From Reveille, Friday 8th June 1979:
When comedy isn't funnyDo any readers wish to make any wild, libellous guesses as to the names of the anonymous comedy stars in this article?
Making you chuckle is no laughing matter for television's funny men
by ALAN SHADRAKEDID YOU hear the one about the two top TV comedy stars? who hated each other so much that they couldn't bear to be in the same room together?
They got on well enough until half-way through filming a long-running comedy series. Then tempers flared. The producers faced a problem. For the show just had to go on.
So they got round it by writing the scenes so that the two stars were never seen face-to-face again.
The writer explained: "I had to rewrite the scenes so that they were always talking to each other over the phone, through letter boxes or windows."
It's a true story that reflects some of the tension involved in producing top comedy shows for the box.
Turning out a regular show of successful situation comedy series is one of the tougher challenges facing TV executives, writers and actors.
I learned of the rows, the petty jealousies and bitterness that so often develop when highly talented people get together to make us laugh.
Gauntlet
Arguments over laughs always occur in comedy series which have a big cast - and over how much time an actor or actress has on the box.
The same writer added: "When you turn up with scripts it's a bit like running the gauntlet.
"Annoyed performers pull you aside and want to know why you haven't given them more of the action."
The Rag Trade, with its cast of six actresses and two actors, is a real headache for its writing team.
Ronnie Wolfe, who writes the series with partner Ronnie Chesney, explained: "The show lasts only 24 minutes, so even if no-one else is involved they could only have three minutes each.
"And you have to have lead players, so of course some people aren't going to be very happy.
"Of course, they get twitchy because they go several pages of script without having a word, then they rush to us for reassurance that they are not being written out of the series.
"The solution is to balance it nicely."
Bitchy
Actresses Wendy Richards, who has appeared in a number of sit. coms. including Nearest and Dearest, Not On Your Nelly, Please Sir, and Are You Being Served? with John Inman, told us: "There is a lot of bitchiness in this business."
At a cocktail party to introduce the cast of a new comedy series to each other, she met the star for the first time.
"She looked me up and down and said: 'She's no good - she's too short and her boobs aren't big enough'."
Wendy, who says working on Are You Being Served? is wonderful because everyone gets on with each other, added: "On another series the star of the show used to get furious every time anyone else got a special close-up shot for slotting in later.
"She used to clench her fists until her knuckles went white in a kind of controlled rage. It was pure jealousy."
Shows like Are You Being Served? share the glamour equally between the stars, highlighting individual characters week by week.
But Nicholas Smith, who plays store manager Mr Rumbold, said: "I recall John Inman on one occasion saying pathetically 'Do you know, I got only eight lines this week', and it was only because that week's story didn't really concern him."
Impossible
Bouncy actor Bill Maynard scored a hit with his portrayal of Selwyn Froggitt in the setting of a working men's club. But for some of the cast of Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt, working on the series became impossible.
Actress Rosemary Martin says she walked off the first series after arguments over the scripts.
Following bitter arguments involving other members of the cast Yorkshire TV executives decided to change the format of the series.
So Bill returned as Selwyn causing chaos in a holiday camp with a fresh supporting cast each week.
From his home is Sapcote, Leicestershire, Bill commented.
"Whether I get on with people or not doesn't bother me.
"When I am doing a series that's my series. And if it comes to survival, I am going to put my foot down."
On the box Happy Ever After, starring Terry Scott and June Whitfield, looked a very happy affair all round.
But there were difficulties when everyone got together to record the fifth series.
There were wrangles over the scripts.
And in the end script writer Eric Merriman parted company with the show.
Merriman and John Chapman - co-writer of the earlier series - claimed that the characters were their copyright.
That was why they withheld permission for use of subsidiary characters such as Aunt Lucy when the BBC decided to go ahead with a different Terry Scott/June Whitfield series.
Victim
This meant that actress Beryl Cooke had to say goodbye to Aunt Lucy.
"I am sorry for Beryl because she is a really lovely person," said Eric Merriman.
"But I feel she was a victim of the circumstances.
"And I'd be absolutely delighted to write for her again at any time."
But B B C's The Good Life, starring Richard Briars and Felicity Kendal, was one comedy series where the atmosphere wasn't just manufactured for the viewers.
Said Briars: "I think the show succeeded so well because we were lucky to have four people who worked in the same style and no one was pushy. The competitive spirit that is usually prevalent about who is getting the laughs wasn't there."
