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Post by stevej on Apr 27, 2016 20:25:03 GMT
If like me you have a bit of a soft spot for 'All Gas & Gaiters', you may want to head to the i-player to catch this afternoon's Radio 4 play, 'All Mouth & Trousers' which was a nicely crafted dramatisation of how actors Edwin Apps and Pauline Delaney came to try their collective hand at comedy writing back in the 60s. It provided an insight into how the initial Comedy Playhouse script was presented to Frank Muir and how the show was cast. Interestingly it suggested that Derek Nimmo and William Mervyn didn't get on too well, whilst veteran actor Robertson Hare was in the habit of transcribing his lines in beautiful copper-plate long hand. Apps and Delaney appear as themselves in the play and sound in fine form. It's a good listen. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0787dm6#play |
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RWels
Member
Posts: 2,857
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Post by RWels on Apr 27, 2016 20:52:58 GMT
Interesting, thanks!
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Post by Ian Wegg on Apr 28, 2016 6:28:51 GMT
Thanks a lot Stevej, I'm listening to it now. The DVD set contains short biographies of Apps and Devaney which I found fascinating so it's good to hear the full story.
I bought the DVD's a couple of weeks ago specifically for the episode The Bishop Sees A Ghost. I was 9 years old when it was broadcast but still remembered it well. (The scene where Patrick Newell walks through a wall seemed spectacular at the time, I remember discussing with my friends at school the next day how on earth they did it!).
I'm 15 minutes into the programme since I started typing, the actor playing Robertson Hare is excellent!
~iw
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Post by stevej on Apr 28, 2016 15:37:40 GMT
I'm 15 minutes into the programme since I started typing, the actor playing Robertson Hare is excellent! ~iw Yes, the casting was really very good. Radio 4 newsreader Zeb Soames was unrecognisable as Nimmo! In some ways it was a surprising- but extremely welcome- choice for an afternoon play, as I'm not sure that the average listener would remember 'All Gas & Gaiters'. It did make for a very engaging 45 minutes though and a nice insight for those of us with the dvd set (or double VHS set in my case). Of the original series, I think my favourite is 'The Bishop Loses His Chaplain' if only for the novelty of seeing the redoubtable Joan Sanderson and Penny Spencer sharing a screen probably for the first time since 'Please Sir!' - and on the BBC too. One thing I always notice on the colour episodes is how shiny William Mervyn's forehead becomes as the show progresses. I guess that's due to the studio lighting being considerably more intense in those early days of colour. Either that or his robe was a tad on the snug side. Steve |
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Post by Ian Wegg on Apr 28, 2016 16:32:13 GMT
Much of the same story is told in the Viewing Notes booklet in the DVD set, which I read this morning (shamefully for the first time). The play fleshes out the detail including, as you mentioned, the relationship between Nimmo and Mervyn who it was said "detested" each other. That Apps, himself an actor, wrote the part of Noote for himself gave an inevitable comparison with Jimmy Perry and Frank Pike.
One slight difference was that in the dramatisation, Apps and Devaney are commissioned to write the first series as a result of the favourable reaction to Comedy Playhouse. However the booklet says that the BBC were so confident with The Bishop Rides Again that they commissioned six more episodes before it was even broadcast.
Either way, a lovely reminder of the era of television comedy when people like Frank Muir were in charge.
~iw
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Post by stevej on Apr 28, 2016 18:37:22 GMT
a lovely reminder of the era of television comedy when people like Frank Muir were in charge. ~iw I'll drink to that, Ian! As a youngster I just used to love his appearances on 'Call My Bluff', but latterly I came to recognise what an important figure he was in radio and television, from his early writing partnership with Denis Norden ('Take It From Here' and their brilliant shaggy dog stories on 'My Word') to senior roles in light entertainment where his nose for comedy gave him the confidence to fight to get new series and new writers off the ground in the face of indifference or downright hostility from his peers. I miss his witty, raffish presence. I didn't know that Nimmo and Mervyn disliked each other to that extent. I wonder what the problem was? Just a clash or personalities perhaps. Shades of Hylda Baker and Jimmy Jewel. I'm never sure that I actually want to know things like that, as it tends to temper the enjoyment of the episodes a little. 'AGAG' is such good fun though, with fine comedy acting and a swift pace. It's no good, I'm going to have to go and watch one! Incidentally, there was a short-lived chat show in 1970; the clunkily titled 'If it's Saturday, it must be Nimmo'. Sadly all nine editions are lost: www.lostshows.com/default.aspx?programme=a7645436-97ab-4eb6-9f3a-61cf0f49775cSteve |
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Post by Ian Wegg on May 24, 2016 9:19:30 GMT
A postscript to this thread. I was intrigued to read in the DVD booklet that: "The title sequence featuring the central characters playing croquet was filmed in Chichester". As I know Chichester cathedral quite well I looked at the sequence, but it didn't look like any part of the building that I knew. However, the Wikipedia article says it is "the headmaster's garden of St.Albans School" and a quick Google proves that Wikipedia is right and the booklet wrong. Yesterday on Facebook someone repeated the claim that All Gas and Gaiters was filmed in Chichester so I skimmed through the episodes I haven't yet watched and found that indeed location footage for the series 5 story "The Bishop Has A Rest" were clearly filmed in and around Chichester Cathedral. In the course of Googling AGAG and Chichester I also discovered that I have just missed the "World Stage Premiere" of the All Gas and Gaiters play, based on the scripts of three missing episodes and performed by the Chichester Players. Chichester Players: All Gas and Gaiters"We have acquired the rights to the world stage premiere of All Gas and Gaiters, the 1960s sitcom. One of our members, David Brown, wrote to the authors Pauline Delaney and Edwin Apps some time ago asking about the possibility of their collating and publishing a number of episodes that the BBC had lost or destroyed. The authors have duly done so and, as a thank you to David, have given Chichester Players the licence to perform for the first time three episodes at the New Park Centre the beginning of April." According to the Chichester Players' magazine Masque ( March 2016) Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps had been invited to attend the premier, as had the Bishop and Dean of Chichester. I don't know how well the play was received or whether a West End run or a tour will follow! Just disappointed that I missed out on seeing it. ~iw |
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Post by Stephen Byers on May 25, 2016 17:56:10 GMT
Wondering if any other episodes of "Oh! Brother" with Derek Nimo have survived? Well - I have one anyway.
And there was another similar series - but I forget the title.
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Post by Barry Hodge on May 25, 2016 18:30:19 GMT
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