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Grumbleweeds Radio Show, The

EXCEPT IT’S ON TV. Do you see? Some fucking chance. Lousy comedy troupe who transferred from radio, “hilariously” keeping old show name for no comic reason whatsoever. One was bald and fat, and ran around on the floor in an inflatable smock with an airhorn. Another looked like Noel Edmonds and did the sub-Barron Knights songs. Another dressed up as the Milky Bar Kid. Another did Jimmy Savile going on “now then now then” for three fucking minutes. All were shite. Did that crappy thing of inviting a singer on (PATTI BOULAYE, BARBARA DICKSON, someone of that calibre) then arsing around in the background. Two ‘Weeds pissed off c.1987 and were replaced with lookalikes. No discernable improvement noted.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Lee James Turnock

    May 25, 2010 at 3:50 pm

    When they were on the Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, during their act Bernard Manning said (over the microphone, very loudly) “I’ve seen some rubbish in my time”…

  2. Rinsewind

    April 7, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    I’m sure that they had their own show on BBC in the seventies – it may have been called “The Coal Hole Club”. It had a repeated sketch featuring a family where the mother would butter the end of a loaf of bread, then cut off the slice and repeat for the next slice…Just remebered – her catchphrase was something like “I’ll marmalise you!!”. Please tell me I’m not going mad, or that I’m thinking of a totally different programme!!

  3. Matty

    October 31, 2012 at 8:55 pm

    For some reason I always remember the lyrics to the theme tune for this as going “I peeeeeeed on the grumbleweeeeeds”

  4. Matty

    October 31, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    I also seem to remember that this went out on Sunday afternoon or evening which gave it a sort of anti-Saturday night vibe. Probably quite appropriate.

  5. Richard Davies

    October 31, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    I remember it was on Sunday afternoons at one time.

  6. Mick

    March 8, 2014 at 12:43 am

    There were also many funny sketches but I’m not sure they were willing or able to differentiate. I have a BBC album which is pisspoor, yet the EMI album Worravagorrinmepockit does have many good moments.

  7. Tom Ronson

    March 28, 2022 at 1:02 am

    Eeh, you try telling the young people of today that there was a time when you could go where you wanted to, do what you wanted to, see just who you wanted to see, laugh when you wanted to, cry when you wanted to, free as a fish in the sea, and they won’t believe you.

    The Grumbleweeds were corny but extremely likeable. Think of them as your dad, your daft uncle, and a few mates doing a ‘turn’ at the working men’s club on a Sunday lunchtime and it will make a lot more sense. Their long-running BBC Radio 2 series was pure comfort food for the ears, and Robin Colville was a very gifted mimic – his ‘Jim from Taxi’ was exceptional.

    They probably reached some sort of peak exposure during the 1984 Olympics, due to the BBC snaffling the coverage rights and ITV not really bothering to compete, choosing instead to fill the schedules with anything cheap they had knocking about – in this case, several episodes of The Grumbleweeds Radio Show, even though the sketches featuring saucy ladies in various stages of undress were wildly inappropriate for the timeslots.

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