Upsetter
Islander
friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Hearing Aids
Posts: 200
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Post by Upsetter on Jun 29, 2005 11:46:36 GMT -5
I'll say another thing since I'm an honest bloke. It interests me that Dulcie actually said something acute and got me writing on here. She's a sweetheart. Slightly off the wall but she's one smart kid and I've always loved her for her honesty although I think sometimes she's misguided. She mixed up being clever with pretension...its okay though - Tracey Emin does the same thing.
Imagine a kernel - it exists even in our computers. It causes us endless problems but essentially there is some truth in the centre. Thats dulcie in a desert island nutshell.
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jun 29, 2005 11:51:30 GMT -5
I haven't bothered with it since Angus Deayton got the heave-ho.
Radio, and particularly TV, have changed the whole thing: In the days of the variety theatres, acts could travel the same material for a year or more, polishing it as they went. With TV (in particular) they are usually working new, untried stuff.
What I deplore in modern comedy, is the malicious, divisive, 'ripping the piss out of' brand of comedy. And who told David Badiel he was amusing?
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Upsetter
Islander
friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Hearing Aids
Posts: 200
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Post by Upsetter on Jun 29, 2005 11:57:14 GMT -5
they don't pay their dues, Dirk.
Its just like music - it is manufactured. I'm not saying they aren't funny. Alan Partridge and The Office had their moments but they are essentially 'one-horse pony's'. They can't adapt. Hancock couldn't adapt without the scripts but the guy was a genius actor - not a comedian.
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Crusoe
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Post by Crusoe on Jun 30, 2005 4:43:55 GMT -5
'Shuttleworths'?? is he the guy who used to be Jilted John. Yes, that’s the one. He's funny in a whimsical way but listen he is no Harry Hill, let alone a new Tony Hancock. Well, that’s the point I was making about personal taste: I am probably more prone to whimsy than some. You’re right that he’s not a new Tony Hancock but Tony Hancock really was a bit special and worked perfectly with Galton and Simpson’s scripts. It’s probably significant that nothing that Tony Hancock did without Galton & Simpson was as successful as “Hancock’s Half Hour” and nothing else Galton and Simpson wrote (even “Steptoe and Son”) was quite as successful or as timeless as “Hancock’s Half Hour”. A true comedian can just ramble off into a tangent like Peter Cooke and people have the intellignece to realise this.. Another very special person, Peter Cooke. I find that Paul Merton is very similar in his ability to generate hilarious flights of fancy and look at the world form a different angle. Despite your reservations, I find Linda Smith quite similar. Linda Smith the funniest comedian. I don't think so, but maybe in a scripted programme she is funny. I saw her on HIGNFY and she was pretty good for a guest but nothing special She is frequently very funny on things like “The News Quiz” and “Just a Minute”, as well as in her own programme. It may be that the format of HIGNFY doesn’t allow people the space to go off on amusing tangents. even Bernard was funny. He could wipe the floor with todays…In his prime guys like him and Ken Dodd are peerless. Its sad but we won't see they're like again…please tell me who can merely walk onto a stage and have the audience in tears of laughter. But tastes change, which is why it is so remarkable that Hancock remains funny. I am not sure many audiences would be in tears of laughter when Bernard Manning or Ken Dodd, nowadays. Bring the sexmad cocaine sniffer back on - he was good!  … …at reading the Autocue. (And even he started his broadcast comedy career on radio, in “Radio Active”) |
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Post by imvho on Jun 30, 2005 5:09:13 GMT -5
Hancock couldn't adapt without the scripts but the guy was a genius actor - not a comedian. Everyone has their heroes and saints but if Hancock wasn't a comedian, he wasn't a good actor either. He's a bit before my time so I look at him as a bygone curiosity rather than a hero. I see he couldn't avoid noticing the camera, not once but several times in each episode. First rule of telly acting - don't give the game away regarding the camera. I also get the feeling he frequently searched for his next line. Sorry, his is quite an ordinary performance, imo.  On the other hand, Steptoe and Son has me in stitches sometimes - even when I've seen it before. |
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Post by imo on Jun 30, 2005 5:16:58 GMT -5
yes, but Paul Merton isn't as good as he once was....I get the impression his heart isn't in it as much now. Too long in the same old format probably... Get out Paul - stretch yourself, exercise your talent more!
Eddie Mair. The guy should be on more.
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Post by imo on Jun 30, 2005 5:23:22 GMT -5
I give it two more series at the most. Bring the sexmad cocaine sniffer back on - he was good!  The trouble is, when series have been going on as long as this, the BBC are scared to take it off even if it is dead wood. Look at the Archers. Well, look at EastEnders and listen to the Archers. Come on, BBC. Every other big corporation in the country does it - make some people unemployed! Well, they have done - but it's the wrong people. |
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Crusoe
Islander
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Post by Crusoe on Jun 30, 2005 5:49:21 GMT -5
Everyone has their heroes and saints but if Hancock wasn't a comedian, he wasn't a good actor either. He's a bit before my time so I look at him as a bygone curiosity rather than a hero. I see he couldn't avoid noticing the camera, not once but several times in each episode. First rule of telly acting - don't give the game away regarding the camera. This is quite interesting: I hadn’t thought about those aspects of his television performances because I automatically think of him as a radio performer. I think it’s fairly evident that I am quite radio-biased. Perhaps the fact that HHH started on the radio and “Steptoe” on the television is the reason I find Hancock more enjoyable? It’s also noticeable that many good stage performers are pretty poor television performance. Working on stage requires an engagement with the audience and an exaggeration of reality, which appears “false” or “hammy” on television which requires a more naturalistic, intimate performance. Hancock’s noticing of the camera would work well with a stage audience rather than a camera. Paul Merton isn't as good as he once was....I get the impression his heart isn't in it as much now. Too long in the same old format probably... Get out Paul - stretch yourself, exercise your talent more! . I can’t disagree with that. Although, again, I prefer what he does on the radio to what he does on television (perhaps this is to do with people being given a bit more free-reign on radio). look at EastEnders and listen to the Archers. Now that might be quite funny. Actually there used to be something like that on TV, didn’t there, where new voiceovers were provided to old films (and I’m not just talking about “The Magic Roundabout”). I think it was called “The Staggering Stories of Ferdinand deBargos” or something like that. Eddie Mair. The guy should be on more. Amen to that. |
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sea horse
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Post by sea horse on Jun 30, 2005 6:02:15 GMT -5
Hancock couldn't adapt without the scripts but the guy was a genius actor - not a comedian. I've heard the claim Hancock was a (comedian-)actor before, but am not so sure. He usually played the same character, and I understand this was in many ways just a version of his real self - spoilt, self-deluding, fatalistic, cynical, self-righteous, suspicious. Sure the character was funny sometimes, but also sad, as was the man. I see he couldn't avoid noticing the camera, not once but several times in each episode .... I also get the feeling he frequently searched for his next line. It's possible Hancock wasn't so much camera-conscious rather that he was reading his lines off some clipboard, searching for his next line. I've read he sometimes turned up for recordings not fully knowing his lines, having instead spent the days before with the bottle. (Maybe this part-explains his (praised) timing and how his silences added comic effect - occasionally they weren't intentional, he just couldn't recall the next line?) |
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jun 30, 2005 8:11:03 GMT -5
Hancock was being driven home by his then wife after recording 'The Bowmans' - there was an accident (some un-lit road-works, I think). He wasn't badly hurt, but had a couple of black eyes. He wasn't able to learn the next script - 'The Blood Donor' - in time, and they were going to cancel, but he was eager to do the show - so they set up some teleprompters. If you watch the show you can plainly see that he is reading the lines, and not giving a proper performance. The trouble is - he thought this was a great way to deal with his normal difficulties in learning scripts, and adopted it thereafter. The drinking problems came later...
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sea horse
Islander
There is a distant isle, Around which sea-horses glippin ...
Posts: 128
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Post by sea horse on Jun 30, 2005 12:05:24 GMT -5
Hancock was being driven home by his then wife after recording 'The Bowmans' - there was an accident ... The drinking problems came later... Is this true? 'Later'? I can only vaguelly remember some TV Half-hour shows (or were they repeats I saw?) but my Dad was a fan, and I remember reading in one of his Hancock biographies that already by the late 50s Hancock's drinking was 'beyond the apocryphal'. The 'famous' accident was in the 60s, wasn't it? I remember this because I couldn't find apocryphal in the dictionary. I still don't know exactly what it means, but the word has stayed with me. |
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Benbow
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Left hand down a bit...
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Post by Benbow on Jun 30, 2005 12:44:20 GMT -5
I remember this because I couldn't find apocryphal in the dictionary. I still don't know exactly what it means, but the word has stayed with me. The Apocrypha consists of those books of the bible that religious Jews and Protestants find hard to swallow - in otherwords an even bigger load of carp than the rest; hence 'apocryphal' is anything of dubious authority. Tune in next week when I shall be talking about (continued on page 95) |
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Crusoe
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Post by Crusoe on Jul 7, 2005 6:40:24 GMT -5
Yesterday evening, I think it was, even BBC7’s presenter admitted that Quote Unquote was “time to go and get a sandwich. Hee hee.
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jul 7, 2005 8:47:34 GMT -5
BBC7's presenters seem to be a bunch of ignorant kids fpor the most part...
Quote, Unquote has long been a favourite of mine (especially for the delicious voice of Patricia Hughes). He can go and get his sandwich, or better still a three course meal which will take him longer. My main beef with BBC7 is the paucity of decent presenters. I presume it's a sort of apprentice job...
PS: It's not the job of a continuity announcer to criticise the programming -- he should be disciplined.
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Post by Captain Nudnick on Jul 7, 2005 8:51:06 GMT -5
... I couldn't find apocryphal in the dictionary. I still don't know exactly what it means, but the word has stayed with me. What kind of dictionary is that? apocryphal: 1. Of questionable authorship or authenticity. 2. Erroneous; fictitious: “Wildly apocryphal rumors about starvation in Petrograd... raced through Russia's trenches” (W. Bruce Lincoln). 3. Apocryphal Bible. Of or having to do with the Apocrypha. |
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