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Of course, Channel 4 will show the ginger kid having an imaginary friend a snowman of all things, who has very little coordination skills and then he dies. That kid's life was doomed from the start of conception.
Of course, Channel 4 will show the ginger kid having an imaginary friend a snowman of all things, who has very little coordination skills and then he dies. That kid's life was doomed from the start of conception.
The 70s was the golden era for Chrimbo telly. Top of the Pops, the Queen at 3 and then the big film, often The Great Escape admittedly., Morecambe and Wise in the evening. Also enjoyed the Ghost Stories for Christmas, Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious etc. I no longer watch broadcast tv, but make an even more determined effort not to at Christmas. Do however miss the double edition of the Radio Times.
I remember the Mike Yarwood Christmas show 1978 with special guests Abba. It is the most watched Christmas day tv show ever in the uk. It was tv gold. Later on The Only Fools and Horses Christmas special became Must see tv throughout the 80s and 90s. There is nothing in the last 10 years or so that is a must-watch for Christmas. I may watch Gavin and Stacey out of curiosity and maybe Christmas strictly, but other than that I'll just resort to old films on streaming services.
robbiex wrote: I remember the Mike Yarwood Christmas show 1978 with special guests Abba. It is the most watched Christmas day tv show ever in the uk. It was tv gold. Later on The Only Fools and Horses Christmas special became Must see tv throughout the 80s and 90s. There is nothing in the last 10 years or so that is a must-watch for Christmas. I may watch Gavin and Stacey out of curiosity and maybe Christmas strictly, but other than that I'll just resort to old films on streaming services. I think Morecambe and Wise, Mike Yarwood, Dick Emery and the Two Ronnies often got record numbers of viewers. But then there was only 3 channels of course. And no internet.
robbiex wrote: I remember the Mike Yarwood Christmas show 1978 with special guests Abba. It is the most watched Christmas day tv show ever in the uk. It was tv gold. Later on The Only Fools and Horses Christmas special became Must see tv throughout the 80s and 90s. There is nothing in the last 10 years or so that is a must-watch for Christmas. I may watch Gavin and Stacey out of curiosity and maybe Christmas strictly, but other than that I'll just resort to old films on streaming services.
Your mention of Christmas 1978 ties in with something that popped up on my You Tube suggestions on Wednesday night that I took a few moments look at the start of. The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show 1978. This was the first one they did after leaving the BBC and having the most watched show in 1977 over on there. But in 1978 they were on ITV and although gaining a massive audience, although less than on BBC, didn't seem to hit the mark somehow. The bit that caught me though was that it was not called Morecambe & Wise anymore, but Eric & Ernie's Christmas Show instead. Changing the name like that may seem trivial and superficial if the content is essentially the same but is a huge mistake in terms of what you'd call modern day branding techniques. Well that's how I see it anyway.
I found their reasons for moving to ITV from the BBC to be quite misguided, they wanted to be able to make comedy films. Yet I think most people would agree that many of these comedy film spin offs that get made are well below par compared to the regular shows they all put out. Take Rising Damp and compare that film for instance, and it was the same with the Morecambe & Wise film. Not exactly great. Actually the Rising Damp film was nothing more than large sections of plagiarism from the TV series script anyway, and blatantly so. Therefore I cannot understand why M & W switched to ITV where it all went pear shaped when the money was about the same as the BBC were doing, just because the BBC could not do feature films with them at that time, while ITV could. People didn't want and were not craving Morecambe & Wise to do films, they were not Laurel & Hardy, any more than Stan & Ollie would have been that great at the type of TV Morecambe & Wise did.
The two films that Morecombe and Wise did were not great, and they were not in anyway related to their tv shows. They were dramas, not a series of sketches and musical numbers like the shows. The Rising Damp film was rubbish, Christoper Strode tooke over the Richard Beckinsale part, after his death, and the sketches were ripped from the tv series as you said. Also the same can be said for the "Are you being served" fllm, again recycled scripts from the tv show and the entire film was shot on a cheap looking set based on a Spanish hotel. Who ever heard of a load of staff employees going on a works holiday. Most ITV sitcom spin-offs were poor, with the exception of Man About the House, and the 3 "On the Buses" films which were better than the tv series. The steptoe films were pretty decent, as was the Alf Garnet film and the Porridge film. The spin-off film was made a return in recent years with the likes of "The Inbetweeners", "Bad Education", and Bottom, but the original tv comedies weren't great in the first place
Most movie spin-offs were bad and some are forgotten and rarely shown on TV.
The only ones I watch every year are Likely Lads, Please Sir, both Steptoe films.
Father, Dear Father...no comment.
Rising Damp was done for a quick cash-in and it shows. Both Man About The House and George and Mildred were an utter mess. Love Thy Neighbour film was crap but I liked the twist at the end.
Are You Being Served? Starts well but the scenes go on far too long. You can tell they didn't have a budget, what budget they did have went towards paying the cast and crew.
Christopher Strauli recalls having a terrible time with Leonard Rossiter during the shooting of the film version. Len Rossiter wanted Strauli to play the part like Richard Beckinsale, but Strauli insisted he couldn't and wanted to play it his own way. This angered Rossiter and he was deeply unpleasant to Strauli throughout the 6 week shoot. I think if you watch the film now you can even sense there is a tension. It truly is appallingly bad. Should never have been made.
Downing Street Cat wrote: Christopher Strauli recalls having a terrible time with Leonard Rossiter during the shooting of the film version. Len Rossiter wanted Strauli to play the part like Richard Beckinsale, but Strauli insisted he couldn't and wanted to play it his own way. This angered Rossiter and he was deeply unpleasant to Strauli throughout the 6 week shoot. I think if you watch the film now you can even sense there is a tension. It truly is appallingly bad. Should never have been made.
Rossiter was nasty piece of work and was very narcisttic. Yet he was a good character actor with pristine comedic timing. It's been a long time since I have watched the Rising Damp film. You can see resentment on Leonard's forehead. It reads like "Let's just get this scene over and done with"
Strauli was great in Only When I Laugh, even the Yanks loved it. It was James Bolam who fell out with Richard Wilson about comedy. I still love the episode about bed next to the window for the daffodils. It would have worked for radio also.
Interesting to note that 2 of the few actors of the time still very much working actors are Don Warrington from Rising damp and now "Death in Paradise", and Rudolph Walker from "Lovey Thy Neighbour" and now Eastenders. If you watched last weeks My life at Christmas www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0025x99/m...ani-series-1-2-rudol. He's proud of doing "love thy Neighbour". I remember it as a child and loved it. Watching it back now the comedy is pretty lame and I have the dvd of the film, and it isn't one that stands the test of time. Interesting to see that the White bigot (Eddie) is a big labour fan, putting Harold Wilson posters on his window and the black guy is a tory with pictures of Edward Heath on his window. He doesn't regret the show, although accepts it was of its time.
Jack Smethurst loved it also. Has there was good chemistry off camera. Both actors spent a great deal of time at eachother house's if I remember correctly.
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