• The Guardian
  10 Wednesday 24 July 2019
  Arts

without someone calling out his

character’s incredulous catchphrase

• “I don’t believe it!” – or pleading
  with him to repeat it.
  “Most of them think they’re the
  only one who’s ever asked,” explains
  the 83 -year-old. “Taxi drivers I get it
  from a lot. I suppose they’ve got me
  trapped. I feel a bit bad not saying
  it to kids but I’ve got to have my
  freedom. If it’s someone’s birthday
  I may say it.” He remembers the
  show’s creator, David Renwick,
  rationing its appearances in the script
  once he realised it had caught on.
  “David would allow it in one episode,
  then have the next one without it. Or
  he would just put in half the line: ‘I!
  Don’t!’ And that would be enough.”
  Lipman, now 73 and a Coronation
  Street regular, has been living with
  her catchphrase for even longer. It’s
  more than 30 years since she played
  the fussbudget Beattie in a series of
  commercials for British Telecom.
  Calling her grandson in anticipation
  of outstanding exam results, Beattie
  is downhearted to learn he fl unked
  them all, only to perk up when he
  mentions a pass in sociology. “An
  ‘ology’?” she exclaims. “He gets an
  ‘ology’ and he says he failed. You get
  an ‘ology’, you’re a scientist!” When
  she was fi lming the ad , written by
  Richard Phillips, she couldn’t see the
  joke. “I didn’t think it was that funny,
  which is probably why it was good.
  Like most hits, it took us by surprise.”
  Besides, there were other
  catchphrase contenders from the
  BT campaign. One ad even featured
  Wilson as a harried shop assistant
  fi elding telephone queries from
  Beattie. His exasperated response
  to her questions about the outfi ts in
  stock – “All the colours in all sizes!”


• gave him an early taste of the echo-
  chamber experience. “I used to hear
  that line occasionally when I was
  out,” he says, sounding wistful for
  a time when the air was fi lled with

When it

happens to Richard Wilson , he gives
a wave and keeps walking. Maureen
Lipman , on the other hand, tends
to assume an expression of weary
resignation, wh ich she calls her
“dead sea bass” look. Tony Robinson
is a bit more forgiving: he might even
play along. “You don’t want to be a
dick about it,” he says.
What each of these actors has in
common is a catchphrase that has
dogged them for decades. Wilson
played the curmudgeonly Victor
Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One
Foot in the Grave from 1990 to 2000,
and it’s rare now for a week to pass

How does it feel

to have ‘I don’t

believe it!’

shouted at you

in the street –

for decades?

Richard Wilson,

Maureen Lipman

and Tony

Robinson tell all

to Ryan Gilbey

I feel a bit bad

not saying it to

kids but I need

my freedom. If

it’s someone’s

birthday, I might

Cursed by my

catchphrase

PHOTOGRAPHS: BBC; BT; VICTOR WATTS/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ALLSTAR/TRISTAR PICTURES; OAKHURST PRODUCTIONS/KOBAL/REX; COLUMBIA/NORCON/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

‘Show me

the money!’ ...

Cuba Gooding Jr

with Tom Cruise

in Jerry Maguire

‘An ology?’ ...

Maureen Lipman;

right, Tony Robinson

who always had

a cunning plan

something other than the cries of a

million Meldrews.

But “ology” stuck. And Lipman

must deal with her catchphrase on

a weekly basis. “ Oh, people wet

themselves over it. It used to be

that I couldn’t go into a restaurant

without someone making phone

noises at me. I’m sure when I die it’ll

be the headline – ‘Lipman Cut Off !’

or ‘Receiver Is Finally Put Down On

Jewish Comedienne ’.”

Nigel Farage did his bit to revive

it in 2014 by blaming the “ology” for

what he regarded as a rise in “soft-

option” degrees tempting school-

leavers toward university when they

should be learning carpentry instead.

Lipman responded by calling him

“the fi rst senior politician ... to

regard education as a bad thing”.

It was during the third series of

period sitcom Blackadder that Tony

Robinson, who played the dim and

unhygienic Baldrick, fi rst uttered the

line that became his catchphrase.

“The words ‘plan’ and ‘cunning

plan’ had cropped up a few times

before I took ownership of them,”

recalls the actor, now 72. “In the

script, Baldrick’s line was simply,

‘I have a plan.’ I asked if I could add

‘cunning’ because that worked

better rhythmically. The fi rst time

I said it, I thought, ‘This could turn

into a catchphrase.’”

And it did. “The more I said it,

the more people laughed and the

more we wanted to include it, which

is ironic because we’d been very

snobby about the whole idea of

catchphrases.” By the fourth and

‘I don’t believe

it!’ ... Richard

Wilson in One

Foot in the Grave

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