Category: Sketch Shows
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Alas! The Tour (Souvenir Programme)
A few months ago I tweeted this: Which then led me down a little, shallow rabbit hole, wherein I purchased a copy of the tour programme. Here’s how it looked when it arrived, all pristine and lovely. And here’s the back cover. This is a full page advert parody from inside. Here’s a flavour of…
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The Other Mel Smith Double Act
It’s easy to forget that Mel Smith wasn’t always staring into the face of Griff Rhys Jones, that he was on Not The Nine O’Clock News first, and that he was actually in a double act with someone else. Mel Smith and Bob Goody met in the mid-70s, and put on a play together at…
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Smith, Jones And Philips
In 1982 VisionHire once again teamed with Philips to bring new models of their TVs and VCRs to rental and retail stores throughout the UK. And they enlisted the help of Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones to do so. Here’s one of the TV spots. And here’s a remarkable curio (from the excellent Neil…
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Pauline’s Quirkes
The late 1970s seemed to provoke a lot of outrage at the output of children’s television. Grange Hill is the obvious example, but ITV didn’t escape the ire either, not least with Thames Television’s afternoon sketch show Pauline’s Quirkes. The show was devised as a vehicle for Pauline Quirke, who together with Linda Ronson and…
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The Lenny Henry Show
The Lenny Henry Show enjoyed a very rare repeat last night on BBC Four, and it’s still up on iPlayer. It’s remarkable that this series isn’t more widely available, or available at all. The title has been used in a number of different ways through the years, on TV as the sketch show, and then…
