Rod Hull and Emu

by Harry on March 8, 2006

If, like me, you adored Linda Smith, you might want to put aside 30 minutes to listen to the News Quiz tribute to her. If you’d never heard of Linda Smith until I mentioned her last week you should definitely listen to the tribute — 30 minutes of an incredibly funny, and manifestly delightful, person. If she doesn’t make you laugh I don’t know what to say. (I’m not going to tell you what the name of this post refers to — you have to listen to the show). If the link above is slow, try this and then click on listen again.

{ 4 comments }

1

Another Damned Medievalist 03.08.06 at 3:09 pm

I listened to it over the weekend, and it was really nice. It’s a damned shame.

2

Alison 03.09.06 at 5:32 am

I was listening on Saturday as I drove up the M1. I was laughing so hard at each clip, and then everytime the clip ended I remembered she was dead, and then the next clip and I would start laughing again…

3

bert 03.09.06 at 6:28 am

And if you’ve never heard of Rod Hull and Emu, you might want to quickly check here before you listen.

Good on Armando Ianucci, by the way. He instantly saw the joke for what it was – spot on and lethal. He realised the audience had had to think about it, and hadn’t all got there together. So he stepped in to play the straight man. Linda Smith did all the rest. Classic.

4

harry b 03.09.06 at 10:45 am

Yes, one of the charming things about the show is that they seem very generous to each other in general; both playing the straight man to each other, and laughing at each other (as Cryer does in Clue and, if you bother to listen to the old-timers, Kenneth Williams would do a lot in both Just a Minute and RTH). My impression, though, was always that Smith was the only one who really knew how to handle Alan Coren; you got a sense of deep mutual respect overlain with a mild antagonism. He’s great, but he was always better when she was on.

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