Comments on: WINDSOR DAVIES AND DON ESTELLE - “Whispering Grass”

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:11:17 +0000

I remember Outside Edge, although I wouldn’t have called it a sitcom as such - maybe because it was shot on film and IIRC had no studio audience. Brenda Blethyn was in it.

By: DV

DV — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:04:55 +0000

When I was small I used to gamely watch IAHHM in the hope that this week the Japanese would attack and the programme would turn into a war film. This never happened.

By: a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit

a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:32:58 +0000

my dad liked “rosie” and “shelley”, and hence i remember them both fondly — perhaps skewed by his enjoyment (the sukrats en famille tend to love making one another laugh a lot, and thus overvalue those mere outsider proejcts which do the same)

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:31:41 +0000

Rosie, the lovable yet unfunny policeman and unacknowledged forerunner to scintillating long-running ITV cosy cop show Heartbeat.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:18:43 +0000

I remember “After Henry” on Radio 4 but not the tv series. It’s all too easy churning out the worst ITV “comedies” but Auntie not infrequently came out with some quite astonishing rubbish also. “Rosie”, for example (nothing to do with our dear fellow blogger) and more recently “Bloomin’ Marvellous”, starring Clive Mantle, who I used to sit next to at Chelsea when I was a season ticket holder (circ 1997). I wanted to tell Clive this, ready with the “it’s not your fault, it’s the script” bit but decided not to. Actors are very sensitive/easy to offend creatures and Clive is a bit of a big lad.

By: rosie

rosie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:51:21 +0000

After Henry certainly began on the BBC (on Radio 4) and was the first of many, I think, to make the big leap from radio to screen. Many, including me, would say that it worked best as a radio three-hander. It also had me combing London for a recording of George Gershwin's Three-quarter Blues. Up The Garden Path followed the same path later on. That wasn't improved by the move either.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:18:00 +0000

It did for a bit, but not that much longer.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:57:07 +0000

Was ‘the Fenn Street Gang’ still soldiering on after the demise of ‘Please Sir’ ?

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:07:01 +0000

I do remember that vaguely.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:35:27 +0000

The Fosters was all right.

What about “The Wackers”? A scouse family, who kept getting drunk and fighting and that. It was basically “Shameless” wayy too early for the DMailreaders, and got withdrawn. Possibly Keith Chegwin’s finest hour, definitely his first.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:18:34 +0000

Don’t even get me started on Jim Davidson in mirthfilled eighties sitcom Up The Elephant And Round The Castle.

One ITV sitcom I did like from this period was The Fosters which was a sort of forerunner to Desmond’s. Starring Norman Beaton and featuring a young Lenny Henry with IIRC a questionable Afro.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:01:51 +0000

‘Tripper’s Day’/ ‘Slinger’s Day’!

What of Robyn Askwith milkman comedy ‘The Bottle Boys’?

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:59:06 +0000

I Googled all of these, and they do exist, but I’m blowed if I can remember any of them.

I remember Only When I Laugh though. And Hardwicke House which starred Roy Kinnear as a headmaster and lasted for precisely one episode.

And the one set in the supermarket which starred Leonard Rossiter until he died and Bruce Forsyth took over, whatever that was called.

By: crag

crag — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:08:30 +0000

Not wishing to turn the site into “Comedular” or anything but if anyones interested the Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy has a top 20 non BBC sitcom listing!The top part of the list is obvious enough(Rising Damp is predictably #1, then the aforementioned After Henry, Agony plus Father Ted) but as for the lower half of the list, well, most of it is a total mystery to me-Outside Edge, anyone? Last of the Baskets? Up the Garden Path? ? Did they they just make titles up to fill the rest of the list and think nobody would notice?
(If there are any huge Last of the Baskets fans out there please forgive me for my ignorance and flippancy…)

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:50:31 +0000

Oh well, if you’re including Channel 4, then ‘Chance In A Million’, ‘The Kit Curran Radio Show’… And I’d be fascinated to see Peter Jenkins’ ‘Struggle’ again.

By: crag

crag — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:42:19 +0000

Hot Metal? The New Statesman?It Takes A Worried Man? The Gaffer? (the last two mainly getting a shoutout just for the v strong memories i have of their awe-inspiring title sequences however..)
I have a chum who swears by Shelley- and lets not forget Channel 4 of course…

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:39:42 +0000

Agony? After Henry? err…

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:26:33 +0000

Selwyn Froggitt?

By: Drucius

Drucius — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:15:45 +0000

This column has simply proved the old adage that all the best comedies were on the BBC. Apart from Rising Damp and….er…oh.

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:49:44 +0000

@77 & 82 - I was trying to formulate the Life On Mars cast analogy too. I think you probably would have to include John Simm as he’s dabbled in music too, like Don Estelle.

@79 - Having got the complete Fawlty Towers on DVD for Christmas, I can confirm that there was indeed an audience for the other episodes - but Basil The Rat was filmed about six months after the rest of the series because of the strike. For some reason, they also got an extra day’s rehearsal.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:22:41 +0000

Party like it’s 1599 !! perfect !

For a couple of kids from Canada, we were probably as pretentious then, as Sting is now, about all that Dowland stuff. I much prefer it played by John Williams , but that’s another story

Party we did though …….amazing party ( a White Ball, no less ) with fashion models and assorted oddities through a Model Agency called ” Ugly “. Trafalgar Square , in a white sports coat, red carnation, freezing night and not a London hack willing to take us to Wimbledon - one of the models spotted us and drove us to our boat bulilding house in her ” private car”. too cool

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:25:42 +0000

The record-holder “Welcome Home” is >Bobby Moore but not by much. Nothing has approached Shilts yet…

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:42:48 +0000

“Whispering Grass” thread now officially >>>>>>>>>>>>>> David Beckham.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:40:24 +0000

- Over one century is it? To be sure we are a tragic gang observed Mr Bloom wistfully.

- In love I’m not added Stephen to the gloom.

- SPOILIUS BUNNIUS! roared the mob.

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:17:09 +0000

Yup, “Welcome Home”, “Eye Level” and now this – the motley assortment of songs with 100 posts!