The birth of the sitcom...
QUESTION What were the first radio and TV
sitcoms in Britain? THAT Child, a six-part comedy written by Florence Kilpatrick and broadcast in 1926, is usually credited as being the first radio sitcom.
It had a classic domestic setting with Mabel Constanduros as ‘The Mother’ and Michael hogan as ‘The Father’ struggling to cope with raising their daughter, ‘That Child’ played by Lorna hubbard.
Each week, a new ten-minute episode featured a different breach of discipline.
But the talented Mabel Constanduros may have got there first. She created the first ‘radio family’ — The Buggins Family. First broadcast as a one- off called The Buggins Family Out For a Day in 1925, the set- up featured a hard- pressed mother, indifferent father and three cantankerous children, with most of the comedy coming from a batty gran.
The show made regular broadcasts from 1928 and Constanduros wrote more than 250 scripts. In early episodes, she played all the speaking parts, but soon she was joined by Michael hogan as the father.
again the set-ups were familiar, a family going to the zoo, having a picnic or catching the train are not always funny, but when the Bugginses are present hilarity ensues. Only short excerpts of The Buggins survive in the archives.
Pinwright’s Progress (1946-7) was the world’s first TV sitcom. The star was James hayter (Friar Tuck in The Story Of Robin hood and his Merrie Men, 1952) the owner of Macgillygally’s Stores, ‘the smallest multiple store in the world’, and storylines revolved around his attractive daughter (Jill Christie) and his rivalry with another store.
his difficulties are compounded by his staff, including; Ralph (Leonard Sharp), a deaf octogenarian messenger boy, and the outrageous Mrs Sigsbee ( Doris Palmer), a forerunner of the are You Being Served? character Mrs Slocombe.
Ten episodes of the show were broadcast on the BBC, all wiped from the archive.
a typical set- up is as follows: Mr Pinwright prepares his Christmas Bazaar. There is trouble though, due to the appearance of not one, but three Father Christmases — one a fugitive from the law. Mrs Sigsbee attempts to help proceedings by appearing as the Fairy Queen ... What could possibly go wrong?
The series was written by Rodney hobson and edited by Ted Kavanagh, the writer of the popular BBC radio show It’s That Man again (ITMa).
James Plowden, Hull.
QUESTION In Western films, who was the Sam Hill that cowboys refer to in order to emphasise a point?
THE american satirist h. L. Mencken (1880-1956) devised a high-brow derivation for this exclamation; he wrote that the phrase derives from Samiel, the name of the Devil in Der Freischütz, an opera by Carl Maria von Weber that was performed in New York City in 1825.
he was almost certainly pulling our collective leg. The first published reference to it in the OED is from the august 21, 1839, issue of the havana (NY) Republican: ‘What in sam hill is that feller ballin’ about?’
In English, there’s a long history of euphemistic substitutions for strong language, ‘golly’ and ‘gosh’ originated as non-blasphemous substitutes for ‘God’, likewise ‘crikey’ for ‘Christ’ and ‘darn’ and ‘dang’ for ‘damn’. In the same vein, Sam hill was a polite way of saying ‘hell’.
Sue Collins, Minehead, Somerset.
QUESTION What is the daily budget for feeding other ranks in HM Armed Forces? How does this compare to inmates in HM prisons?
THE majority of catering provided for armed forces personnel is now served by private contractors and service personnel eat on a ‘pay as you dine’ basis.
In order to prevent the exploitation of soldiers, a maximum daily charge of £5.29 is set, which is broken down to set maximums for each meal: Breakfast £1.32, lunch £1.80 and dinner £2.17.
It is up to the caterers to feed the personnel at those prices, but calorie content, variety and quality standards have to be maintained. additional charges are made for beverages, but those are capped at 9p.
Current prices were set in October 2019 and are reviewed annually and include VaT where applicable.
Where caterers are employed to feed soldiers at public expense, they are given an allowance of £3.60 per person, per day. This is based on the price of a typical food basket at wholesale rates (about £2.75 per person), plus staff costs.
Soldiers in the field are provided with ration packs at a cost of about £10 per person. however, each pack contains about 5,000 calories worth of snacks, beverages and main meals. Soldiers in the field are fed at the taxpayers’ expense.
The cost of catering for the inmates of British prisons varies from prison to prison and also according to establishment type. Young offender institutions spend about £3.45 per inmate per day, but adult institutions spend an average of £1.87, up to a maximum of £2.02.
Bob Woodford, Northampton.
QUESTION Have studios changed films following poor test screenings?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, a film on general release that suffered an adverse audience reaction regarding its ending was Disney’s Davy Crockett, King Of The Wild Frontier (1955).
The Disney hype worked well and millions of coonskin caps went on sale. The theme song by the Wellingtons made the hit parade. however, as the film’s conclusion was centred on the alamo, it had Davy Crockett bumped off, much to the upset of children watching.
By the time I saw the film at a cinema in Romford, the tabs (drapes) were drawn while Davy was still standing and the projector was shut down. The theme song swiftly played at that point.
Tony Beard, Billericay, Essex. IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.
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