Anyone else thoroughly enjoying Graham McCann's informative and very well written articles. His latest on comedy auditions at the BBC gives a real insight into the historical near misses of some o& our comedy greats.
BCG Comedy Chronicles
Yes,I've read a lot of them.They are all excellent.I haven't started on the latest yet.
Yes, superb - all of them, and should be a must for anyone belonging to this forum.
I print them off to Word and read at my leisure because I do suffer from eye strain staring at a screen too long, with my glaucoma.
One potential star called a "cheeky young bastard" after one audition.
Glad you're both enjoying them! We love reading them ourselves; always offering wonderful insight and very evocative of those glory days of entertainment. And regularly laugh-out-loud funny, too.
Plus, your generous donations as Supporters make sure they're possible, so thank you both! :-)
There's three of us here
The latest :
Ill-advised revivals: The sitcom's living dead
I didn't bother with the bit about the Yes, Prime Minister revival, but the stuff about Potter and The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin was interesting.
Bailey was good - he was himself a very clever and crafty actor - but his presence never stopped being seen as a negative: he was 'not Arthur Lowe'. He stuck out in every scene as if someone had clumsily Photoshopped his image into someone else's picture.
"How much potential in Le Pétomane is there still waiting to be tapped? Well, to paraphrase the wonderful Galton and Simpson, it must be very nearly an arseful."
Clever
I remember not being that impressed with it at the time and am surprised they wrote it
Latest !
Thatcher saves British comedy!
I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying she didn't actually give any money away.
https://www.comedy.co.uk/features/comedy_chronicles/
The secret history of US comedy on UK radio
Very interesting.Especially for those of us who spent our formative years glued to the wireless.
Yet another brilliant exposé by Graham McCann.
I'm a massive fan of Milligan and Sellers, but their attitude and sabotage were bloody disgraceful, on top of which, the money they received for doing the cigarette advert horribly hypocritical of both of them.
Maybe I shouldn't have read the article, as both of them have gone down in my estimation with regard to their professionalism.
It's not as though I hadn't read previous how awkward the two of them could be and Sellers' arrogance, but this has proved a bit of a shock, as I didn't realise, they were that bad. How that Peter Medak didn't commit murder or suicide is nothing short of a miracle.
Yes,it is a good read.A lot of the showbiz types seem to be a nightmare.At least those two were talented.Unlike most of what they call stars these days.
I'd really like to watch that film 'The Ghost of Peter Sellers' - not sure where it's available, though. Also, I didn't realise he was related to Daniel Mendoza - he was also one of my distant relatives, so I'll start telling people Peter Sellers was my uncle.