Random Sightings July 2021

Right, the football season is finally over. England lost their first final in a major tournament for 55 years to an admittedly deserving Italian team by the width of a goal post in a penalty decider. I enjoyed the ride, being able to watch the games with a small group of family & friends was a pleasure after a year of garden meetings. I now have a few weeks when the pros & cons of the Video Assistant Referee or whether the England manager’s preference for the “double-pivot” would prove to be too defensive (it would) can be put on the back burner so let’s get back to throwing some of the good stuff that has crossed my path recently on to the blog. Is this keyboard still working?

In 1972 Kevin Ayers, a mainstay of the music scene in Canterbury, was, as was his habit, kicking back for a while. As a member of the Wilde Flowers & the Soft Machine he had contributed to the progressive/psychedelic improvisation & innovation that was characteristic of that city’s musical output. His three solo albums had a relaxed, whimsical, rather louche charm while retaining elements of surprise & exploration that made him such an original artist. The only live clips of Kevin from this time on the Y-tube are from “The Old Grey Whistle Test” with his group the Whole World. Now, this black & white clip of a solo performance has appeared & what a treat it is. The clip comes courtesy of an independent TV service produced by the Inner London Education Authority, a grouping responsible for the city’s schools which, like its parent administration the Greater London Council, was considered by Thatcher to be part of “the enemy within” & was subsequently abolished. The song, which Kevin explains “isn’t called anything” is “Hymn”, a track from his 1973 LP “Bananamour” & by heck it’s good.

Sometime in 1972 I attended a midweek entertainment at my university that promised appearances by not only Kevin Ayers but also Syd Barrett, such an influential pioneer of Psychedelic Pop with Pink Floyd before his drug intake & mental fragility led to his withdrawal from the group. A chance to see two such individual British mavericks was a pretty good deal & we took our places cross-legged in front of the stage (it was 1972!) in anticipation. Syd had recorded two fascinating, honest solo albums in 1970 before his unavailability had encouraged the rumours & enhanced the legend. We had no idea of what Syd looked like now so assumed that as the figure setting up in the dark was not Kevin it probably was Syd. Unfortunately on his return to the stage a roadie was adjusting a microphone. The performer stormed off & was not to be seen again. That’s as close we ever got to see one of the great British psychedelic talents…or maybe not. Kevin Ayers saved the day with an intimate & (that word again) charming solo set of bohemian cabaret filled with songs that weren’t about anything, finishing with his version of Marlene Dietrich’s “Falling In Love Again”. Another good, interesting night out.

“The Ed Sullivan Show” was never shown in the UK. We knew it was a big deal in the States, our very own The Beatles appeared on three consecutive Sundays in February 1964, causing the same cultural tremors to which we were becoming accustomed. Pretty soon England was swinging like a pendulum do & we had a whole scene going on over here anyway. Over the past year the archives of the show have been regularly released on to the Y-Tube. The show aired from 1948 to 1971 & some of the earlier variety entertainment is a little moderate. Post Mersey Mania the bookers upped their musical game & while the house orchestra are by no means the Funk Brothers it’s always good to see regular guests the Supremes in their modish Motown glory. Of even more interest to myself is the chance to see a number of outstanding US comedians doing that very funny thing they do. I have records by Bob Newhart, George Carlin & Richard Pryor but have never seen their early stand-up routines. The Sullivan clips are introducing me to others who were at the top of their game but we never got to see.

I was aware that Ben Stiller’s father Jerry was a funny guy. I’d seen him playing George Costanza’s Dad in “Seinfeld”. He was the guy who put me on to Festivus. What I didn’t know was that in the 1960s he had been part of a successful double act & that his partner was Anne Meara, his wife, Ben’s Mum & a very funny guy too. There were 36 appearances on the Sullivan show & this sketch about computer dating (in 1966, in colour, imagine that) where Jewish Jerry meets Irish Catholic Anne, from the same neighbourhood but living separate lives, is short, sharp & eventually sweet. The cracks are wise, the affiliation obvious & attractive. In 1970, concerned about blurred lines between the act & her marriage, Anne stepped away to raise her kids. She later returned to films, TV & theatre including a run with Jerry in “The King of Queens”. Jerry & Anne were married, until her death in 2015, for 61 years, now that’s sweet too.

Any regular visitor to this part of the Interweb will be aware that I am a little obsessed with that golden decade of Soul from 1965-75 so “Summer of Soul” has been, along with the upcoming Sopranos prequel, the most anticipated film of the year & it did not disappoint. The Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of free concerts in New York, was held across six weekends in the Summer of 1969. The events were filmed but despite the success of the “Woodstock” movie & the emerging “blaxploitation” genre there was no financial backing for any commercial release of the footage. Amhir “Questlove” Thompson, a man of multi-talents including playing drums for the Roots, making his directorial debut, has a very solid, impressive musical foundation on which to base his film. It starts with the Psychedelic Soul boys the Chambers Brothers rocking out with “Uptown” & Fifth Dimension, as Billy & Marilyn acknowledge, finding that playing to such a large black audience unwrapped a funky side that was rarely seen on their TV appearances, then the musical highlights keep on coming.

It’s difficult to top the emotional impact of a duet between Mavis Staples & Mahalia Jackson singing “Precious Lord Take My Hand”, a favourite of Martin Luther King & performed in his honour then along come Sly & the Family Stone, racially & gender diverse, boundless, infectious energy & one of the greatest groups ever. Stevie Wonder stakes his claim to being the funkiest individual in the world & the only word to describe Nina Simone is Goddess. All this music is carefully & expertly placed into the context of an assertiveness about the Black experience in the USA. There’s activism & anger about the Vietnam War, about police brutality & social inequality. There’s pride too in their community. The Harlemites who attended the concerts & those who are still around to tell about it want their stories to be heard & listened to. The unanimous dismissal in contemporary interviews of the Moon landing, a big deal for White America, is, as they would say in 1969, “Right On!”.

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The Blues Are The Root, Other Musics The Fruits (Fargo)

I’m currently enjoying Series 4 of the “Fargo” anthology created for TV by Noah Hawley. A Top 3 of my favourite films by the Coen Brothers can depend on which of their productions I have most recently viewed (though possibly not “Hail Caesar” (2016) but the 1996 movie that inspired the series is a constant on that shortlist. The preceding series were, like the film, set in Minnesota & ambitious casting matched to imaginative writing made for superior TV. This time around the setting is Kansas City, Missouri in 1951. It was a little slow out of the stalls & I had some initial reservations (later for those) but it has rounded the final turn & entered the home straight at a fine gallop. The black & white Episode 9, a detour into Kansas, tipped more than a cap to “The Wizard of Oz” while the penultimate Episode 10 started to tie the multi-storied tale together. It was this installment that sent me on a very enjoyable musical journey for the next two days. Here’s the first step.

Willie Dixon’s autobiography “I Am The Blues” (1990) is one of the best books about music that I have read. Born in Mississippi in 1915, one of 14 children, Willie’s stories are of the segregated South, a developing interest in music while serving teenage time on prison farms, a move to Chicago where a choice between boxing (he was a big man) & music was interrupted by 10 more months in the joint after a conscientious objection to the USA’s institutional racism led to a refusal to fight in World War II. By 1950 he was recording with the Big Three Trio & had already lived some life. It was his association with Chess Records where he made a prodigious & pivotal contribution, as a musician, writer, producer & talent recruitment, to the development & popularity of Chicago Blues. His involvement with Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley & many others invokes a long list of achievement. Later he met & influenced young British Blues-obsessed players eager to play his songs. Every youth club Beat group tried “You Can’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover”, Cream took a fine stab at “Spoonful” & in December 1964 the Rolling Stones were top of the pops with “Little Red Rooster”, the first (only?) Blues record to hit #1. Willie Dixon didn’t get paid or was recognised for all his work, when he sued Led Zeppelin over their lift of his lyrics to “You Need Love (“I ain’t foolin’, you need schoolin’) they settled out of court. It’s undeniable that Willie was a giant of twentieth century American music.

Koko Taylor was a protege of Dixon’s who, when he did bring her over to Chess, sold a million with “Wang Dang Doodle”, his song first recorded with Howlin’ Wolf. Subsequent recordings were not as successful, “Insane Asylum” was recorded in 1967, a b-side in a run of 45s compiled on her eponymous debut LP where her voice, stronger & more brash than Chess’ other female star, Etta James, enhanced a claim to the title “Queen of the Blues”. What a track it is, Willie & Koko both on full throttle. raw, primal & beautiful. Koko wang dang doodled at the 1967 American Folk & Blues Festival with harmonica master Little Walter & guitarist Hound Dog Taylor, filmed for posterity & a treasure of the Y-tube. There was a further Dixon produced LP, “Basic Soul” (1972) & she continued to record & perform until her passing in 2009.

As a Sixties kid I came to the Blues through the post-Mersey Beat groups & Bob Dylan’s debut album was a gateway to the Country Blues of the 1920s & 30s from the rural South of the USA. Train songs, death songs, going down to the crossroads to sell your soul to the devil, rudimentary recordings of musicians that could play guitar just like a-ringin’ a bell. I must admit that the more sophisticated Jazz passed me by as did the popular Gospel vocal harmony groups of the time. I liked both kinds of music, the Rhythm & the Blues. It was Robert Wyatt’s cover of “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin”’ on his 1982 album “Nothing Can Stop Us” that led me to the 1943 original recording by the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet. This contemporary, perspicacious, humorous sermon concerning the USSR’s resistance to Fascism was exactly my kind of political artefact & further investigation was required.

Formed in 1934 the Golden Gate Quartet were a big thing in the early 1940s, national radio shows, movie appearances & performing at the inauguration of President Franklin D Roosevelt. Wartime personnel disruption & changing public taste in Gospel diminished their popularity but their blend of spiritual sincerity & sophistication delivered through immaculate vocal arrangements ensured an impressive longevity. “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” (1946), a tailor-made warning from member Willie Johnson is certainly one of their greatest hits & has been covered by many artists. Also known as “Run On” it has been recorded by Elvis Presley, a long-time admirer who spent time with them in Paris when he was in the army & they were based in that city. In 2003 Johnny Cash included his take on one of the late, great valedictory records he made with producer Rick Rubin. I’m told that Moby extensively sampled a version by Bill Landford & the Landfordairs on his big selling album “Play”. I don’t really watch TV commercials so I’ve probably never heard it. On the timeline of African-American vocal music the Golden Gate Quartet are there as predecessors of Doo-Wop, Sam Cooke, the Tamla Motown units & even Hip Hop.

The Blind Boys of Alabama, like the Golden Gate crew, have been around a long, long time. Formed in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Deaf & Blind they were prominent in the more declamatory Hard Gospel style that had displaced the double G’s harmonies in public taste. Always popular among black audiences in the 1950s they received $50 for each track recorded which seemed generous but there were no royalties on sales. It wasn’t until the 1980s & an involvement in a musical which transferred to Broadway that there was exposure to a wider audience. In the first decade of this century the Blind Boys won 10 Grammy awards including one for Lifetime Achievement. Included in this was the 2002 album “Higher Ground” when producer John Chelew matched them with Robert Randolph & the Family Band & a bunch of classic Soul. It’s not just the title track, taken from Stevie Wonder’s masterful “Innervisions” that is fresh, fierce & Funky. Songs by Curtis Mayfield, Aretha, Prince “The Cross”, wow!), Jimmy Cliff & Funkadelic (wow again!) are taken to church. What a track their version of “Higher Ground” is & i’m very happy that watching telly has led me to this record.

Many TV series now have the appropriate soundtrack thing down & while none of them are ever going to beat “The Sopranos”, Series 6, Episode 14, closing with John Cooper Clarke’s “Evidently Chickentown”, “Fargo” is doing pretty well. The many strands of the saga are not all fully integrated, I took some time to be convinced that Jason Schwarzman could be a Mafia boss, fine actors Jack Huston & Timothy Olyphant are underused but old Kansas City is looking just fine Chris Rock is killing it & it’s great to see Salvatore Esposito, so memorable as Genny in “Gomorrah”, doing his unbalanced, very tough guy act again. I’ve got just the one episode to go & however it ends God’s gonna be doing a whole lot of cutting down, that’s for sure.

Danny’s Small Screen Big Shows (2018)

We are pleased to welcome noted Greenock dramatist Danny McCahon back to the blog. A professional highlight for Danny in 2018 was the debut performances of his play “Where’s Lulu”, about the Scottish songstress, to wide acclaim. On a personal note he cut a fine figure in his kilt at the wedding of his eldest daughter Anna. She has two sisters so we look forward to Danny’s legs getting further outings in the future.

 

Telly’s crap, innit? Come on, we’ve all said that. This year, this month, probably this week. And the older I get the more I’m saying it. But . . .

If we believe life is made up of a series of moments, some planned, some surprising and some that kick us right in the emotions, tiny moments in drama are the stuff of entertainment. It might be a witty line, a withering look or a cunning stunt that embeds a moment, a scene, a movie in that part of our being where we store our favourites. More and more I am finding those moments, for me, are underpinned with music.

 

“Almost Famous” might be one of my favourite movies and top among its moments is a scene on a bus where a group of band members and liggers remember why they love each other: a rousing, untidy singalong version of an Elton John song. Then there’s that moment in “A Knight’s Tale” when we realise that the 14th century revellers’ dance accompaniment is segueing into Bowie’s “Golden Years”. This year I enjoyed the Getty kidnap series “Trust” and when people asked what I was enjoying about it, I regularly found myself saying ‘great cars, great music’. “Trust” used well placed period tunes to enhance the action, but the series I think used music best were a bit more subtle with their soundtracks.

The outstanding show of 2018 for me was “Killing Eve” and its unobtrusive music, much of it drawn from David Holmes’s Unloved album “Guilty of Love”. That marriage of sound and image proves for me that TV did not die in the 20th century.  is everyone’s favourite Lauren speaking to Mr Holmes about his part in creating the hit series.

 

 

We all love Roxy Music, aye? We’re a bit less sure of Ferry’s solo work, aren’t we? One thing that courses though all of his collective opus is a hint of decadence, a decadence in a time that might never have existed beyond the unreality of vinyl or celluloid. This year Netflix lured us back to the Weimar Republic of pre-war Germany with “Babylon Berlin”. I didn’t find the series quite as enthralling as many of my friends, but I did like the big choreographed night club scenes. I loved the music, especially when it threw up a new arrangement of a song I’d held dear since my teens. And it seemed the most natural thing in the unreal world of TV when Mr Ferry himself cropped up entertaining the decadent Berliners with an orchestral version of Roxy’s “Bitter Sweet”. He looked so at home, like he had found the fictitious place his songs had been searching for all these years.

 

 

Closer to home, in time space and reality, two of my favourite comedy series in 2018 have come out of Ireland. I am yet to meet a single person who was not charmed by the young characters in “Derry Girls”, but something further south captured more of my attention. And my heart. Coming of age comedy “The Young Offenders” follows the trials and tribulations of two wee rascals learning to cope with life in Cork. It has its hilarious moments but is shot through with real humanity and the viewer can’t help but root for Conor and Jock. If the lads have a nemesis it’s the local nutter Billy Murphy. Like a kid with a scab they just can’t leave him alone and, like a picking a scab, they just keeping making their relationship with Billy more intense and more dangerous. One outstanding moment has music at its heart, music by Cork’s own The Frank & Walters. Billy has hijacked a bus full of passengers, including our heroes, and having run out of ideas of what to do with it, he leads a singsong.

 

 

Go on, tell me that’s not brilliant telly.

Sound & Vision (April 2018)

As regular readers (a big “Hello” to both of you) will know this past month I have been mainly listening to & writing about Soul & Funk, music that continues to fascinate & delight. I do still keep an ear on new Rock music but, for me, much of it sounds like something that has not only been done before but done better. Currently the only non-Soul records at the front of the stack are much-played discs by XTC & Teenage Fanclub (oh & Steely Dan…always the Dan). News of a new release by a guitar hero of mine has piqued my interest & caused me to temporarily give up the Funk to investigate further.

 

 

“The Tracers” is the first track to be released from “Call the Comet”, the upcoming album from Johnny Marr. Of course Johnny is always going to be best remembered for his work over 30 years ago (I know!) with the Smiths. His layered soundscapes perfectly framed Morrissey’s sometimes downcast, always droll lyrics to revitalise British guitar music & make them the best band in the country. After the break-up he became a guitar-for-hire, content to add quality to whatever took his fancy. The 3 Electronic albums with Bernard Sumner off of New Order & others are the only ones where he has put his name to the songs & stepped to the front of the stage.

 

This will be the third solo LP by Marr & I will be on it because I took too long to get around to the previous two. “The Messenger” (2013) is up there with the best records of the decade. No new ground is broken but from the rush & the push of the opener “The Right Thing Right” through to the dead stone classic “New Town Velocity” its capacious jangle, anthemic without bombast, updates a quintessential 1980’s Manchester sound. Of course the music can remind you of his old band, it’s what Johnny Marr does. He’s not from the traditional axeman hero mould. He has some pretty good Rock & Roll influences along with the taste & imagination to incorporate them into his own distinctive, melodic playing. His proficiency in creating the sound of the Smiths brings to mind Tony Hicks off of the Hollies, another Manchester guitar hero of mine who knew how a great Pop single went.

 

 

So, what’s on the TV then?  Nothing much, I know. I binged the latest series of “Schitt’s Creek” in 2 days because, except for the new batch of “Curb…”, it’s the only comedy that makes me laugh out loud. Yesterday I discovered how to edit the “continue watching” on Netflix so that’s a whole lot of disappointment out of my life for ever. The one series this year that has had me hooked, good enough to make me want to consider what I’ve just watched, too good to rush onto the next episode is “Counterpart”.

 

“Counterpart” is a parallel universe spy thriller set in the two Berlins, one in the Alpha world (that’s ours) the other in the Prime world ( the same as ours but different). The only portal between the two is strictly controlled but, people being how they are in any world that they hook up to, there are bad things going on & these things get messy. It’s a 10 part season, light on the science, heavy on the fiction, which takes its time in telling its tale. The series is anchored by two star performances by J K Simmons. In a complex plot you usually know which of the Howard Silks you are watching from his demeanour. The supporting cast includes the “always watchable” Olivia Williams, Richard Schiff, Adeel Akhtar & its good to see Stephen Rea, a fine actor, with a meaty part. “Counterpart” may not be for everyone, there are plot holes which will give sci-fi pedants a bumpy ride. Its concerns with Love, loss, & identity kept me watching & the arrival of “The Management” in the final episode has me waiting eagerly for series 2.

 

OK, the new series of Legion” starts this week. I’ll watch but if it keeps messing me about with whole episodes that never really happened then I have an off switch on my remote & I’m not afraid to use it. Later this month sees the return of Jim “Brockmire”, a series I did find to be funny first time around. In the meantime it’s back to the Netflix to see if there’s anything that I want to “continue watching”.

I Read A Book Once. Green It Was! (Brian Glover)

Brian Glover is best & probably rightfully fixed in popular memory for his very first acting role. He had previous dramatic experience as a professional wrestler where he inherited the nom de scene “Leon Arras, the Man from Paris” when the “real” Leon failed to show, His day job was teaching English & French at Barnsley Grammar School in South Yorkshire where he himself had been educated. When his friend & fellow teacher Barry Hines’ novel “A Kestrel for a Knave” was adapted for the cinema the author recommended him as the ideal candidate for the role of Mr Sugden, the Physical Education teacher.

 

 

“Kes” (1969), directed by Ken Loach, is an absolute coup of a movie which should be shown in schools around the world (though possibly with subtitles for those living outside the North of England). Loach had previously made some of the best British social realist films of the late 1960’s.  “Up the Junction”, “Cathy Come Home” (both made for TV) & “Poor Cow” were effective in highlighting & stimulating debate about the issues facing working class women. His story of a boy’s potential thwarted by an unsympathetic education system & by his family situation is enhanced by the use of a mainly non-professional cast. It certainly felt that you were watching a kid you knew living a life you recognised. Brian Glover was so convincing as the casually brutal Sugden, living out his Bobby Charlton fantasies (Denis Law was in the wash!) in a games lesson. Funny because every one of us had experience of his like. Those who can’t do, teach & those who can’t teach, teach PE.

 

If a blunt Yorkshireman, who likes what he says & says what he bloody well likes, was required then Brian Glover was in the frame. His starring role as a dictatorial band leader in “Sounding Brass” (1980) didn’t extend beyond 6 episodes but his guest appearances in sit-coms were often memorable. “No Hiding Place” was an outstanding episode of “Whatever Happened to the Likely lads” when Flint (Glover)  attempts to spoil our heroes, Terry & Bob’s plans to avoid the football score (these things matter!). The rather dim Cyril Heslop in “Porridge” provides the title of this piece. There were a couple of episodes of “Doctor Who”, in “Campion”, an adaptation of Margery Allingham’s detective novels he stole the show as sidekick Lugg. Of course when we put the kettle on (which we do a lot here) we still hear his voice from the Tetley Tea adverts.

 

 

At a time when British TV’s most successful exports are nostalgic gee-gaws about an elite class (“Downton Abbey”, “The Crown”) it is worth remembering the time when we made the best original drama in the world. Beginning with the BBC’s “The Wednesday Play” & continuing with strands of one-off plays across all channels (all 3 of them) space was given for many talents , on both sides of the camera, to emerge, develop & tell stories from all levels of society.

 

Brian Glover’s first “Play For Today” was Ken Loach’s shopfloor activism drama “The Rank & File” (1971). The following year “A Day Out”, written by Alan Bennett, directed by Stephen Frears (now that’s a pairing) was followed by “The Fishing Party”, the story of a weekend in Whitby for 3 miners. Peter Terson had first come to our attention with his play for the National Youth Theatre “Zigger Zagger” (1967), a boisterous commentary on the culture of football supporters. Glover starred as Art. He, Ray Mort, another fine character actor (Ern) & Douglas Livingstone (Abe) were outstanding in a funny, touching entertaining piece. So much so that the playwright reunited the characters in “Shakespeare or Bust” & “Three for the Fancy”. It says much that over 45 years later these plays are so fondly remembered. You can see “The Fishing Party” here. Glover himself wrote 2 slice of life dramas for the series, “Keep an Eye on Albert” (1975) & “Thicker Than Water (1980) which concerned a black pudding festival!

 

 

He appeared in some good movies too. “O Lucky Man!” (1973) & “Britannia Hospital” (1982) are parts of Lindsay Anderson’s Mick Travis trilogy. “Jabberwocky” (1977)”, he was an ideal terry Gilliam character. He’s playing chess in “American Werewolf in London” (1981) & there’s “The Company of Wolves (1984). Then, of course, he did his turn as Andrews in David Fincher’s “Alien3” (1992)…oh that’s who he is!. “Red Monarch” (1983) is a made-for-TV film which is a sharp study of the tyranny of Stalin’s inner circle with an excellent cast. Glover contributed to a fine production with his portrayal of Nikita Kruschev. He barely makes the above trailer but he’s around the film.

 

The word I have kept wanting to use about Brian Glover is “memorable”. After the impact of “Kes” he only had to walk on to a screen, large or small, & you were pleased to see him. He wasn’t an actor who disguised himself for his roles & he may have been as Yorkshire as the Pudding but was more than a professional Northerner. “What’s that for Sir?” “Slack work lad, slack work”. Love the guy.

 

 

 

 

Three Months in a Brown Paper Bag in a Septic Tank(Before Monty Python)

In late 1969 I watched the first TV series of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” with my Mum. Dad was more vocal about things he disapproved of on the idiot box. “Top of the Pops” was never not interrupted by “I can’t hear the words” & “Is that a boy or a girl ?”. While I struggled not to fall off the sofa in convulsions of laughter Mum’s silence was only interrupted by regular tutting. That was OK, an example of the “generation gap”. I was 17, living in the swingingest country in a dynamic decade, Mum was ancient…36 ! Anyway, don’t you hate it when old people think they are down with the kids ? As my sides were splitting over Bicycle Repair Man, Nudge Nudge & Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson, Mum was wondering quite what the world was coming to.

Monty Python is now regarded as a high watermark in comedy (not just British), a ground-breaking New Wave of hilarity. My friends & I had an interest in any seriously funny business & the series was a much anticipated collision of talents who had already been making us laugh for some time.

Despite the increasing hegemony of television the BBC, the monopoly provider of UK radio, continued to commission popular comedy programmes. I was too young for “The Goon Show” but Spike Milligan’s anarchic tomfoolery was built to last & still around.         The interest in political satire, sparked by the decrepit Tory government of Harold Macmillan, had been past my bedtime but Peter Cook & Dudley Moore seemed to be the funniest men in Britain.  They had come to notice in “Beyond the Fringe”, a tremendous success, a merging of the best talent from Oxford & Cambridge university revues. Comedy became a career option for graduates of these establishments & the Beeb eagerly signed up the next generation of side-splitting scholars.

When the 2nd series of “I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again” moved to the Light Programme from the Home Service (I know…what the…!!) in 1965 it soon became essential listening.Satire was played out, we had a new Labour government, the first for 15 years, & it wasn’t only comedians who were cutting them some slack. The young cast of “I.S.I.R.T.A” reverted to their teenage Goonery & spliced it to the iconoclasm that Britain was getting pretty good at in the mid-1960s. The new rules were that there were no rules &, often, no punchlines. In the helter skelter of hilarity the stand out was John “Otto” Cleese. His parody of the oleaginous “bubonic plagiarist” (©P. Cook) David Frost nails the vacuity of the chat show format. Frost was not the last self-obsessed, talking loud saying nothing, TV host to prosper in the US.

It was on the BBC’s “The Frost Report” that we first got to see the 6’5″ Cleese in our telly. Sketches with, in descending order of height, Cleese & the two Ronnies, Barker & Corbett were the stand out in a successful series. Frost’s production company (he was always a busy…) assembled Cleese, his writing partner Graham Chapman &, from “I.S.I.R.T.A”, Tim Brooke-Taylor for 1967’s “At Last the 1948 Show”, a mix  which included older university revue stuff & sketches which would later be used by Python. The cast was completed by the “lovely” Aimi McDonald (& she was) & Marty Feldman who had a reputation as a writer, for Frost & “Round the Horne”, a very popular radio series, not as a performer. Marty had much more going on than the bulging exophthalmic eyes that gave him a face for comedy. He roughened the intellectual edges of the others & brought along his own brand of mischievous anarchy. The ramshackle improvisation & corpsing in this cross-dressing cop sketch still makes me laugh out loud. “…the 1948 Show” replaced “Ready Steady Go” as the must-see TV show, another night that I was on my quiet, best behaviour so that bedtime came a little later.

Meanwhile at teatime, children’s TV was getting more interesting. “Do Not Adjust Your Set” ran for 2 series from December 1967 to May 1969. Eric Idle (Cambridge), Terry Jones & Michael Palin (both Oxford) were touting their sketches around to the successful comedy shows already mentioned & were enthusiastic about writing & performing their own show. They were joined by Denise Coffey & David Jason ( as not-so-superhero Captain Fantastic), later to find his own place in the British comedy pantheon. Neither lampooning the worthy but patronising tropes of British children’s TV  (& about time too) nor being funnier than other comedy for kids was particularly difficult but “Do Not…” did both with imagination & energy. It was an opportunity for the 3 young writers to find out what worked & what didn’t. I was of an age where kids’ TV was no longer interesting but this was a reason to rush home from football practice, ask my sister & 3 brothers to move on over & let me watch my show.Then we all had to hush up while Dad watched the News !

For the musical interludes, direct from “Magical Mystery Tour”, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band were now sending up their novelty trad jazz roots, dropping the Doo Dah & becoming the funniest rock group on vinyl. A regular TV slot & a free rein allowed them to develop their visual style & expand their audience. By the end of 1968 “I’m the Urban Spaceman” was in the UK Top 5 & we were rolling around to the classic LP “The Doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse”. In the second series the guy who contributed short illustrative inserts, Terry Gilliam, a young American, was given more to do. “Beware of the Elephants” (with the UK’s most prominent racist, Enoch Powell, promoting sludge that keeps everything “white, white, white”) is perfectly Pythonesque. We all know now that the world is a better place for having Gilliam around.

“Monty Python’s Flying Circus” was not something completely different for us 16 year olds who liked to laugh. It was a merger of talents who had been making us do that very thing for some time & was eagerly anticipated. I guess that we thought that this new troupe would attract a cult following (that would be me) before the BBC decided that it was just too silly & pulled the plug. It really did not take long (Episode 8, the Dead Parrot sketch, Ep 9 the Lumberjack Song) before British youth were committing this funny business to memory & knowing that it was built to last.20 years later, on a quiet Mayfair street, on a quieter Sunday morning, I met John Cleese & he politely acknowledged my rather effusive greeting. I didn’t ask him to do a Silly Walk or perform the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Morse Code, just paid the respect & thanks due to a Comedy Don.

There’s not many men round here who’ve still got their Meccano sets, you know! (Liz Smith)

I first became aware of Liz Smith, who died this week aged 95, in 1973 when she starred in “Hard Labour”, a BBC TV drama directed by Mike Leigh & produced by Tony Garnett. The weekly “Play for Today”, like its predecessor “The Wednesday Play”, was a forum for many emerging British talents. The strand encompassed a wide variety of styles & subjects. It was the hard-hitting & effective social realist themes, a development from kitchen sink dramas of a decade earlier which often provoked controversy. “Hard Labour” was Leigh’s first TV play, it employs his improvisational technique to achieve a naturalism & a bleakness unleavened by the humour to be found in his later work. Mrs Thornley, harassed by her husband, patronised by her middle-class employer & offered no solace by her religion, is a study in isolation & limited communication. Liz Smith was outstanding in the part & she broke our hearts.

There’s very little of “Hard Labour” on the Interwebs so let’s move on a couple of years to her next starring TV role. “I Didn’t Know You Cared” was a sit-com adapted from his own novels by Peter Tinniswood. It ran for 4 series from 1975-79, another slice of Northern life, this time across the Pennines in Yorkshire. The Brandon family were a wonderful parade of absurd characters, the men cloth-capped, gloomy & cynical, the womenfolk keeping a close eye on them & their faults. It had a terrific ensemble cast, was tougher than the long-running “Last of the Summer Wine”, with the gentleness & acerbity of Alan Bennett. At the heart was Liz Smith’s Mrs Brandon, hen-pecking, haranguing & hilarious, nailing some of the best lines of a very good bunch. Some right old toot from the same period is now recycled on the nostalgia channels with no sign of this classic British comedy.

Ms Smith was in her fifties before this acting thing really took off. Her talent to portray the slightly mad but always likeable Grandma found her plenty of work in film & TV & she quickly became a very recognisable character actor. Her cinema work included Lindsay Anderson’s “Britannia Hospital”, Ridley Scott’s debut “The Duellists” & she was Lady Phillippa of Staines in Viv Stanshall’s brilliant “Sir Henry at Rawlinson End”. She was perfect for the BBC’s adaptations of Dickens & appeared in Michael Palin’s “Ripping Yarns” classic episode “The Testing of Eric Olthwaite”. It would be 1984 before she gained recognition from her peers for her talents.

Handmade Films, a British production & distribution company, was formed by George Harrison when his Monty Python friends were struggling to finance “Life of Brian”. The story goes that George had to mortgage a house but I don’t think that he ever went short. In the next decade Handmade were involved with many fine British films. “A Private Function” (1984) is as close as this to the gentle, eccentric comedies made by Ealing Studios in the 1940s & 50s. Alan Bennett was an international success in 1960 with “Beyond the Fringe”. He continued to act while becoming better known as a writer for TV & theatre. This was his first screenplay, perhaps having less substance than his plays but no less lacking in the acuity Bennett has for language & the intricacies of social interaction & manners.

“A Private Function” is set in post-Second World War Yorkshire when food was still rationed. The social climber Joyce Chilvers (Maggie Smith) is determined to make her mark in the town & intends to drag Gilbert, her chiropodist husband, (Michael Palin) along with her. A pig, being illegally fattened for a municipal celebration is kidnapped by the Chilvers & hilarity ensues…really it does. Along with the great writer & the two illustrious principals the cast involves an overflowing National Treasure chest. Denholm Elliott, Alison Steadman, Pete Postlethwaite & others all do their distinctive thing while Liz, as Joyce’s mother, driven mad by the smell of the secret pig, thinking that perhaps she could be the source of the odour, won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress.

Liz continued to do the work, adding value to whatever she appeared in. In 1998 she was cast as Nana Norma in Caroline Ahern’s comedy “The Royle Family”.By this time she was 76 year’s old & the nation’s favourite grandmother, perfectly cast in a series which, along with Ricky Gervais’ “The Office” & Steve Coogan’s “I’m Alan Partridge” injected new energy & raised the standard of British situation comedy. “The Royle Family” was sometimes a kitchen sink drama but it was mostly on the living room sofa in front of the telly. The skillful characterisation, the pacing, the natural humour & affection made many people suspect that Aherne had placed a spy camera in their own homes to obtain material. This clip, from the 2006 special “The Queen of Sheba” where the new baby is introduced to the bedridden Nana will moisten the driest of eyes. A starring role in the UK’s most popular comedy brought Liz Smith even wider recognition &, in 2007, a British Comedy Award for Best TV Comedy Actress.

Liz Smith was born in my hometown in Lincolnshire. She’s from the Crosby area up in the north of town. She attended the secondary school which, years later with a change of name, in a different building became my school. That may be why, even in those early days  before I knew of her origins, I found her performances to be so convincing. She reminded me & so many others of our own grandmothers except that perhaps my Nana Daisy actually knew her as young Betty Gleadle. Sad events have made this appreciation into an obituary & that’s a pity. It’s OK because I am reminded of the talent of Liz Smith by the old ladies I talk to at the bus stop, in the market & around my estate. For these women, who have lived through some times, have seen & learned some things, Liz Smith represented.