I laughed long and hard at this sketch last night.
The All New Alexei Sayle Show was the follow up series to three series of Alexei Sayle’s Stuff. Those original three series had been co-written with David Renwick and Andrew Marshall, and All New was now being co-written with Arthur Matthews and his co-writer. His final show, Alexei Sayle’s Merry Go Round was written with a handful of writers including Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley.
What struck me as I re-watched some episodes from these runs last night, aside from them being brilliant and laugh out loud funny, was that that have hardly dated at all.
And I was amazed at just how many of the sketches and monologues have stuck with me all these years, even after only one viewing (I have no idea if these shows were ever repeated). Also in that episode above, I quote the Hitler/Chamberlain sketch, Bobby Chariot, and the too many names monologue. What’s more, the shot of Alexei delivering a piece to camera from a crane that’s sweeping across a lake always delighted me.
Seek them all out, they are wonderful.
