Bad Show, Goons

Page 3 of the Observer, Sunday 5th February 1995:

Pace of viewing speeds up for the short-attention generation
Channel surfing package zaps the sitcom

IT IS being billed as the first television comedy for the short-attention generation - a rapid-fire, 'channel-switching' skit on television at its most awful, writes Peter Beaumont.

Imagine Scooby Doo crossed with The Monkees, then intercut with fake advertisements and clips from bogus films - including one which recasts Michael Caine's Harry Palmer character from The Ipcress File as Sir Lancelot.

Glam Metal Detectives, the brainchild of Peter Richardson from the Comic Strip, begins on BBC2 on 23 February and is full on contradictions. It is at once tailored to the younger audience brought up on MTV and Def II, while at the same time operating as a critique of the way audiences consume television.

Mr Richardson sees the model as much in the comic book format as in television, 'Because the viewer understand how television works, you can tell a joke in three lines instead of spending a minute-and-a-half.'

Mr Richardson recognises that many viewers have 'the attention span of a flea' and admits that the 'zapper culture' of multi-channel TV has informed the show's format.

However, he also believes that 'channel surfing' is bad for television. 'What people miss out on flicking, say, from a film to a football match is the boring bits of the match. But it is those dull bits that build up the excitement and sense of expectation.'

Three years in the making, six months in the editing suite and with a cast new to television, Glam Metal Detectives (the name is taken from one of its spoof shows) abandons the traditional format of the sitcom or sketch to present three seven to eight-minutes 'programmes' between staccato bursts of bogus advertisements and game shows apparently randomly sampled by remote control.

The detectives of the title set the tone: they are a Seventies glam rock band who travel the world by bus, saving it from childishly simplistic crises, their passage around the world designated in best cartoon style by the audience's changing hats.

This is also the ultimate expression of post-modernism in television - a show entirely informed by ones that have gone before.

The Glams' world is one of televisual and filmic clichés: London is a world of singing chimney sweeps, à la Mary Poppins; the Australian audience wears hats with corks.

It is the process noted by Neil Postman, of New York University, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death: that as visual images supersede the printed text as the main vehicle for ideas, so culture is defined by a shared recognition of certain types of TV and film images.

This change in viewing patterns and approach has in part been pioneered by MTV, which claims an audience among the most 'visually literate'. According to Brent Hansen, president/creative director for MTV Europe: 'Young people understand the way these ideas work. They want ideas, but not in a didactic fashion, and are much more aware of the choice available to them.'

Not all are happy, however, with the increasing pace of television and the temptation to chop and change. According to Professor Mallorry Wober, of Bournemouth University, a psychologist who teaches on a media course, the way that the pace of viewing has changed with the eradication of the pauses between programmes has created an audience that is no longer allowed to dwell on the ideas of what they have just watched. 'You go straight from one programme into an advert, a trailer or another programme and its impact disappears. There is a strong argument, I think, for a five-second gap to allow people to reflect on what they have seen.'

From Time Out, 22nd February to 1st March 1995:

Rock with laughter

For the last 15 years Peter Richardson's main claim to fame has been his association with the Comic Strip films which he has written, directed and featured in, despite their identification in the public's eye with more famous colleagues like Mayall, Sayle and Saunders. Now Richardson stands at the crossroads of mega-culthood with 'The Glam Metal Detectives', a series that he has again devised, directed, co-written and acted in, These films, however, are this time devoid of the ultimately restrictive starry names.

'GMD' has all the ingredients to be a hit, particularly with the late-teen and student audience to which it most obviously speaks. Richardson says it's a 'TV comic', and bemoans the fact that it has taken over three years to develop and find its slot on BBC2's schedules.It's a pot-pourri of running sketches, waccy-baccy graphics, media piss-takes and a preposterous linking storyline which has a bunch of glam-rockers zooming around the world trying to save the planet's ecology through hit records. The group is constantly being attacked by evil media-genius Rolston Brocade (Mac McDonald) who in part two there is a bid to addict another to a canned drink called 'Splat!', which turns people into sex-crazed egomaniac at a burp.

But while 'GMD' forms the core of the series the remaining time is filled by group-writing projects of varying success: there's an amusing feature called 'Colin Corleone' about an undersized, unemployed south London nobody who lives his life as the Godfather; 'Betty's Mad Dash', which splendidly parodies 1920s escapade-flapper movies; 'Call Mickey', in which a parody black stud will, for example, roger your wife and take out the rubbish if you're too tired to do it yourself; and 'Bloodsports', in which pursuits like house repossession, bare-knuckle fighting and ram-raiding are treated as if they were events on 'Match Of The Day'. I've seen the first three episodes and the series is definitely a grower. The woman in particular excel, notably Doon MacKichan, who is already well known from her work with Steve Coogan and shines in a chat-show send-up called 'The Big Me'; and the stunning Sara Stockbridge (see Hotshots, page 5) whose genuine gift for comedy is more than matched by legs longer than the Eiffel Tower's. Unfortunately the males don't have the same high profile, although the drummer is played by the excellent Phil Cornwell who does the best Jimmy Hill impersonation on planet earth, and the guitarist-vocalist is Gary Beadle who doubles up as sex-machine Mickey. The funniest gags aren't always the most original - Mick Jagger as Hamlet had me throwing up on the carpet but may leave you cold. One to track. Definitely. Steve Grant

'The Glam Metal Detectives', 9pm, BBC2

From the Sun, Saturday 18th April 1975:

Black Mark for Golden Goodies
By MARGARET FORWOOD

THE GOODIES, those Golden Boys of television comedy, have been ordered to make last-minute changes in their next show.

The programme, due to go out on Monday, pokes fun at racialism in South Africa. BBC top brass have ordered the Goodies to remake two scenes.

Have The Goodies been censored?

"No," said a BBC spokesman, "nothing has been taken out of the programme."

But the two scenes had to be re-written and re-filmed at the last-minute.

Why the sudden panic?

"Well, programmes are sometimes made that way," said the spokesman carefully, "we have nothing to say about that."

It all seems a bit mysterious. Especially since The Goodies say they were given a simple explanation.

Goody Tim Brooke-Taylor told me: "We were told that the scenes weren't funny enough. So we did them again and put in a few more jokes."

The story is about a South African Tourist Board official - played by Philip Madoc, one of television's favourite villains -who persuades The Goodies to make a film for the board.

Leave

The idea is to encourage more white people to go to South Africa. Instead the film makes all the coloured people leave.

This means the whites have no one to work for them. So The Goodies invent Apartheight to take the place of Apartheid, which segregates tall people from short.

In their new world, tall people are the bosses. Short ones are the servants.

And, of course, Goody Bill Oddie is short.

Brooke-Taylor, 34, explained: "The problem is that when you are dealing with a serious subject like this, you first have to set up the situation of racialism and segregation.

"And the scene-setting wasn't funny enough."

The Goodies have a reputation for producing lightweight family fun.

Brooke-Taylor said: "We are not a crusading programme, but we deal with real subjects."

In 1973 they had problems with a show where Bill played a pop star and became corrupted by the glitter of the pop world.

That was taken out of the series - and given a late slot.

Months later, it was shown at an earlier time.

With a few cuts.

Somebody up there seems to be keeping a watchful eye on those Goodies.

Page 11 of the Sun, Tuesday 19th March 1984:

TV STARS RAGE AT DIRTY JOAN
By PETER BOND

TOP comics blasted Channel Four yesterday for not censoring Saturday night's shock TV-special starring Joan Rivers. They claimed the American funny girl was too "blue and outrageous" for family viewing.

Bob Monkhouse, Bernie Winters and Jon Pertwee all said they were astonished the one-hour show, recorded before a showbiz audience, went out at 9.30 virtually uncut.

And Tommy Cooper said: "It should at all. It was very naughty."

Channel Four said: "We've no regrets. We had very few complaints."

Page 6 of the Sunday Express, Monday 17th June 1991:

Anger at BBC comic's cancer send-up
by Michael Towers

OUTRAGED TV viewers flooded the BBC switchboard last night after a stand-up comedian mocked victims of throat cancer.

Millions of viewers saw American comedian Denis Leary open the bill on BBC1's Paramount City - pretending he was using a voice box.

He joked it would be "great" if everybody in a family had to use voice boxes so they all sounded the same.

One viewer who complained to the BBC was Brian Slater, 44, of Matlock, Derbyshire. He recently lost a sister through the disease.

He told the Sunday Express: "It was diabolical. He was trying to poke fun at people who are very ill.

"He pulled a microphone beneath his chin and started making noises.

"He sounded like the actor Jack Hawkins who had to use a voice box after he had an operation. The BBC should be sent packing."

Viewer Helen Davis of Muswell Hill, North London said: "It was very upsetting. He said he would love to have a tracheotomy so he could smoke two cigarettes at once."

A BBC spokesman admitted there had been complaints and said: "Naturally we regret if any of our viewers were offended by this comedian;s style of humour."

Page 23 of the Daily Mail, Friday 30th August 1991:

Barry's rude awakening for TV bosses

A BARRY HUMPHRIES television special which cost £200,000 may be banned because it contains too many jokes of a graphic sexual nature.

The show features Humphries's bile-spewing alter ego Sir Les Patterson, the so-called Australian cultural attache, and was to have been transmitted on ITV later in the autumn season. It was recorded at the London Weekend Television studios in front of an audience, and some who saw it have told me that it is the most offensive material they have ever had to sit through.

Executives at LWT's light entertainment department are now trying to salvage footage from the programme, A Late Lunch With Sir Les Patterson, that might be deemed suitable to broadcast.

But, I am told, they may be left with very little that they can screen at a reasonable hour.

One gag 'Sir Les' recounts in the show, concerning the disposal of bodily secretions, can never be shown because it is disgusting and way over the top.

'I think Barry just got too carried away and realised too late that he was exceeding the bounds of what is acceptable on television, no matter what hour it is to be shown. Now I think LWT may have to scrap it or, if they've got enough suitable footage, show it after 11 at night,' an associate of the comedian told me.

However, I gather that the 'Sir Les Patterson' incident has not affected Humphries's £2million contract with LWT. Humphries and his producers are planning a game show to be hosted by his housewife-superstar chum Dame Edna Everage.

A special celebrity version of the game show has already been recorded in America for NBC Television featuring stars including Cher and Larry Hagman.

Page 20 of the Daily Mirror, Thursday 20th February 1992:

FURY OVER TV HANGING 'FUN'
EXCLUSIVE
By TONY PURNELL

THE sister of hanged Derek Bentley called last night for a ban on a TV comedy show which makes him a figure of fun.

Distressed Iris Bentley, 59, who has campaigned ceaselessly to get a posthumous pardon for her tragic brother, said: "It's too sick for words."

Controversial comics David Baddiel and Rob Newman will feature Bentley and his accomplice Christopher Craig in a running gag during a news series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience starting on BBC2 next month.

Craig and Bentley were convicted of the gun murder of a policeman in Croydon 40 years ago.

Craig had his finger on the trigger but escaped the gallows because he was only 16.

Bentley, who was 19, hanged because, it was claimed, he shouted: "Let him have it, Chris."

Baddiel, 26, said: "They struck me as the funniest two people this century.

"We joke that Bentley deserved to hang for using an ambiguous phrase in a critical situation.

"We get laughs over uncool linguistic errors."

But Bentley's niece Maria, 29, said: "We'll do everything we can to get this stopped."

Page 5 of the Wimbledon Guardian, Thursday 27th February 1992:

'Ban sick sketch about dead man'
By NICOLA DOWNEY

Iris Bentley has called for a ban on a television comedy show which includes a joke sketch about her dead brother, Derek.

Shocked Iris, from Colliers Wood, who is campaigning to clear her brother's name, said the sketch is "sick".

It is expected to be shown in a new series of BBC2's The Mary Whitehouse Experience starting next month, but Iris wants it scrapped.

Her brother was hanged in 1953 for his part in the murder of a policeman on the roof top of a Croydon warehouse, even though 16-year-old accomplice Christopher Craig pulled the trigger.

Bentley is supposed to have said: "Let him have it" and the comedy gag jokes that he deserved his punishment for using such an uncool and ambiguous phrase.

But Iris and her campaigners are calling for it to be stopped and are planning to talk with the show's bosses.

"They think its very funny situation. From what hear of it, it's in very bad taste," said campaigner, Neil Churchill.

"We have been in touch with the BBC and the head of light entertainment and we want it pulled.

"We believe it's still in the writing stage. For a start it's not based on evidence and just makes fun of the situation. It could damage the chances of getting a posthumous pardon," he said.

The campaigners are still hoping to meet with Home Secretary Kenneth Baker to discuss Derek's case in the near future.

A spokesman for the BBC said: "It is a surreal sketch which illustrates the ambiguity of language."

"However, at present it is still not possible to say if it will be included in the scripts," she said.

Page 15 of the Daily Star, Saturday 11th July 1992:

WHITEHOUSE TEAM TOLD: CLEAN IT UP!
Foul-mouthed duo censored

EXCLUSIVE by NIKKI MURFITT

THE cheeky duo behind the Mary Whitehouse Experience have been ordered: Clean up your act.

Telly bosses are so alarmed at Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis's brand of humour that they have forced them to cut swear words.

And they told them to curb their near-the-knuckle in their new show, Me, You and Him, to be screened later this month.

To ram home the message, worried bosses at Thames TV sent the lads a SEVEN-PAGE letter, telling them to:

? CUT out frequent use of the F-word and slang words insulting to women.

? CUT down on less offensive everyday swear words, such as bloody hell.

Thames TV bosses have defended the decision to gag the duo's effing and blinding.

A spokesman says: "We have an A and B list of swear words, which we use as a guideline for programmes, and writers must comply with it.

Strict

"The B list contains words like bloody, while the A list contains stronger language.

"Changes had to be made to the script because there were words which fell into category A and these are not acceptable in a show going out at 8.30 p.m."

Steve Punt says: "They've been pretty strict. We've been left with only a couple of bloodys and a b* in each episode.

"One sketch had to be completely re-shot."

A spokesman for the other Mary Whitehouse's TV clean-up campaign said the Thames TV censorship was "excellent."

Page 13 of the Daily Express, Saturday 26th December 1992:

BBC show will mock the dead

THE BBC is braced for a flood of complaints about a New Year's Eve TV show mocking dead celebrities.

The Australian-based Doug Anthony Allstars perform an impersonation of blind, deaf and dumb genius Helen Keller, whose life story inspired an Oscar-winning film.

They also imitate singer Karen Carpenter, who died from the slimmers' disease anorexia nervosa and dance to songs including Do The Dead Elvis. Last year their live album was banned by British censors. "I was very surprised when BBC2 said they wanted to put them on," said producer Geoff Posner.

"They do the sort of act that will offend just about everyone. The impersonation of Karen Carpenter is just a long, thin microphone stand."

BBC2 controller Alan Yentob is said to have won a show for the comics after seeing them at the Edinburgh Festival.

"It wasn't an easy decision," said Mr Posner. "Everyone at the BBC is holding their breath."

Page 19 of the Daily Mirror, Sunday 23rd April 1995:

DEE-VOLTING!
TV bosses pull plug on Jack's sick electric chair sketch

EXCLUSIVE by YORK MEMBERY

AT THE flick of a switch, comic Jack Dee sends thousands of volts surging through a Death Row prisoner's body.

The sketch, from Jack and Jeremy's Police 4 to be aired next Friday, is typical of hard man Dee's grim humour.

But we will never see it. TV chiefs have deemed the routine too controversial to screen after British-born killer Nick Ingram's execution in the electric chair.

"The powers-that-be at Channel Four got cold feet," says an insider.

"They feel it would be in poor taste to air the clip so soon after the event."

The humorous series sends up shows such as Crimewatch and features Dee and fellow stand-up comedian Jeremy Hardy as special constables.

In the offending sketch, Dee invites viewers to call in if they want to see a prisoner on Death Row "chaired or spared".

Tiring of the debate, he hits the switch and says: "Let the bastard fry".

Ingram, 31, was the first Briton to be executed in America this century. He lost his life at Jackson State Jail in Georgia for the murder of military veteran JC Sawyer.

Ingram tortured and shot Sawyer after a bungled burglary 12 years ago.

Ingram's mother Ann, from Cambridge, suffered the ordeal of seeing her son's last-minute reprieve overturned.

He was executed by a 2,000-volt blast of electricity.

Jack Dee is on tour in Australia and was unavailable for comment.

Co-star Hardy said: "Both Jack and I disagree with capital punishment and the sketch was our way to highlight the issue.

"Ingram certainly seemed guilty, but his execution was horrifying.

"The scene was shot before the execution took place - but I agree that to show it in the light of his death would now be insensitive."

Page 7 of the Daily Telegraph, Friday 23rd May 1997:

BBC pays libel damages over TV comedy
By Alison Boshoff
Media Correspondent

THE BBC has paid undisclosed libel damages to the Outward Bound Trust after it portrayed a course instructor as a "deranged sexual pervert" in the Rowan Atkinson sitcom The Thin Blue Line.

The trust brought legal action against the BBC over the comedy and over a Radio 4 documentary that claimed the trust employed paedophiles in its adventure centres.

A BBC spokesman said both allegations had been the result of "grave error".

The trust, an educational charity, told the High Court yesterday that the allegations were without foundation and had caused massive damage to its reputation.

Godwin Butsuttil, for the trust, said its main object was to "help people live more fulfilled, worthwhile and productive lives by providing opportunities for personal development through challenging experiences in demanding environments".

Referring to an edition last year of the Radio 4 documentary File on 4 that dealt with paedophiles, Mr Busuttil said: "A statement which alleged that the trust had employed systematic paedophiles and child abusers was entirely without foundation and so caused great damage to its standing and credit."

The Thin Blue Line broadcast "falsely portrayed an Outward Bound course leader as a deranged sexual pervert. The BBC now accepts its grave error and recognises the considerable damage it has caused to the trust."