Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 16 2010, 10:03 AM BSTWhy not just show the sketches they have left performed by, you know, Pete & Dud?
They did that a while back on Beeb 2. Back in the early 1990s, I think. So, yes, probably time they showed them again.
Quote: john lucas 101 @ July 16 2010, 10:05 AM BSTThey did that a while back on Beeb 2. Back in the early 1990s, I think. So, yes, probably time they showed them again.
They're not even out on DVD; just a poxy 'best of' collection. Why haven't they released everything they have left of 'Not Only But Also'?
Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 16 2010, 10:07 AM BSTThey're not even out on DVD; just a poxy 'best of' collection. Why haven't they released everything they have left of 'Not Only But Also'?
The Beeb aren't exactly the best sometimes when it comes to that kind of thing. Guess that's why so much of their stuff is released via other companies.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ July 15 2010, 10:26 PM BST... the callously stupid BBC by wiping the tapes in the first place. There should have been a proper explanation of why the fools did it, including stating the enormous effort Cook went to stop them doing it, and of course there should have been an apology!
Quite. I detest the BBC using the term "lost" when they mean "deliberately destroyed" - especially in this case, as Cook indeed tried hard to copy and then buy the tapes prior to wiping but to no avail.
Quote: Kenneth @ July 16 2010, 4:20 PM BSTQuite. I detest the BBC using the term "lost" when they mean "deliberately destroyed" - especially in this case, as Cook indeed tried hard to copy and then buy the tapes prior to wiping but to no avail.
Yeah, it is terrible. Cook tried to save his show and they just ignored him.
Quote: Kenneth @ July 16 2010, 4:20 PM BSTQuite. I detest the BBC using the term "lost" when they mean "deliberately destroyed" - especially in this case, as Cook indeed tried hard to copy and then buy the tapes prior to wiping but to no avail.
Criminal isn't it!
As for this show, bit of a waste of time I thought. The only thing it really did, as pointed out above, was highlight how Pete and Dud brought something extra to the script beyond what was written on the paper. The performers on this modern show did their best but struggled to make much of it funny.
It was so cheap it was almost insulting. They could've spent a couple of grand and given them decent sets.
I don't really like watching re-enactments of sketches, the Monty Python 'Four Yorkshiremen' sketch done by the likes of Alan Rickman etc. leaves me cold. So I wasn't too keen. Jonny Sweet was too sweet to play Pete, I liked him though and would look out fcr him in the future.
I think that it goes to show that things are usually funnier when people are performing their own material.
Also as I said before it often helps if you follow the script.
Father & Son was ruined.
They didn't do the "What's that Daddy" "That's a ship" "You never ask me that anymore"
Lines like "I'll if Indeed I did fight you my boy!" work better when you say all the words in the line, as it has a certain rythym to it.
Fiends should be pronounced Feeeeuuurnds.
etc etc etc.
Simon Day did look like he wanted it to end as soon as possible though.
I agree with all that has been said here.
I tuned in in the middle of one of the conferences and my first impression was how much of a closed shop BBC comedy has become. The same old tired faces, the stagnant 'talent pool', the speed-dial setting which the BBC obviously has with Stephen Fry etc.
Then onto the re-enactments which did feature a few new people. When they started the routines, I realised why they were not on TV. Simply awful. Its been a long time since I've seen so many comedians die on stage.
I understand it is difficult to re-create these sketches, but surely a better attempt could have been made? I think probably a double act who had some rapport should have been tried.
I felt a bit sorry for Angus Deayton.
He's quite a good sketch performer.
I used to enjoy him in KYTV and Alexei Sayle's stuff.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 16 2010, 10:07 AM BSTThey're not even out on DVD; just a poxy 'best of' collection. Why haven't they released everything they have left of 'Not Only But Also'?
Even what they broadcast was a 'best of' - so the DVD is a 'highlights of the best of what's left'... Groan and a half.
Quote: john lucas 101 @ July 16 2010, 10:08 AM BSTThe Beeb aren't exactly the best sometimes when it comes to that kind of thing. Guess that's why so much of their stuff is released via other companies.
2 Entertain are worse than useless with archive programming. They just don't care.
Quote: Cheesehoven @ July 16 2010, 8:32 PM BSTI agree with all that has been said here.
I tuned in in the middle of one of the conferences and my first impression was how much of a closed shop BBC comedy has become. The same old tired faces
They did add two young unknowns though, so they made a bit of an effort with that.
Who was the new fella who wasn't in Reginald Perrin?
Quote: Mark @ July 16 2010, 7:07 PM BSTAs for this show, bit of a waste of time I thought.
A couple of Australian comic actors performed a show of Cook and Moore's sketches over late 2009/early 2010. Reviews were mixed. I didn't see it, as I feared I would hate it (impossible to improve on the original). Much more fun to listen to what's left and read the scripts. (The guy doing Moore's lines was the idiot son in the Australian film The Castle)
They did show some Cook & Moore TV stuff that they performed in Australia recently.
I don't know if it was the same programme but the Two Ronnies also had a fiddle down under.
