Finally, a cuckoo calls...
IT’S a funny old world all right, except, I believe, in modern comedy or what passes for it.
Current sit-coms have nothing of the quality of their predecessors and that’s not anything to do with nostalgia, they’re just not funny and so fail the first and basic requirement.
The difference was never better demonstrated than on BBC1 on Friday evening when in 90 minutes of seamless transition I witnessed the good (excellent even) developing into the bad and then the outright ugly.
If lockdown restrictions on making new programmes has done anything it has brought back at least one welcome repeat, the two decade old “My Family” superbly cast and still as hilarious as it was.
After this came “Not Going Out” which I missed seeing first time round but with Lee Mack as both one of the stars and a writer, previous episodes have been watchable but lacking the wit he shows in “Would I Lie To You” although the cynical may claim it is all put up.
However, in this episode Mack and his wife were looking for a new school for one of their children as his present one was at risk of a poor Ofsted grading and started by pretending they were churchgoers to try to get him into a faith run private school, then even going as far as having him christened to gain acceptance.
This probably echoed the real life cleric’s solution to a church’s problem of infestation by bats: “Get them baptised and you’ll never see them again.” (a generalisation I hasten to add).
The TV couple then got into a tangle over choice of godparents which made a complete mockery of what should be a meaningful religious occasion.
Things got even worse in the third sitcom, a rerun of a pilot show which must have been thought worth pursuing in a series, “The Other One” which was just totally devoid of laughs and had the usually excellent Rebecca Front up to some very unladylike things for a new widow including a foul-mouthed outburst at the funeral.
Have we really descended to such depths in what is supposed to be comedy?
Cuckoo call
The cuckoo is not extinct! Danni Jinks emailed me to say she had heard one for the first time in 10 years on Sunday May 17 at about 9.15am.
“I was walking my dog in the fields at the back of Moat Way, Barwell going towards the A447. They must be making a slow comeback.
“I actually stopped to listen as the call continued for a good while,” added Danni.
Hollies here
There is another memory of artists seen in the 60s at The George from David Abbott, this time a meeting with Allan Clarke, lead singer with The Hollies.
David had arrived early for the gig and was having a drink in the bar when he saw someone who looked familiar and it soon became apparent who it was and got talking to the star about the group.
“He (said) they wished to maintain an image like that of
The Shadows, first and foremost musicians and that he was by no means fond of screaming girls – in fact the reason he was alone was because he’d been to visit his wife in Coventry who had recently given birth.”
Clarke bought a milk stout for an old lady who had absolutely no idea who he was and played table football with some of David’s friends before introducing the other group members who arrived from Nuneaton in a pale green Zephyr 6 then taking David into the hall through the artists’ entrance at the rear, giving him free admission.
A very grateful David recalls: “I came away with the impression that he was so down to earth, totally modest and unassuming. I gather he remains so to this day some years after the group’s phenomenal success.”