ANGLO-YANKEE LATE night comedy from the Four’s early days featuring TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR, BARRY CRYER, a usually scantily-clad CLEO ROCOS, plus a multitude of American performers including WAYNE “NEWMAN!” KNIGHT, who went on to become the fat bloke downstairs in Seinfeld.
Lee James Turnock
April 8, 2015 at 5:36 pm
May have been pointless but I’d still really like to see it again. Tim Brooke-Taylor also made a few appearances on the Kenny Everett Television Show.
Tom Ronson
October 4, 2020 at 9:11 pm
Quite an odd little series, produced in conjunction with Cinemax and featuring Daniel Peacock alongside Cryer, Brooke-Taylor and Rocos. ‘Of its time’, so to speak. Some excerpts of this, along with sundry Children’s ITV presenters fluffing their lines and cracking up, appeared on a Christmas tape produced by the VT department of the independent Molinare Studio (on YouTube no fewer than three times over in different versions, last time I looked).
Droogie
October 4, 2020 at 10:51 pm
Strange show. It felt like middle aged performers ( TBT) and writers (Bazza Cryer) were trying to write an alternative comedy sketch show for Channel 4, but with Cleo Rocos in various stages of undress making it look like a bunch of rubbish Kenny Everett sketches but without Ken. The American cast members performed like they were on a different show, and the horrible canned laughter added to the weirdness and lack of laughs.
Richardpd
October 4, 2020 at 10:59 pm
Sounds like an oddball series even by 1980s Channel 4 standards.
Droogie
October 4, 2020 at 11:12 pm
It was no Minipops at least , but still a weird show for Channel 4 to make . They were still showing Paul Hogan Show repeats at this point, so weren’t adverse for some sub- Benny Hill comedy to fill the slots.
George White
October 5, 2020 at 10:20 am
I have a theory it was commissioned to ride the back of the success of Benny Hill in the US.
Tom Ronson
February 21, 2022 at 1:53 am
You would be entirely correct in thinking that, George. There’s an interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor from Sunday Sunday on the DVD of The Goodies’ disappointing LWT series, where he mentions he’s working on ‘something naughty for the Americans.’ Apparently, the BBC had intended to sell The Kenny Everett Television Show to America, hoping for another Benny Hill / Monty Python-level success, but Everett didn’t want to spend six months in a basement with a VT editor reshaping his old shows for the US market. (Benny Hill’s Thames shows were retooled for America by former BBC director John Street.)