Thursday, April 18, 2013

Do you want dandelion & burdock with that?

By the merest chance I heard the very last edition of "ITMA" being played on Radio 4 Extra the other day (Radio 4 Extra is what we have to call Radio 7 these days now we have to pretend that the BBC doesn't have more than 6 radio stations so as not to upset the Daily Mail). I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it; ITMA generally being something I admire for its craft and delivery but don't much laugh at. I'll have to hunt down some more of the later editions.

Bill Oddie was acting as Comedy Controller for a couple of hours and was working to a thesis that though he loved radio programmes like this at the time they've not aged all that well because a lot of the material would have worked better as television programmes because the performers were, essentially, variety artistes and actors doing variety acts. There's a lot to be said for this argument, particularly as his next exhibit was "Archie's the Lad!" with ventriloquist Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews.

But there's also a lot to be said for the counter-argument that there's a lot of television that should have stayed on the radio. And not just because Peter Brough's lips moved. The Telly Goons are a prized part of my childhood memory but they were only ever a nineteenth-rate version of the colour and invention of the real thing on the radio. Similarly: Jimmy Clitheroe's knees. How scary were they at Saturday tea time?

And there's no way, shape or form that Round the Horne could ever have been on the television and kept much of its magic.

I'll be coming back to that...

4 comments:

dinahmow said...

Oh, blimey, guv! I'm just about to dish our tea...I'll have to come back later, wearing my Empire Child of the 50s hat..
runs off singing Much Binding in The Marsh...

the fly in the web said...

Bona!

dinahmow said...

I'm back...in general, re-makes and updates lack the original spirit and verve of the thing.However, for newcomers who never heard/saw the originals, there may be entertainment to be had.
Comedy doesn't date, but its presentation does. According to someone who used to "teach" the writing of comedy.
I am enormously grateful to Youtube for making so much of the golden oldies humour available.

libby said...

We used to play RTH audio tapes in the car on long journeys when the kids were little, and as we laughed along, over time so did they...my son loves them still...he loved rambling syd rumpo.....ah happy days.