calling Anglos and Anglophiles

[brightlywoven]

(inspired by foreverdirt's latest link)

One thing I have found to stand between me and the feeling that England is home, has been my lack of familiarity with the people of pop and political culture. I have for indtance, rarely any idea who humph is snarking about in ISIHAC. Partly this is because I have no tv. However, rather than get one, then try to trawl through for the good bits, I am asking you, dear friends list to point me the right way.

Week one: comedy

Can you suggest British comedy or comedians that would probably not be known internationally which I might enjoy? (eg a passing comment from shanith led me to mitch benn. Awsome)

Comments

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

Though do remember that you can't get every corner of popular culture nailed, and if you're going to know more Dorothy L Sayers and Alan Aykbourne than British-people-who-also-like-that-sort-of-thing then there are bound to be other gaps. And frankly, I don't know who Humpf is snarking about either.

Though having said that, this post is a fairly awesome idea and I will keep an eye on it and look up recommendations too.

My recommendation, moving on from shanith, is all Radio 4 6:30 comedy. I think I got the impression from exactlyhalf some time that you don't listen to radio 4 at all much yet? You are Our Sort Of People and should be assimilated, and the 6:30 slot is like giving little goodie bags of hash to kiddies. Or something.

Incidentally, don't fob me off with "but I'm at work at 6:30". They're all available to listen again on the radio 4 website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/) and the best are podcast too.

Not that it's all good. Don't ever make the error of listening to "Point counterpoint" or "Quote unquote". Indeed let's see what's on at the moment. "Armando Iannucci's Charm Offensive" is okay but I've never quite got into it. I hear "Bleak Expectations" is many parts of the awesome but this is the end of the series and you and I have missed most of it. "Just a minute" seems to be on on Mondays at the mo - tell me you do already know that?! I have no idea what "Hut 33" or "Mark Watson Makes the World Substantially Better" are, and being new they do have the slight potential to be shit.

However, there are truly amazing old series that I'm sure the internets would provide by hook or by crook. This is the true home of the hitchhikers guide, you know, and "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" has been on recently. Oh and of course it's also the proper slot for Clue, as well as being the original home of "dead ringers" and "goodness gracious me". Duncan and I were weirdly addicted to the "Museum of Everything" and it would be great to get someone else hooked too, so that they could join in our spontaneous renditions of "There's hundreds of badgers, all under one roof...". Also, "Old Harry's Game" is a glorious comedy set in hell, and the latest series (Satan comes back to Earth to try to prevent humans sinning and dying so much, because of the overcrowding and overwork for hell-workers that is being caused) is pretty unmissable. Which makes it rather a shame that I missed a couple of episodes and I really should trawl the internets to find them.

The absolute best of Radio 4 6:30 comedy, apart from the aforementioned (god I'm getting pompous, it must be all the radio 4) Clue and Just a Minute, are the News Quiz and the Now Show. (I know you're not yet a 6:30-ophile because you didn't know who Mitch Benn is - he's a Now Show regular). There is usually one of these on on Fridays at 6:30 and they're repeated on Saturdays at 12:30. These are both comedies based on the week's news and I have absolutely no doubt that you would love them.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

My recommendation, moving on from shanith, is all Radio 4 6:30 comedy.

What they said.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

Have you yet encountered the Hithhikers Guide to the Galaxy? The radio series was best - the first series had great timing as well as a humorous script. You can still get BBC recordings, probably. If not I could perhaps lend you some tapes (yes, bought them decades ago).

You could look up the rules of Mornington Crescent, and find some of the material commemorating Humph, maybe? That radio show, whose name currently escapes me on account of memory problems, seems to me quite typical of British humour.

But, in what ways is the British sense of humour different from others? You might have the perspective to discover that better than those of us who have lived nowhere else. "And now for something completely different..."

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

And I hit a different reply link that intende. Sorry.

[tree_and_leaf]

Hut 33 is rubbish - it's a sit com set in Bletchley Park, which has potential, but in fact it's really, really awful (and makes 'Allo 'Allo look like a model of complexity and intellectual wit†)


Second the recommendation for Old Harry's Game.

† I like 'Allo, 'Allo, but I'm sure you can imagine what I;m getting at...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I have the complete OHG in MP3 somewhere. And Revolting People.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Actually, in this regard, I have improved no end of late. My planet killing commute does wonders for my radio listening! Having already been a fan of Clue and the News Quiz (Sandy is so awesome) I have now discovered and enjoyed Just a Minute and the Now Show, including MB. Mark Watson is quite endearing, but Hut 33 is sadly crap. Bleak Expectations is mildly amusing, but not enough to make me seek it out.

Must find Harry's Game by the sound of it!

*enjoys your Radio-4-listening-pomposity*

[vescoiya.livejournal.com]

Couple of thoughts. Have you yet been introduced to QI?

As for individual comics Bill Bailey comes to mind (I know he's not too hard to get a handle on as my brother is fond of him) does a lot of comic songs.

Never mind the Buzzcocks is another panel show that is usually pretty entertaining which relies on pop culture references.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention Buzzcocks (and Mock the Week), but dr_biscuit doesn't have a TV.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

She does have a computer, though; and much can be done with iPlayer.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

'strue.

[vescoiya.livejournal.com]

That was my thought. I would have mentioned Mock the Week, but it's been making me wince lately a little too much let's unload on the powerless. Have I got News for You, is another one (pretty political but very entertaining).

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I've never really taken to Mock the Week - too much mocking without purpose. Have I Got News For You, on the other hand, is very very good (though the last Angus Deayton one was painful to watch, as Ian and Paul made it very clear throughout that they no longer had any time for him as he had betrayed their trust and that of the audience).

[vescoiya.livejournal.com]

I like Mock the Week a fair portion of the time, but it's quality is very variable and I think that is in part as it is essentially all improv.

What happened with Angus Deayton?

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Extracurricular activities involving prostitutes and cocaine. It was fascinating watching Ian and Paul basically forcing him off the show by mocking him mercilessly on air. As P-K said, though, it was also very painful.

The show hasn't been the same without him, although it's still very good.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I might poke my nose into them anyway.

The only thing I know about Angus Deayton is that Susan from Coupling kept a photo of him by her bed. Her boyfriend Steve was obsessed with Mariella Frostrup. These names meant nothing to me then, but now I get the Mariella bit, at least.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Have I got News for You, is another one (pretty political but very entertaining).

I enthusiastically second HIGNFY.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Though sadly with a dead modem right now. But I will look for these when back on line

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

QI I need to find!

Bill Bailey is made of pure awesome, and i have been in love with him since Black Books. Cealdis introduced me to his songs ("the duck lies shredded in a pancake, soaking in the Hoi Sin of your lies")!

I will Add Buzzcocks to the iPlayer searches

[vescoiya.livejournal.com]

Youtube. you end up watching it in 10 minute intervals but it is there, also due to the show format it is not quite as painful as it sounds. Also, you can get the A series and B series on DVD as an FYI.

[tree_and_leaf]

BBC 7 is a very good source of classic British comedy (including a lot of telly sitcoms redone for radio, like Dad's Army, which tells you a lot about how the British imagine the home front of WWII to have been - and is very funny). 'Round the Horne' is brilliant, when it's on - it's so inventively filthy I can't imagine how they got it on air in the sixties, but then I suppose the worst bits are innuendo - or in Polari.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Inventively filthy is such a ringing endorsement I will keep an eye out for that one!

[tree_and_leaf]

The awful folk singer, Rambin' Sid Rumpole is particularly.. memorable.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

In addition to Hitch-hiker, classic comedy that still tells you something about the British mindset (and with which you might already be familiar, but...) includes:

Yes, Minister (and Yes, Prime Minister)
Red Dwarf (particularly the earlier series, although they didn't win any awards until season six...)

Going further back, there's also the Goons and (less well-known, but featuring some people you'll be familiar with from ISIHAC) the Goodies. Thinking of aged audio, are you familiar with Flanders and Swann?

We can lend DVDs of YM and RD, and CDs of Flanders and Swann, but don't have much Goons or any Goodies. This is possibly a lack I should do something about fixing, now I come to think of it.

If you want to understand Brits of a certain age (er, people like me), it might help to watch some Dangermouse, too. One of those series that simply couldn't have been made anywhere else; nowhere except Britain would someone come up with a villain who tries to conquer the world using explosive custard. (Some of the later series are less good, but there are many fantastic moments even in those.) I have a complete DM boxed set, too.

Drop the Dead Donkey, set in a fictional newsroom, is very good on 1990s references - and the repeats have a little summary of the key real-life events of the preceding week to explain the topical references. Whether that's available on DVD I'm not sure.

[dr-biscuit.livejournal.com]

Hitchhikers, Yes Minister and Red Dwarf are well loved in our household. The Goons I grew up with but didn't quite get into (because it was my brother's thing...Yeah, that *is* stupid, I know). As for the Goodies, they were my *favourite* TV show when I was 6, and they were played on Children's TV is Australia, just before or after Dangermouse. Apparently GG, TBT and BO were a bit peeved by this, but we loved it! Now, I can't believe we didn't get the jokes.

Flanders and Swann I've never heard, though probably should, being a fan of Tom Lehrer, and might need to chase these. Will do a youtube trawl :)

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

There are only a couple of actual live performances by F&S on youtube (shortage of actual video of them); I imagine that the large number of other videos probably divide fairly evenly between people putting graphics to the audio recordings and amateur covers (of the usual range of quality).

If you don't know, I should probably mention that Michael Flanders suffered from Polio - you can see in the real video clips that breathing requires unusual (and very obvious) physical effort for him. Some people find this disturbing and/or upsetting, especially if they're not expecting it. (His voice control is very good despite having effectively no intercostal muscles and being chairbound. Listening to the audio without video, the only clue that there's anything wrong is that he takes very frequent breaths while singing; impressive for a man who has to move his shoulders up and down to breathe at all....)

[sally_maria]

The two videos of F&S I know of on YouTube are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW_zi8n4HDQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vh-wEXvdW8

Then of course there's the excellent lego version of their song - The Gasman Cometh - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOA_SUKEZRE

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, Flanders and Swann. Definitely.

I missed Dangermouse myself (or maybe I watched it and have forgotten it) - I should probably plug that gap.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

You're unlikely to have forgotten DM unless you were a very small child. But I'm not sure how much younger than me you are, so you might have been :)

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

Unusually for Oxford graduates, I appear to have a rather poor memory for children's TV.

[half-of-monty.livejournal.com]

By the way, did you know that Sandy Tosvig, Douglas Adams and Andy Hamilton (author and star of Old Harry's Game) are all former cules (Cambridge ULES)? And there is a connection between Flanders and Swann and light entertainment (though there is also the suggestion that somebody made that up).

The world domination plan is going well, starting in the important places (vis radio 4 6:30 slot).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

We're going to see Andy Hamilton next month!

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

I second Buzzcocks (it's what I watch -- on YouTube -- when I am desperately homesick), in particular series 19 onwards, with Simon Amstell. Have I Got News For You is another classic, as is Drop The Dead Donkey.

A little earlier, but stunningly good, is Not The Nine O'Clock News -- early eighties, varyingly political, lots of big names. Dinnerladies with Victoria Wood is recent, but probably the best sitcom I've seen (and definitely my favourite) in terms of pure observational comedy. As Time Goes By is very gentle, but has always and will always charm(ed) me out of a bad mood -- plus, Dame Judi Dench!

Radio-wise, seconding Round The Horne (but not its vastly inferior follow-up, Beyond Our Ken). For very old radio comedy, The Navy Lark is great, as is [show whose name I have forgotten but about which have emailed family]. Oh, and Just A Minute.

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

[show whose name I have forgotten but about which have emailed family]

Men From The Ministry. Oh, the japes!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Historical note: Beyond Our Ken came first - it ended when Eric Merriman, its writer, walked out and refused to allow any of the characers he had created be carried over. (He later did the same on television, with BBC 1's Happy Ever After, starring Terry Scott and June Whitfield as the Fletchers, having to be replaced by Terry and June, starring said actors as the Medfords, when Merriman walked out of that.) Round the Horne (with Barry Took and Marty Feldman writing) turned out to be far superior, and lasted until Kenneth Horne's death; its follow up, led by Kenneth Williams, was Stop Messin' About!, but although essentially a continuation of Round the Horne the spark was not there, it is commonly said.

Not the Nine O'Clock News is indeed superb.