tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post7586455500460430705..comments2023-11-05T22:35:31.766+00:00Comments on Neil Clark: Hi-de-Hi! : the shows that prove today's comedy is a jokeNeil Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10479041156190090119noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-11823793369983761752010-02-11T09:47:28.593+00:002010-02-11T09:47:28.593+00:00Hi-de-Hi! is actually touring the country from Mar...Hi-de-Hi! is actually touring the country from March which is a fitting tribute to the talents of its writers.<br />The show will star Barry Howard and Nikki Kelly from the original series: Peter Amory (Emmerdale)as Jeffrey Fairbrother, Damian Williams (Sky's Are You Smarter Than Your Ten Year Old?) and Abigail Finley as Peggy.<br />Tour dates: www.pauldufer.comAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-65953348145619922062010-01-26T15:52:08.399+00:002010-01-26T15:52:08.399+00:00You are right that British TV comedy which used to...You are right that British TV comedy which used to be unsurpassed nowadays is almost non-existent. I think this is because broadcasters are now so po-faced & PC. Benny Hill got cancelled because of that. Even Fawlty owers, with its "they aren't niggers they're wogs" & the racist attitude to manuel would be out. Porridge would get canned trivialising prison. Most comedy is about people's weaknesses & prejudices & these are simply unmentionable now.neil craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09157898238945726349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-59886236600101902562010-01-25T21:08:58.844+00:002010-01-25T21:08:58.844+00:00Great post! I could not agree more. Although I hav...Great post! I could not agree more. Although I have never seen “Hi-de-Hi”, one of my favorite TV comedies is a British series, namely Galton and Simpson’s “Steptoe and Son.” Even though “Steptoe and Son” came out before I was born, I think it is much funnier than the stuff on TV nowadays. I can’t think of any show around today that can match the writing of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson or the acting of Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. <br /><br />In the US, our comedies have also become relentlessly mean-spirited. These shows are often “edgy” or “controversial” just for the sake of it. I often think the real reason for this is because the creators are not talented enough to be funny without resorting to shock value. But people in the coveted 18-35 year old demographic (particularly 18-35 year old males) can’t get enough of that kind of stuff, so it pretty much dominates most of the comedy landscape. <br /><br />Oddly enough, I once read that “Steptoe and Son” was considered rather caustic when it first came out, because of the often troubled relationship between Albert and Harold. But compared to what is on today, “Steptoe and Son” looks positively heartwarming.Mr. Piccolonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-12540936678463574052010-01-25T20:57:11.924+00:002010-01-25T20:57:11.924+00:00Perry and Croft must be nearly ninety. I'm af...Perry and Croft must be nearly ninety. I'm afraid their cultural time, rightly or wrongly, is up - I know it was Croft and Lloyd and their series were never as good, but did you *see* even five minutes of 'Here Comes the Queen'? There's a *reason* nobody commissioned that.<br /><br />There are a lot of programmes which better reflect what British TV was once capable of - genuinely challenging and stimulating - which the Sunday Express would never allow anyone to yearn for. Quite a few of those are on DVD, as well. You can't live in this sort of mythical universe forever.Robin Carmodyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05825645880870474801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-21586558308846040392010-01-25T20:35:46.284+00:002010-01-25T20:35:46.284+00:00The reason modern sit-coms are rubbish is because ...The reason modern sit-coms are rubbish is because they are a bit old fashioned as a genre now. The best comedy is stuff like BrassEye, Alan Patridge and The Office, a kind of sit-com but the characters come across as not much less comic that real life characters like David Brent who we meet every day.<br /><br />As regards satire it's true, how can it compete with stuff like Obama getting the Noble Peace Prize before he's done anything to promote peace and then just orders 30,ooo troops to Afghanistan.<br /><br />Remaining sit comes of recent vintage ( remember I live in Poland ) like Men Behaving Badly just relied on boring vulgarity that's not that funny. <br /><br />The problem is that the TV medium became just something that had to be filled to fill up people's boring telly obsessed lives and so the actual quantity of life experience in Blair's bland Britain has diminshed so much that there are few characters for writers to derive inspiration from.<br /><br />The amusing nature of Brent comes from the black hole of boredom which is office life and Brent's attempt to make himself a comedic character to entertain his staff whilst they generally think he's a prat is exactly what makes it bleakly funny.<br /><br />My own favourite sit-com used to be Shelley as even as a kid I was a bit of a layabout and a chancer and I haven't changed so much since.<br /><br />Which is why I buggered off to Poland to avoid the kind of dull corporate driven mediocrity everyone is forced to accept whilst regarding the marketspeak jargon as much bullshit as the people who spout it.<br /><br />These days I tend to read books that make laugh, like Michel Houellebecq whose visceral lothing of everything in contemprary life is so extreme ( and true ) that it's as hilarious as the pretentious dimwits who dominate our public domain.<br /><br />People forget that Houellebecq is a satirist and biting satire is the way forward. <br /><br />Bernard Crick used to tell his students to read 1984 and see how humourous it was, the absurd disproportion between the Party rectitude and shiny Utopian vision and the bleak reality of a dingy London where nothing works.<br /><br />A satire of New Labour Britain in this respect awaits its writer, in the same way France has the scabrous Houellebecq.Undergroundmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01860176024061937664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17766817.post-50494101636217629312010-01-25T11:08:30.545+00:002010-01-25T11:08:30.545+00:00Paul Shane may have been a comedian at the time of...Paul Shane may have been a comedian at the time of Hi-de-HI but he started out, like Bernard Manning,as a singer.Did you know that Manning guarded Hess and Speer at Spandau? There must be a TV series in that.Also Manning is generally described as of Jewish background ,which will come as a surprise to a mate of mine who,as a teenager, exchanged obscene jokes with Manning's brother while on a RC retreat in Manchester.DBC Reedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17891849727783879145noreply@blogger.com