Post by Ed Brown on Oct 19, 2010 9:07:42 GMT
No! This is not a poll, inviting you to nominate your choice for the title of the worst-ever BBC radio series. ;D
Eddie Braben, who became well-known as scriptwriter of The Morecambe and Wise Show on television, also had a career as a scriptwriter for radio, where his most famous work was probably as Ken Dodd's scriptwriter in Doddy's various radio series during the 1960s. As a consequence of this he was offered the television job with Morecambe and Wise.
However, during the 1970s - whilst becoming famous through television - he simultaneously continued his radio work, writing sketch-based variety shows in a similar vein to Round the Horne, and frequently with one of the former RTH cast, namely Bill Pertwee.
I may be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but the earliest of these shows, in 1975, which Braben not only wrote but also appeared in, and which ran for 13 weeks, was entitled The Worst Show on the Wireless, produced in Manchester by James Casey ('The Clitheroe Kid', 'The Enchanted World of Hinge and Bracket', 'Listen to Les', 'Star Parade: The Ken Dodd Show', etc).
Subsequently, Braben would go on to write many more shows that were produced by Jim Casey: The Show with Ten Legs (13 episodes, 1978), The New Improved Show with Ten Legs (13 episodes, 1979), and The Show with No Name (1982-84). Along with Worst Show, these all had a common cast, in that they nearly all featured a line-up of Eddie Braben, Bill Pertwee, Alison Steadman, Eli Woods, and David Casey (the latter being Jim Casey's son).
Scarcely remembered today, I'm tempted to say that this nine years of work between '75 and '84 sank without trace. Very few of the shows seem to exist, which, given the significance of the partnership of Jim Casey and Eli Woods in the history of Northern comedy, and the importance of Eddie Braben to tv comedy, seems a pity.
Is there a definitive list anywhere of the surviving editions of these shows? Did the BBC in fact retain any of them, or are they all now lost? Am I the only person who even remembers them?
Eddie Braben, who became well-known as scriptwriter of The Morecambe and Wise Show on television, also had a career as a scriptwriter for radio, where his most famous work was probably as Ken Dodd's scriptwriter in Doddy's various radio series during the 1960s. As a consequence of this he was offered the television job with Morecambe and Wise.
However, during the 1970s - whilst becoming famous through television - he simultaneously continued his radio work, writing sketch-based variety shows in a similar vein to Round the Horne, and frequently with one of the former RTH cast, namely Bill Pertwee.
I may be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but the earliest of these shows, in 1975, which Braben not only wrote but also appeared in, and which ran for 13 weeks, was entitled The Worst Show on the Wireless, produced in Manchester by James Casey ('The Clitheroe Kid', 'The Enchanted World of Hinge and Bracket', 'Listen to Les', 'Star Parade: The Ken Dodd Show', etc).
Subsequently, Braben would go on to write many more shows that were produced by Jim Casey: The Show with Ten Legs (13 episodes, 1978), The New Improved Show with Ten Legs (13 episodes, 1979), and The Show with No Name (1982-84). Along with Worst Show, these all had a common cast, in that they nearly all featured a line-up of Eddie Braben, Bill Pertwee, Alison Steadman, Eli Woods, and David Casey (the latter being Jim Casey's son).
Scarcely remembered today, I'm tempted to say that this nine years of work between '75 and '84 sank without trace. Very few of the shows seem to exist, which, given the significance of the partnership of Jim Casey and Eli Woods in the history of Northern comedy, and the importance of Eddie Braben to tv comedy, seems a pity.
Is there a definitive list anywhere of the surviving editions of these shows? Did the BBC in fact retain any of them, or are they all now lost? Am I the only person who even remembers them?
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