2020-02-01_Fortean_Times

64 FT389

At Last the 1948

Show/DoNot

AdjustYo ur Set
UK 1967-1969
BFI £24.99 each (DVD)

Seemingly out of nowherein1 969
sprangMontyPython’sFlying
Circus,and in 1970,TheGoodies.
Unless,ofcourse,you’dbeen
avid listeners toI’mSorryI’ll
ReadThatAgain,the wonder ful
1960s BBCradioshowfeaturing
TimBrooke-Taylor,John Cleese,
Graeme Garden, David Hatch,Jo
Kendall and BillOddie.But what
were the linksbetweenISIRTA
and the laterTV madness? How
did we get fromAngus Prune
andLadyConstance de Coverlet
to the DeadParrot and Kitten
Kong?
Theanswerliesmainl yin
these twosetsofDVDs from
theBFI, bringing together the
mostcompleteversions since
their original broadcastofAt
Lastthe1948Show(1967) and
DoNotAdjustYourSet(1967-69)
–far more episodes than on the
Boulevard releasesin2005.One
of the manyremarkablethings
about watching theseshows half
acentury lateris ho wyou don’t
even notice that theyare in black-

and-white!

AtLas tthe1948Showfeatured

Cleese,Brooke-Taylor, future

Python GrahamChapmanand

MartyFeldman, withTheLovely

AimiMacDonald introducing

sket ches –and using the later

Python catchphrase“And nowfor

something completelydifferent”

in theveryfirst episode.

Thereare manyother links,

bothbackwards andforwards,

between theshows.“TheFour

Yorkshiremen”didn’toriginate

with Python,as is commonly

thought, but in 1948.ISIRTAfans

willrememberthe “John and

Mary” sketches withJohn Cleese

and Jo Kendal last wo terribly

poshbut dysfunctional lovers

saying goodbye;JoKendall makes

afew guest appearancesin 1948

including onesketchwiththe

classicJohn and Marylines,“Oh

John,once we had something

goodand pureand wonderful.

What’shappened to it?”“You

spentita ll.” And

there’sone link

whichruns from

ISIR TAthrough

1948 to Python:

the Ferret Song,

withJohn Cleese

solemnly (and

quitebeautifully)

singing“I’ve got a

ferret stickingup

mynose(He’sgot

aferretsticking

up hisnose),

I’vegot aferret

sticking upmy

nose,How it got

thereIcan’ttell,

But nowit’sthere

it hurtslikehell,

And what is more

it radically affectsmy sense of

smell (His senseofsmell)...” It’sa

joytohear.

Looking backon 1948 from the

present day, in th emanyDVD

extras, Cleesesays: “Wewerefed

up with clichés, with sketches

whichstarted inaparticular

wayand whichfinished with a

punchline.We wanted to break

away.”Cleese and Chapmanwere

to go on toPython,while Brooke-

Taylor wasjoinedbyoldISIRTA

colleagues Bill Oddie and Graeme

Garden inTheGoodies.Marty

Feldman, who had previouslybeen

awriterrather thanaperformer

(the sillynames ofcharactersin

1948 arefamiliar fromRoundthe

Horne,which he co-wrote with

BarryTook), took hisownform

of creative craziness into hisown

TV show. And to go full circle,

Garden and Brooke-Taylor arestill

regularstoday on Radio 4’sI’m

SorryIHaven’taClue.

Therest of thefuture Pythons

areinthe other seriesreleased

by theBFI,DoNotAdjustYour

Set:EricIdle,TerryJonesand

MichaelPalin, along with Denise

Coffey(takingfull part in

sketches, notjustintroductions)

and DavidJason –and theBonzo

DogDoo-Dah Band.TimBrooke-

Taylor appearsinone episodeas a

last-minutereplacementforanill

Palin. Thesecond series included

someanimationsby the final

futurePython,TerryGilliam.

DNAYSwasbroadcastat5.30

pm, andwasaimedatthe pre-

early ev ening Newschildren’s

audience,though itwasquickly

adoptedbystudents.Thesketches

tendtobeweaker thanin 1948 ,

though the humour is often

warmer–and certainly not as

manic.One episodeends with a

touch of satire:the castsinging

“I’mBaking Britain”,askiton

the current politicaland social

campaign “I’m Backing Britain”.

Ever yprogrammefeaturedanew

episodeof“CaptainFantastic”,

withDavid Jason playing an inept

superhero detective.Fromtoday’s

viewpointthis is embarrassingly

awful, but it had itsownspin-off

showafterDNAYSfinished.Jason

shinesfarbetterforhis slapstick

comedy, prefiguring hisfamous

falling-through-the-bar as Del

Boy; he also doesasurpr isingly

brilliant impersonation of Sixties

game showhostHughie Green.

Thehighlight ofeveryepisode

wasthe BonzoDog Doo Dah

Band, withVivStanshall, Neil

Innes and the othermembers

givingwonderfullysurreal

performances.Theextras on the

DVDs include interviews with

severa loft he Bonzos, aswell as

someofthe cast.

What st rikesyou now, 50 years

later ,ishow young theyall were

at the time.Producer Humphrey

Barclay(who alsoproduced

ISIRTA)says: “Wehad freerein.

We behavedourselves and hada

lovely sillytime.” He continues:

“Nobody tolduswhattodo. It

wasthe mostextraordinaryera

of trust...We were givenanopen

playground.”

Michael Palin seemstosum

up theexperience of working

on bothseries:“Averyjoyful

comedy”.

DavidVBarrett

HHHHH

At last the origins of Python

“I’vegotaferret

stickingup my

nose,howitgot

thereIcan’ttell”

Twonew releases from the BFIrepresent the missing links in the evolution of surreal British

television comedy,featuring proto-Pythons and soon-to-be Goodies in skits and sketchesgalore

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