Is fun a mute point these days?
Sid James’ sitcom Bless This House served up lots of laughs when it launched 50 years ago
OUR collective bar for having fun is pretty low these days, isn’t it? Once upon a time we went to the cinema or pub or theatre or even just other people’s back gardens to seek out our enjoyment.
Now we watch Zoom recordings of council meetings and laugh at the antics of the participants.
How else to explain the nationwide impact surrounding the Handforth Parish Council’s planning and environment committee meeting and its descent into acrimonious chaos?
This dull-sounding affair became a viral ‘must see’ – and its participants hit the headlines – after the in-fighting, barbed comments and general bad-tempered disorder was captured on film and released on Twitter.
It became a water cooler moment. If any of us were actually in offices so we could stand at water coolers to discuss it.
Now, if you’ve seen the footage, it’s undeniably humorous.
The petty bureaucracies of small town politics are laid bare in glorious technicolour, niceties stripped away in a flurry of spittleflecked fury (‘you have no authority here!’) versus a calm determination to follow rules (‘perhaps we can start now?’).
And the main star of the show – the indomitably heroic clerk Jackie Weaver who has a mute button and isn’t afraid to use it – has become a sensation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they build a statue both in her honour and in tribute to every woman in history who has been shouted down or talked over by men.
But is the recording THAT funny? To date the edited highlights have been viewed more than three million times – there’s even talk that Jackie might get on Strictly – yet as a young reporter, I saw versions of the same behaviour, week in and week out, when I attended local council meetings. On one memorable occasion, the chair admonished a councillor for wearing jeans and putting his trainer-clad feet on a desk. As I remember, he and his party colleagues walked out in protest. On another, a public gallery regular wearing an advertising board proclaiming exactly what he thought of local politics and politicians was forcibly removed, committee papers fluttering down like confetti. It’s just what happens when different personalities clash, particularly when they haven’t had their tea yet.
Perhaps, because it’s a Zoom meeting – with those now familiar off-camera conversations, stopstart connections and technical failures – it has hit a nerve.
Personally, I reckon it’s just that we are all so starved of entertainment we’ll seize on anything to keep us even mildly amused.
Last week a friend revealed she had the best of times sitting in a camper van on her mate’s drive, having a brew and a piece of cake. In the rain. “We’ve both been vaccinated and tested negative,” she told me – as if I was going to report her to the fun police.
Another colleague, when asked his weekend plans, lit up like a firework.
“I’ve been on a health kick but on Saturday night I’m having pasta bake for my tea!” he told me.
It’s come to something when carbs are the highlight of your week.
Or a planning and environment committee agenda for that matter.
CARRY On star Sid James was a comedy hit playing father-of-two Sid Abbott in Bless This House. Diana Coupland played his wife Jean, with Robin Stewart as his unemployed ex-art graduate son Mike and Sally Geeson as their 16-year-old schoolgirl daughter Sally.
They all lived at Birch Avenue, Putney, with Anthony Jackson and Patsy Rowlands as their neighbours, Trevor and Betty.
The show’s theme tune was called The Generation Gap and that summed up Sid’s relationship with his children, as he said of his son: “You know that generation gap they keep going on about – it’s between his ears”.
The Thames Television comedy launched 50 years ago this month, in 1971 and ran for 65 episodes over six series with hit sitcom writer Carla Lane, of The Liver Birds and Bread fame, penning some of the scripts.
Sid James’ appearance in Bless This House followed his earlier sitcom success in shows like Hancock’s Half Hour and George And The Dragon with Peggy Mount.
June Whitfield, future EastEnders actor Bill Treacher, Lionel Blair and Windsor Davies were among some of the other stars who appeared in the show, while Sally Geeson also featured in the film Carry On Abroad with Sid James in 1972.
She later said: “I played Sid’s daughter for seven years in Bless This House and it was halfway through the series that Sid asked me appear in one of the Carry On movies. I was so glad Sid was there because I was very nervous.”
There was also a film version of Bless This House in 1972, with Robin Askwith playing son Mike as Robin Stewart was not available.
More series were planned, but the sitcom came to an abrupt end four days after the season six finale, following the sudden death of Sid James at the age of 62, in April 1976.
He suffered a fatal heart attack on stage at the Sunderland Empire during the first night of the tour of The Mating Season and died on his way to the hospital.
Sid had earlier toured the comedy show in Australia where it broke all box office records, but once said: “Comedy is hard work and I am not really a comedian. I need funny people around me to get the best out of myself.”