I re-watched an episode of ‘A Show Called Fred’ on YouTube last week and it inspired me to do a bit of research into the three series that Richard Lester made with Milligan and Sellers in 1956.
According to Lost Shows:
All six episodes of ‘The Idiot Weekly, Price 2D’ are missing.
Episodes 1, 4 and 5 of ‘A Show Called Fred’ exist in full. Extracts survive from episodes 2 and 3.
Episode 1 of ‘Son of Fred’ exists, but the other 7 episodes are missing.
It’s been mentioned before on this forum that the ‘Fred’ programmes held at the British Film Institute appear to be compilations rather than the episodes as they were broadcast originally. I decided to see if I could shed a bit more light on this BFI material by identifying the main contents of the original episodes. Some scripts from all three series still exist (many were auctioned at Bonhams in July 2013), but as far as I know these have never been published. Therefore I had to rely upon TV reviews published in ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Observer’ in 1956.
Here are some details of sketches from each of the episodes of ‘A Show Called Fred' as transmitted:
Episode 1 (2 May 1956): In one sequence a man played noughts and crosses on his forehead while reading a letter. A sketch featured a TV interviewer speaking to the eccentric Lord Pimms at Belvedere Towers. In another sketch a commentator described a birdman’s failure to leave the ground. There was a parody of ‘the Count of Monte Cristo’. A spoof advertisement claimed that ‘MUC, the Wonder Deterrent, chops down trees’.
Episode 2 (9 May 1956): ‘Idiot’s Postbag’ sketch – Sellers answered a letter from Roman centurion Jim Aurelius. There was a parody of the BBC’s ‘Grove Family’.
Episode 3 (16 May 1956): A spoof advertisement claimed that ‘MUC, the Wonder Deterrent, stops elephants’.
Episode 4 (23 May 1956) There was a sketch set in a barbers shop. There was a parody of BBC’s ‘In Town Tonight’. There was also a parody of ITV’s ‘Escaper’s Club’.
Episode 5 (30 May 1956): Katie Boyle appeared as a bearded lady. There was a parody of ‘Jekyll and Hyde’.
I compared these details with the contents of the episodes held by the BFI:
BFI ‘Episode 1’ (this isn’t on YouTube): The birdman and Lord Pimms sketches from the broadcast Episode 1 appear here. However the BFI synopsis doesn’t mention the man playing noughts and crosses on his forehead. Some of the other sketches (Valentine Dyall reading from ‘We Die at Dawn Tonight’, musicians in a closet, the hunting sketch) might be from the broadcast Episode 2 or 3. The Escaper’s Club’ parody is from the broadcast Episode 4.
BFI ‘Episode 4’ (this is on YouTube)’: The first 14 and a half minutes of this corresponds with the broadcast Episode 4. The ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ parody and the sequence in which Valentine Dyall walks to the cafeteria are from the broadcast Episode 1. The Max Geldray performance is from the broadcast Episode 4. The sequences which follow the ‘Escaper’s Club’ caption are from the broadcast Episode 1.
BFI ‘Episode 5’ (the first half is on YouTube)’: I think this episode corresponds with the broadcast version. The transition from the woodworm sketch into the ‘Dustbin Dance’ sketch seems clumsy, but I don’t think that the footage has been re-edited.
Does anyone know which sketches feature in the incomplete footage from 9 May and 16 May 1956?
According to ‘the Guardian’ and ‘the Observer’ the following sequences appeared in ‘Son of Fred’ Episode 1 (17 Sep 1956): a sketch featuring Valentine Dyall as a tobacco advertiser, a ‘programme breakdown’ featuring revolving and dissolving pictures, a sketch featuring a tramp, another ‘Idiot’s Postbag’ sequence and a sketch involving a lecture on wildlife.
I haven’t seen the BFI ‘Son of Fred’ episode, but I know it includes an ‘Idiot’s Postbag’ sketch featuring Graham Stark as a mountaineer in the Alps. I don’t know if this episode is the broadcast Episode 1, a completely different episode or a compilation.
Who donated these prints to the BFI? Why are some of the episodes different from the broadcast versions? Perhaps some of these prints were special reference copies created during the production of the ‘Best of Fred’ compilation.
The ‘Best of Fred’ was broadcast on 18 September 1963. It no longer exists. According to the London edition of the ‘TV Times’ (Sept 15 to Sept 21 1963) the programme included the following sketches: Dustbin Dance, the world short distance race and how to run a power station without power. Robert Fleming compiled the programme. It seems that he also directed new linking material featuring Milligan and Dyall.
If the ‘TV Times’ article is to be believed, then it appears that all the episodes of ‘Idiot Weekly’, ‘A Show Called Fred’ and ‘Son of Fred’ were still in existence when the compilation was made. Did all of these episodes still exist when Associated-Rediffusion lost their franchise in 1968? Could episodes of ‘Idiot Weekly’ and ‘Son of Fred’ have ended up in private hands just before the destruction of the company’s archive?
