to make some kind of sense? Surely?! Surely?!?! 
Quote: Tim Walker @ December 28 2009, 11:17 PM GMTI've always loved the song 'Kinda Lingers' myself. I think you have to appreciate that this was broadcast at a time when the word "cunnilingus" was considered a very taboo word for TV and so the question as to whether or not the song made much sense is rather irrelevant.
I too love it. Great little tune. (And I don't think it makes any less sense than most 'real' songs.)
Then why not just show the final episode? We'd have seen some new clips.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ December 28 2009, 11:20 PM GMTHow can it be irrelevant! Surely the joke has to make some kind of sense? Surely?! Surely?!?!
The memory kinda lingers - ooh kinda lingers sounds like cunnilingus - that's a fitting end to the series - rude and definitive ... and one of the worst songs they ever did IMO - the hedgehog song was by far the best :-)
Quote: Matthew Stott @ December 28 2009, 11:20 PM GMTHow can it be irrelevant! Surely the joke has to make some kind of sense? Surely?! Surely?!?!
"Goodbye is the hardest word to say ... the memory kinda lingers".
I.e.
"Goodbye ... but we've still got all of these great memories".
Makes perfect sense to me.
Quote: Aaron @ December 28 2009, 11:23 PM GMT"Goodbye is the hardest word to say ... the memory kinda lingers".
I.e.
"Goodbye ... but we've still got all of these great memories".
Makes perfect sense to me.
Ah well, I didn't listen to the song as closely as you if that's in there. It's still rubbish though.
I've seen funny sketches from the show too before, none of which seemed to be in that particular episode!
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 28 2009, 11:21 PM GMTThen why not just show the final episode? We'd have seen some new clips.
Well, as I said, there is an obvious advantage in a compilation episode: sketch shows are inherently hit-and-miss. By showing us a 'highlights' collection, they cut through what they consider to be the crappier stuff, leaving us with a better impression of the show.
(And thus more likely to buy the DVDs. 
)
But they'd already done the advert by showing the best clips in the special. We're possibly less likely to want to buy the DVD after we've just seen most of them again straight afterwards. And that Atkinson walking into a tree sketch was played over and over in the special. The BBC have always been thick at this sort of thing.
I thought that this (the doc) was a great show and a really interesting insight into one of comedy's great iconic programmes.
Furthermore it served to confirm to me something that I have banged on about on here in the past. To wit - the old style sketch show versus its new and modern incarnation.
John Lloyd mentioned, as did some of the cast, the struggle and manic scramble to record on Sunday, broadcast Monday and then go straight into scripting the next show to hit the following week's same deadlines.
Rarely, if indeed at all as far as I can remember, were the same characters and punchlines trotted out week after week, series after series, year after year. It was necessary and indeed expected that each show was new, original and fresh.
Compare and contrast this if you will with the modern equivalents.
Same tired old toot (admittedly sometimes quite funny *first time*) complete with same old punchlines show after show.
Nowadays you come up with 5-6 characters / situations and jokes. You then record them 36 times, and there you are squire, that's your 6 week series done. You then do that for, say 3 years, sell shed-loads of DVDs of the same fu**ing stuff and put your feet up and retire.
These bloody moderns don't know they're born.
Yes, there is so much to be said for the old style deadline scripting and recording straight away. It may have given writers ulcers and broken marriages but it created fresh and energetic, slightly raw material that is largely missing in today's over polished shows, I think.
Anyone remember the 'Gift Shop' sketch, starring Mel and Griff? About the onyx ashtray? One of my favourite unsung sketches from this show. 
Oh, and the best song/medley ever in the show was Rowan's piss take of the Barry Manilow type of singer - '(Because I'm) Wet And Lonely'. So there.
Quote: Tim Walker @ December 28 2009, 11:54 PM GMTSo there.
Where?
Quote: Aaron @ December 28 2009, 11:25 PM GMT(And thus more likely to buy the DVDs.
All 27 episodes.
This time next year, Not Going Out will have had a longer run.
Just watched it. Very good indeed. As some have alluded to, it's good to watch a BBC comedy documentary which is more than just the Beeb patting itself on the back for being so brilliant; a programme which actually has some interesting things to say about its subject. Was particularly interested to hear the details of how Chris Langham came to be replaced, which I'd never fully appreciated.