Pete and Dud

Talentless was never the case; the least Americans learned was that he could play piano.

As with Steve Martin, the vehicles chosen (from_Arthur_ as highlight to _Micki & Maude_ as WTF) rarely offered opportunity for anything except broad hints.

Unlike Martin, he didn’t write the scripts, and it’s difficult to say that one should turn down the likes of Blake Edwards directing (the aforementioned abomination) or Bernard Slade scripting (_Romantic Comedy_, with all the chemistry of Argon).

Amazing. I looked through the Listen Again listings and there’s an I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again from March 1966. I was in the Lower Sixth. John Cleese from before Monty Python. I remembered it being funnier, though. I just missed a Goon Show, undated. I’ll take a gander at it tomorrow when it shows up in Listen Again. I hope it lives up to my preadolescent memories.

American television has been doing this sort of mining the archives for a long time, of course. But America doesn’t have radio archives.

Some of us Americans were lucky enough to see Bedazzled before any of those awful Dudley Moore movies were made.

“Some of us Americans were lucky enough to see Bedazzled before any of those awful Dudley Moore movies were made.”

And some of us are old enough to have seen Beyond the Fringe and the English TW3…and that’s old

Here’s one American who certainly enjoyed Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore, mainly from their “Derek and Clive” LPs.

I recently saw a BitTorrent of their sole movie “Around the Horn” but it appears to be a pretty moribund torrent right now — maybe it’ll pick up. Too bad I don’t support copyright infringement — I’ve never seen that flick.

I have to admit that for an American who’s never been to the UK, I’m pretty fond of British comedy. Not just the usual suspects (Python, Fawlty, The Office) but the aforementioned Cooke and Moore, Goon Show, Beyond the Fringe and A Poke in the Eye with a Sharp Stick, TW3, Flanders and Swann, and more I’m not recalling right now.

I just recently had the privilege of seeing some of the “Alan Partridge” shows featuring Steve Coogan, and they are howlingly funny. Let’s hope Coogan’s brush with Hollywood (as Jackie Chan’s sidekick in the recent “Around the World in 80 Days”) doesn’t reduce his humorosity.

By the way, “Derek and Clive” are totally filthy. Disgustingly filthy. But funny.

Unfortunately for Dudley Moore, Hollwood usually sucks the funny out of even [most of] the greats. Also, I’m sure the massive success of “10” and “Arthur” probably turned his head somewhat. For most humorous people, I think funny doesn’t mix with money.

Keef

Well, Harry, if it makes you feel better, we probably go through about 6 hours of BBC7 a week, depending on how many funny quiz shows there are. Has anyone else been listening to “Think the Unthinkable” (I think that’s what it’s called) — it’s a show about a consulting firm called “Unthinkable Solutions” and is one of the funniest shows ever. It’s our regular fare, right after “The Masterson Inheritance.”

For what it’s worth, “The World of Pete and Dud” is also available as an audio CD…so you can own it and listen to it to your heart’s delight. (I checked several on-line sources, and all had it, for less than $20.)
Don Coffin

For what it’s worth, “The World of Pete and Dud” is available as a CD. I checked several on-line sources, and all had it, for less than $20. (If this shows up more than once, my apolgies, but I don’t seen to be able to determine whether it has posted.)

”Think the Unthinkable” is about management consultants and features Marcus Brigstocke, who may well be the funniest person on the radio at the moment- he also has a regular show in which he plays Giles Wembley-Hogg, a posh ex-public schoolboy on a gap year, visiting various third world countries and being as mindlessly arrogant and hilariously obtuse as only the British middle classes can. He also has a slot on Punt & Dennis’ ”The Now Show”, a satirical news show broadcast on Friday evenings. Highly recommended. I have BBC Radio 4 on 24 hours a day with occasional Radio 7 interjections: for me, as for many UKians, the BBC is the soundtrack to our lives, and more so when based abroad. When we see Aunty Beeb constantly under politically-motivated attack, by lightweights such as Messrs. Blair and Campbell, we’re not happy.

(On a slightly related note, will the BBC *please* stop putting cricket on LW! Those of us in mainland Europe have to use all our bandwidth in listening online, and I can’t hear it in the kitchen…)

I hope the plan for the entire BBC archive to be available online happens soonish; the BBC is in the process of working out a Creative Commons licence for it and it can’t be too soon for me.

Hey Ophelia, you should hurry up and listen (or record) — they only archive for 6 days at BBC7.

Yes, I too like Brigstocke. His rants on The Now Show are hilarious, and I find Wembley-Hogg too funny to listen to!

The archive issue is interesting. American production companies were remarkably foresighted in preserving archives of radio comedies and dramas, and some (Gildersleeve, Our Miss Brookes, The Shadow, etc) still sound pretty fresh to me. There are various subscription services — eg Radio Spirits, for american old time radio. But the BBC was APPALLING, and has lost enormous amounts of its back catalogue — even well into the 60’s, both radio and TV. The commercial TV stations in Britain were no better — I’m pretty sure, for example, that there is no remaining known footage of ‘DO Not Adjust Your Set’ (an early Python incarnation, with David Jason and the Bonzo Dog Band). The BBC even lost plenty of episodes of classics like Dad’s Army. And when they re-did Dick Barton, for radio, circa 1972, they didn’t bother to keep it, even though the whole reason they had to redo it was that they had lost the 40’s and 50’s originals. They put it out on cassette in the early 90’s after getting it from someone who had taped it illegally in Australia.

Bugger! Six days starting a week ago, apparently. Phooey.