Comedy Corrections
As Cappsy has pointed out on The White Hole, Comedy Connections starts today at 10:35pm. This is a schedule change; the printed Radio Times gives it as starting on Tuesday. This is made worse by the fact that the magazine also features an article mentioning the show, which also gives the Tuesday date. Meaning that loads of people are going to miss out on what I'm sure will be a great show on The Goodies. Bloody BBC idiots.
As for the article in question... well, it's three little pieces on The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Red Dwarf, and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. Followed by a paragraph saying "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and Red Dwarf both feature in this series of Comedy Connections, along with: The Goodies, Birds of a Feather, Father Ted, Hi-de-Hi-Hi!, The Young Ones, and Keeping Up Appearance. Why the TWATTING FUCK is there a piece on It Ain't Half Hot Mum in the article then? Why not something on one of the shows that is covered? The byline to the article gives a clue: "As BBC1 looks back at the birth of some classic sitcoms, we reveal some near misses that could have changed TV comedy as we know it". Ah, it's all about people who were recast. Still doesn't make ANY FUCKING SENSE AT ALL using a show not covered by this series, when they're linking the programme in with the article. Never mind; I like the way the byline uses the non-corporate BBC1 instead of BBC ONE.
As for the piece on Dwarf, here is is:
Red Dwarf
When did it run? February 1988 - April 1999
How many episodes? 52
Who starred in it? Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Robert Llewellyn, Danny John-Jules
Ever compared Red Dwarf to Porridge? Well, maybe you should and maybe you shouldn't. Creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor were such fans of the prison comedy that they transcribed episodes and studied how it was written in-depth. And in a bid to get the show commissioned, they sold it as "Porridge in space". "There are similar elements," explains Naylor, "such as the confined space, bunk beds and our use of 'smeg', in the same way that Porridge popularised 'naff'.
"However, once we got the green light and were left to our own devices, we went back to our original plan of doing a sci-fi comedy."
Think Red Dwarf, but instead of Craig Charles and Chris Barrie, think Alfred Molina and Alan Rickman. They were originally on board for the parts of Rimmer and Lister. "We were aware that it might take more than one series for us to get Red Dwarf right," admits Naylor, "and we knew that with Alan and Alfred on board, we'd probably only get one series out of them. So we changed the casting."
The character of Kryten wasn't even in the first two series as a main character. Grant and Naylor realised they desperately needed someone else to do physical things. "We had a hologram, a maudlin computer, a human cat and the last man in the universe," says Naylor. "Kryten's character had been a success as a one-off in series two, so we decided to introduce it." However, David Ross, who had played Kryten first, was filming Alan Bleasdale's GBH at the time, and couldn't take the role, giving Robert Llewellyn the chance.
Red Dwarf was rejected three times before being commissioned. One BBC comedy executive, Gareth Gwenlan, was dead against it, saying, "You can't have a sitcom in space. There's no settee." Grant and Naylor were so annoyed that they ended up using Gwenlan's name as one of the show's swearwords.
Hmmm. Like Comedy Connections itself, it's a remarkable piece - remarkable chiefly for it's accuracy and how it manages to be not irritating, unlike a lot of BBC stuff about comedy these days. I'm very impressed; particuarly the challenging of the Porridge comparison that's often trotted out.
Birds of a Feather is featuring on the 28th June; as to when the Dwarf episode can be expected - fuck off. They swapped round the order of the shows last year anyway, so I doubt anyone knows in the entire world. Still, I haven't been this excited about a TV show featuring Dwarf in ages - and remember, they're hoping to come up with some stuff even hardcore fans won't know...
Comments
As of tomorrow the Radio Times website should have the listings for Monday 5th July. Fingers crossed.
Although, it seems I will be on holiday with no access to a TV when the Dwarf episode is shown.
Annoying? Yes.
Posted by Cappsy at June 21, 2004 10:24 AM
I expect the Comedy Connections site will update after tonight too; it might give some clues, although they buggered round with the order last series.
Posted by John Hoare at June 21, 2004 03:55 PM
>Grant and Naylor were so annoyed that they ended up using Gwenlan's name as one of the show's swearwords.
Really? There was a gag in Kryten where they had Kylie Gwenlyn as the producer of "Androids", but I can't remember the word "gwenlan" ever being used in the same way as "smeg", "goit" or "gimboid". Am I missing something?
Posted by Seb at June 21, 2004 04:00 PM
Lister uses it as an insult to Kryten in the painting scene.
"You'rea c oplete Gwenlan, you know that, Kryten?"
Or something to that effect.
John. Good thinking. The horrid official site might just have an update today at some point.
Posted by Cappsy at June 21, 2004 04:08 PM
This is sad... wasn't it 'total gwenlyn'?
Posted by Rad at June 21, 2004 05:55 PM
Uh-huh.
And it's "gimp" in the script. Must have been an on-the-set alteration.
Posted by Pete Martin at June 21, 2004 06:53 PM
'Stoke Me A Clipper'
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 London,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 West,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 South West,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 North West,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 Midlands,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 North East,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 South,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 South East,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 North,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Red Dwarf showing on BBC 2 Scotland,
Wednesday 30th June at 23:20
Posted by Rad at June 22, 2004 12:06 PM
So, 'Stoke me a Clipper' is being shown on BBC2 at 23:30 on the 30th June, then.
Posted by Cappsy at June 22, 2004 12:31 PM
I've seen it already.
I'll take that and Blue and you can shove the rest of series VII.
Posted by Ian at June 22, 2004 12:36 PM
Odd that the CC official site hasn't updated yet...
Posted by John Hoare at June 22, 2004 09:33 PM
Shoddyness.
Posted by Cappsy at June 23, 2004 09:15 AM
http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=4&jspGridLocation=%2Fjsp%2Ftv_listings_grid.jsp&jspListLocation=%2Fjsp%2Ftv_listings_single.jsp&jspError=%2Fjsp%2Ferror.jsp&searchDate=05%2F07%2F2004&searchTime=22%3A00&channels=92%2C105%2C26%2C132%2C134%2C39%2C40%2C45%2C47%2C48%2C49%2C119%2C122%2C123%2C482%2C483%2C147%2C150%2C156%2C158%2C160%2C1041%2C1241%2C921%2C177%2C180%2C182%2C184%2C185%2C197%2C213%2C1201%2C1061%2C225%2C244%2C1261%2C249%2C250%2C251%2C252%2C253%2C254%2C255%2C256%2C257%2C258%2C259%2C260%2C248%2C922%2C262%2C264%2C265%2C263%2C300%2C266%2C271%2C274%2C923%2C292%2C423%2C288%2C289%2C801%2C1602%2C291
Still to be announced, then. Sorry for the long link, by the way.
Posted by Cappsy at June 23, 2004 09:17 AM
Use the force, man. The force of HTML, that is.
Posted by Ian Symes at June 23, 2004 11:41 AM
I, I, I, shame mode.
I actually forgot that these comments support HTML. Funny really beacsue I used some HTML here just the other day in another news story.
I'm not stupid. Honest.
Posted by Cappsy at June 23, 2004 12:38 PM
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