Category: British
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The Secret Clips Of Adrian Mole
I was aware that Adrian Mole began life in a slightly different guise on the radio, and that there was even a computer game about him, but I wasn’t aware that there was a stage play leading up to the first TV series. Here’s a review from The Stage of the Leicester production, on the…
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Filthy Rich And Catclips
Or When Rik Mayall Nearly Quit To Be A Teacher I really like Filthy, Rich And Catflap. As I say in Proctology: A Bottom Examination, it didn’t help that at times the show was being pushed as the natural successor to The Young Ones. Ben Elton, talking on The South Bank Show recalled the show…
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Michael Palin’s Teeth
Here’s a radio advert for Monty Python’s Life Of Brian. And here’s a review of the exclusive performance they mention, from the next day (9th November 1979) in the Daily Mirror.
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The Long Theatrical Gestation Of Duty Free
Yesterday we looked at the fascinating theatrical origins of Rising Damp. Another sitcom, also co-written by Eric Chappel, with Jean Warr, which likewise had an origin in a play, was Duty Free. This seemed like it was on all the time in the 1980s, but it only aired for three series and 22 episodes between…
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The Theatrical Origins Of Rising Damp
Let’s tell a story through newspaper clippings. Here’s the first, from The Stage on the 4th March 1971. Some sources put this premiere as 1973, but it had its first reading at the Hampstead Theatre Club in 1970. The announcement here of the full play gets the writer’s name wrong. It should of course be…
