TV Cream

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Comic Strip Presents…, The

YOU ARE HERE. Mayall, Edmondson, French, Saunders, Coltrane, Richardson, Sayle and Allen piss about on a grand scale. In order: FIVE GO MAD IN DORSET (“Blah blah blah”); WAR (“Pot of tea for four, please!”); THE BEAT GENERATION (black and white wankery); BAD NEWS TOUR (“For you, and you, and you, and you”); SUMMER SCHOOL (too much Dawn French); FIVE GO MAD ON MESCALIN (“You like that, don’t you, Timmy?”); DIRTY MOVIE (lobster gets run over); SUSIE (pass); A FISTFUL OF TRAVELLERS CHEQUES (“No soft toilet papers in Hotel Bastardos!”); GINO – FULL STORY AND PICS (that rarest of beasts: a decent Keith Allen turn!); EDDIE MONSOON – A LIFE? (“Plipetty Plop, and Flippety Flop…”); SLAGS (er); CONSUELA (yet more too much Dawn French); PRIVATE ENTERPRISE (shit – literally); THE STRIKE (oranges); MORE BAD NEWS (Donington Rock Festival); MR JOLLY LIVES NEXT DOOR (“Nicholas bloody Parsons!”); THE YOB (that commonest of beasts: a crap Keith Allen turn); DIDN’T YOU KILL MY BROTHER? (“Tighter than a very tight thing”); FUNSEEKERS (no jokes); SOUTH ATLANTIC RAIDERS (first on BBC2); GLC (Kate Bush soundtrack); OXFORD (shagging in the spires); SPAGHETTI HOOPS (Italian thingy); LES DOGS (arty); RED NOSE OF COURAGE (satire!); THE CRYING GAME (football); WILD TURKEY (Christmas special); DETECTIVES ON THE EDGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (you’ll have stopped watching by now); SPACE VIRGINS FROM PLANET SEX (you’ll have stopped reading by now); QUEEN OF THE WILD FRONTIER (they really needn’t have bothered); GREGORY – DIARY OF A NUT CASE (sigh); DEMONELLA (ditto); JEALOUSY (last one for ages until…); FOUR MEN IN A CAR (so-so revival on Channel 4); FOUR MEN IN A PLANE (rotten revival of the revival); SEX, ACTUALLY (do you see? No).

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Matthew Rudd

    February 14, 2010 at 11:53 pm

    And, of course, THE SUPERGRASS (“Chocolates are bad for your teeth!”)

    • Joanne Gray

      November 19, 2017 at 3:09 pm

      The only one to be released as a feature length movie, I believe? I used to spend a lot of my pocket money hiring Supergrass from the local video shop most weekends, I enjoyed it that much.

  2. Stuart Kenny

    February 29, 2012 at 11:23 pm

    Plus, there was the new one out last year, the Fugitive/Hitchcock spoof The Hunt For Tony Blair, which was OK actually. Not vintage, but it’ll do.

  3. ellis

    July 1, 2013 at 10:04 am

    In War, it is “A pot of tea for four, you bitch”

    and various others; “I normally have a carrot about this time”
    “All the green stuff is grass”
    “No, No Hermaine, we can mix our own cocktails now”

  4. Applemask

    January 19, 2017 at 1:08 pm

    And don’t, or maybe do, forget EAT THE RICH (“Knock, knock…”)

  5. Glenn Aylett

    September 18, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    Les Dogs, bizarre to say the least, with some Green Party dictator banning things like television and Kate Bush playing a bride who doesn’t say anything. Bad News On Tour was way more fun as there was a British heavy metal revival at the time and it was a send up of those bands who couldn’t quite make it big, but thought they were Iron Maiden.

    • richardpd

      September 18, 2020 at 11:31 pm

      Yes Les Dogs was a real mind screw, probably trying to look like a French art film. It seemed to be lots of vaguely connected set pieces randomly stuck together.

      Kate Bush’s Ken from GLC made the old TV Cream’s Top 100 B-sides.

      I remember Dead Ringers continued the trend of spoof Hollywood versions of British things, with Carry On Doctor with Dustin Hoffman as Dr Tinkle.

  6. THX 1139

    September 19, 2020 at 12:16 am

    The funniest one by far, apart from the Bad News episodes, was Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, pure Rik and Ade doing what they did best and Nicholas Parsons being surprisingly game. Peter Cook as well! “Take out Nicholas Parsons!”

  7. THX 1139

    September 19, 2020 at 12:18 am

    Agree about The Yob, though. Mr Allen sort of redeemed himself with The Bullshitters, though that one ran out of jokes.

  8. Glenn Aylett

    September 19, 2020 at 10:32 am

    Would I be right in thinking that French and Saunders played a pair of groupies in Bad News that the band find at a bus stop?
    Actually Bad News is probably the best remembered of a variable roster of comedies that could be hilarious one week and awful the next. Certainly the Channel 4 era is better than the BBC 2 revival.

  9. richardpd

    September 19, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    It’s a shame these haven’t been repeated much in recent years as I’m sure I would be able to get more out of them as I did when I was young.

    The mixture of off-beat comedy laced with pathos, sometimes switching a few times in a scene is hard for a callow 12 year old to get the most out of.

  10. George White

    September 19, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    I always found it odd when Paul Bartel joined the gang in the early 90s and directed two eps.

    Clearly his Corman background meant he could do wonders on BBC budgets, but to find the man behind Death Race, Eating Raoul and Private Parts under Richardson’s grip is like Sam Fuller taking over the Carry Ons.

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