It’s a good idea Roy but…………………

Just recently I have taken the time to enjoy a trip down memory lane by listening to some comedy programmes I used to enjoy on the wireless whilst growing up.

One of my earliest memories was listening to The Goon Show on the BBC Home Service on Sunday afternoons. The Goons ran from 1951 until 1960 though I did not really start listening until perhaps I was about 8 or 9 so that would have been about 1957 or 58, though even to me and my friends as early as that the Goons started the manic and archaic humour that was to carry us through life, and I doubt today, even some fifty years after the last original recording [though there have been repeats] there are many who have not at least have heard of The Goons.

The original composition was; Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine, though Bentine left in 1953. All had met whilst trying to break into show business after being demobbed from the forces after the end of the war. It has been said the The Goons had a considerable influence on later areas of British comedy such as Monty Python. The Goons however were not just a group of manic screeching comedians making silly noises but in fact the central core of the humour [all the scripts were written by Spike Milligan] were was based on ‘Subject Transference’ and it took a little while for the listener to understand the humour and then join in and understand the joke, there are some no doubt that ‘never got it’.

Subject Transference can come in a variety of ways. There is Time Transference; If you drop a bundle of 1918 calendars on troops in 1916 they will think the war is over and go home. Place Transference; if you understand for example that by opening and going through a door will take you from one room into another then why not if you open a door in the Himalayas it could take you to London. Transference of Utility; Milligan swapped items at random for example gorillas became cigarettes; ‘My these Gorillas are strong……………have one of my Monkeys they are milder’.

The Goons had an original run of nine years. Peter Sellers died in 1980, Michael Bentine died 1996, Harry Secombe died 2001 and Spike Milligan in 2002. Milligan was recorded as saying he was glad Secombe had died before him and he would not be able to sing at his [Milligan's] funeral, as it turned out Secombe did sing at Milligan’s funeral by way of a recording.

The Clitheroe Kid ran from 1957 until 1972 recording a total of 290 episodes on the wireless. The star of the programme was Jimmy Clithero who was a Northern comedian born 1921 but due to his diminutive stature was easily able to pass off as the 11 year schoolboy of the programme title. The make believe Clithero family of grandfather, mother and sister Susan lived at 33 Lilac Avenue. The basic weekly premise of the show was that Jimmy would get into some scrape or other often involving Alfie the hapless boyfriend of sister Susan and the ensuing efforts of Jimmy to get out his difficulties. By today's standards it seems perhaps rather mundane but the reader must understand that whilst I listened to this each Sunday afternoon I was also heading toward becoming an 11 year old school boy and I along with thousands of other roared with laughter. Jimmy Clithero died in 1973.

The Navy Lark was another radio sit-com about life on board a British Royal Navy Frigate the HMS Troutbridge. The programme ran from 1959 to 1975 with 244 episodes originally transmitted on the BBC Light programme and subsequently or BBC Radio 2. Programmes were self-contained, although there was continuity within the series, and there would sometimes be a reference to a previous episode. A normal episode consisted of Sub Lieutenant Phillips, scheming Chief Petty Officer Pertwee and bemused Lt. Murray trying to get out of trouble they created for themselves without being found out by their direct superior, Commander (later Captain) "Thunderguts" Povey. Scenes frequently featured a string of eccentric characters, often played by Ronnie Barker.

The programme featured musical breaks with a main harmonica theme by Tommy Reilly and several enduring catchphrases, most notably from Sub Lieutenant Phillips: 'Corrrrr'...........'Ooh, nasty....', 'Oh lumme!' and 'Left hand down a bit'. 'Ev'rybody down!' was a phrase of CPO Pertwee's, necessitated by a string of incomprehensible navigation orders by Phillips, and followed by a sound effect of the ship crashing. Also, whenever Pertwee had some menial job to be done, Able Seaman Johnson was always first in line to do it, inevitably against his will: 'You're rotten, you are!'. The telephone response from Naval Intelligence (Ronnie Barker), was always an extremely gormless and dimwitted delivery of 'Ello, Intelligence 'ere' or 'This is intelligence speakin'

Other recurring verbal features were the invented words 'humgrummits' and 'floggle-toggle' which served to cover all manner of unspecified objects ranging from foodstuffs to naval equipment. Dennis Price died in 1973, Jon Pertwee [who later played Doctor Who 1970-74] died 1996, Stephen Murray died 1983, Richard Caldicot died 1995, Ronnie Barker died 2005 and Michael Bates died 1978.

Moving from radio to television I guess the largest and certainly the longest running television sit-com must be The Last of the Summer Wine. First broadcast by the BBC in January 1973 and the last episode is due to be broadcast on 29 August 2010 ending after 31 series over 37 years and it is officially recognised as the single longest running television situation comedy.

Last of the Summer Wine focuses on a trio of older men and their youthful antics. The original trio consisted of Compo Simmonite [Bill Owen] Norman Clegg [Peter Sallis] and Cyril Blamire [Michael Bates] Blamire left in 1976, when Michael Bates fell ill shortly before filming of the third series [Bates died 1978] requiring Roy Clarke to hastily rewrite the series with a new third man. The third member of the trio would be recast four times over the next three decades: Foggy Dewhurst in 1976 [Brian Wilde], Seymour Utterthwaite in 1986 [Michael Aldridge], Foggy again in 1990, and Truly Truelove in 1997 [Frank Thornton]. After Compo [Bill Owen] died in 2000, Compo's real son, [Tom Owen] played Tom Simmonite, filled the gap for the rest of that series, and Billy Hardcastle [Keith Clifford] joined the cast as the third lead character in 2001.

The trio became a quartet between 2003 and 2006 when Alvin Smedley [Brian Murphy] moved in next-door to Nora Batty [Kathy Staff], but returned to the usual threesome in 2006 when Billy Hardcastle left the show. The role of supporting character Entwistle [Burt Kwouk] steadily grew on the show until the beginning of the 30th series, when he and Alvin were recruited by Hobbo Hobdyke [Russ Abbot], a former milkman with ties to MI5 to form a new trio of volunteers who respond to any emergency.

The trio explore the world around them, experiencing a second childhood with no wives, jobs or responsibilities. They pass the time by speculating about their fellow townspeople and testing inventions. Regular subplots in the first decade of the show included: Sid [John Comer] and Ivy [Jane Freeman] bickering over the management of the café, Mr Wainwright and Mrs Partridge having a secret love affair that everyone knows about, Wally [Joe Gladwin] trying to get away from Nora's watchful eye, Foggy's exaggerated war stories, and Compo's schemes to win the affections of Nora Batty.

The number of subplots on the show grew as more cast members were added. Regular subplots since the 1980s have included: Howard [Robert Fyfe] and Marina [Jean Fergusson] trying to have an affair without Howard's wife finding out (a variation of the Wainwright-Partridge subplot of the 1970s), the older women meeting for tea and discussing their theories about men and life, Auntie Wainwright [Jean Alexander] trying to sell unwanted merchandise to unsuspecting customers, Smiler [Stephen Lewis] trying to find a woman, Barry [Mike Grady] trying to better himself (at the insistence of Glenda) [Sarah Thomas], and Tom trying to stay one step ahead of the repo man.

Peter Sallis who has played ex lino salesman Norman Clegg, and is the only surviving cast member from the original episode also gives his voice to Wallace from Wallace and Gromit is often referred to as ‘Norman Clegg as was’ when he encounters the man hungry Marina.

As I look back now with fondness and the occasional smile over some of the humour and comedy that has made me laugh over all these years from the Goons ‘He's fallen in the water!’ or ‘You dirty, rotten swine, you! You deaded me!’ or Sub Lt Phillips ‘I say….ding dong’ or Marina from Last of the Summer Wine coming upon the hapless trio and sideling up to Clegg and saying ‘Well Norman Clegg as was’ one thing they all have in common is that they are all gone and after tonight so will Last of the Summer Wine, it will end of the longest running British television sit-com.

Perhaps Roy Clarke, who has written every single one of those episodes over the 37 years, was glad that he did not take any notice of the BBC executive that he took the very first pilot episode draft to…………………… So let me get this straight Roy , this is about three retired old men passing their day and the mishaps that befall them, its a good idea Roy but do you think anyone will watch it……………………………….