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Supergran

MISTAKENLY HIT by some kind of ray thing, GUDRUN URE became a comedy Scottish granny with super powers. IAIN CUTHBERTSON was her nemesis, with the obligatory incompetent henchmen. There were some kids, too (you don’t get away that easily) and a Professor. Sunday teatime depressant. Billy Connolly-screeched title song avowed she was stronger than “Iceman”, “a bunch of fairies”, would “cause a ruckus for BA Baracus” and had “more bottle than United Dairies” – four qualities it’d be impossible to boast about today on grounds of a) taste b) decency and c) utter incomprehension.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. THX 1139

    January 7, 2013 at 7:57 pm

    The original book was read to our class at story time, so when the TV version came along I surveyed it with a sceptical eye. My main problem wasn’t that it differed from the book, it was very faithful, but that I wanted it to be more like Superman. Then one summer the BBC repeated the old Superman serial from the 1950s and I realised they’d got it spot on.

  2. richardpd

    February 9, 2019 at 9:48 pm

    I read that one episode had one of the last appearances of Charles Hawtrey, who apparently turned up like death warmed up.

    This was due to having to live for years on the breadline after quitting the Carry Ons & his Mum accidentality burning their house down after mistaking her handbag for an ashtray.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    February 10, 2019 at 1:13 pm

    @ richardpd, Hawtrey was to die a bankrupt a few years later in Deal, Kent. However, while he could have been a success as an after dinner speaker or gone on the stage, alcoholism ruined his career after the Carry Ons, and in Deal he was known as being a snob who referred to locals as peasants and used to swear at people who recognised him in the street. Apparently only nine people turned up at Hawtrey’s funeral.

  4. THX 1139

    February 11, 2019 at 10:19 am

    Did Sir Billy’s mention of Iceman in the theme tune lyrics mean he was an avid follower of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends? Because I don’t know where else he would have heard of him.

    • richardpd

      February 11, 2019 at 1:35 pm

      It sound like it, unless he was an avid reader of the X-Men comics.

      BA Baracus also gets a “with the kids” name check.

  5. Droogie

    February 15, 2019 at 3:09 pm

    I remember seeing Billy performing the Supergran theme complete with young girl backing singers dressed as grannies on Aspel in front of a baffled-looking Christopher Reeve who was a fellow guest.

  6. Glenn Aylett

    February 17, 2019 at 12:57 pm

    Supergran was recorded in Tynemouth, the resort’s main claim to televisual fame in the eighties, until the BBC filmed The Watch Tower there in 1988.

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