Hi,

Does anyone have any encodes of this early 90's Channel 4 show? Ran for 2 series, has never been repeated and I'm desperately seeking out.

There was a thread about this one before the Great Cleansing, and the upshot seemed to be a resounding no.  I think there were a couple of people who said that they might be able to get their hands on tapes, though (can't remember who, sorry), so if anyone could get a tape to a willing encoder, that would be the height of peachiness...  can't really help on that front, as I'm lazy and tight, natch.

This is one of those sitcoms that has fallen between the cracks in the floorboards, which is weird because it performed pretty well while it was running, didn't it?  Or is my memory playing tricks on me?  Loads of people around these parts have probably never seen it before, and would fall in love with the thing if they did.

I've never seen it, but I'm pretty sure it's at the top of the list for when Playback realise that Filthy Rich and Catflap has sold well, when imitationleather pops back up and asks for more DVD suggestions.

It was a great show. "There's nobody here but us chickens!"

The episode where they all get hypnotised was a classic:)

Quote from: "TOCMFIC"It was a great show. "There's nobody here but us chickens!"

The episode where they all get hypnotised was a classic:)

my memories a little vague when it comes to nightingales - I remember a woman giving birth to a variety of objects... (at xmas was it? didnt they think it was the virgin mary of something?) - I remember a student doctor who was a werewolf... I remeber them looking at the security camera once and seeing exact duplicates of themselves arriving in a lift...

...did the hypnotism thing involve one of them repetatedly singing "strangers in the night"? if so i remember that as well.

I just KNOW this is a show that is going to appear shit now I'm not 14 if I see it again.

No, I'm sure it was very good, and I must have been 22 or so. Consistently and repeatably good - why oh why, etc. Robert Lindsay's a bit of a dead cert for me (remember GBH?). David Threlfall was excellent too. Saw all of Nightingales, I think. I certainly remember Lindsay raping a horse and the virgin Mary giving birth to a goldfish in the Christmas one. Can't say fairer than that. And there was a fourth security man who'd been dead for ages and they were still splitting his salary.

It was top notch, and I believe I'm right in saying (for what such facts are worth) that it actually got nominated in a publically voted comedy award at the BAFTAs too.  I'd really have to check that fact out, though.

It truly was a frequently baffling, one-off nut job of a show though, with many bizarre elements running throughout. Am I right in recalling that in the final episode there are actually replicas of the main characters running around the building, who are then destroyed - but you're never left actually sure as to who has destroyed who? It was very surreal and menacing at times, which was especially notable at a point in time when most sit-coms weren't really pushing the envelope.

Quote from: "Munday's Chylde"
...did the hypnotism thing involve one of them repetatedly singing "strangers in the night"? if so i remember that as well.

IIRC it was 'Oh Danny Boy'  (the pipes the pipes are calling)

As I remember in the last episode, you're led to believe theat the 'real' guys killed the bad versions of themselves, until Carter does the infamous 'There's nobody here but us chickens', and Bell & Sarge haven't got a clue what he's on about.

So Carter realises they're not the real deal and offers them pieces of cake which was poisoned or something, and they accept.

Ahhh, vague memories are great eh.

The other lasting moments for me were when Sarge has to get the takeaway in, and Bell & Carter are making impossible demands on him to make him fuck it up. Bell orders a roast suckling pig, Sarge produces it, Bell passes out.

And there's one where they have some sort of contest, one of the rounds in which was to see who could build the best dry stone wall.

Good god I wanna see this again.

The hypnotism episode actually involved each of the three regulars singing a song on command - Danny Boy for James Ellis, Strangers In The Night for Robert Lindsay and I can't remember what David Threlfall did. Edit: I've Got A Lovely Bunch Of Coconuts, I think.

I've got the full run on tape, but no way to encode them. I'm almost certain there'll be a DVD in the near future - it's so frequently talked about, it puts The High Life to shame.

It's still fantastic, by the way.

Anyone remember the episode which was basically all of King Lear in 24 minutes?

I HAVE to see this again soon.

Davi Threfall's character was fantastic, proper rough council estate, cortina on bricks in front garden, psycho.
The two bits I remember were him coming back from holiday wearing a 'greetings from Rhyl'  t-shirt with his own manical face on it and using the phrase 'pulling his pudding' in the student/werewolf episode. It was the first time I had ever heard this and it sadly still makes me smile to this day.

Any idea who wrote the series?

Paul Makin wrote all episodes. The one you're thinking of is 'King Lear II' from the second series.

My favourite episode was where they were looking after a gorilla and decided to call him Terrence Oblong. My memory of this is hazy ( I was only 8 or 9 when I saw it) but I think each character became very attached to him, then started to dislike him when it turned out he didn't like something that they liked. My main memory is that Bell fell out with him because he didn't like the colour beige.

It's because of this episode that my mom shouts out "TERRENCE OBLONG!" everytime David Threlfall comes on TV.

Phwoarrrrrr!



March 27th, people.

The day just got better. Cheers, Muteki.

*Holds breath for a month*

Is was on uknova but the quality was atrocious.

I'd bet my aunts cat that there's be a few rose tinted spectacles in the bin come March 28th.

But yes i've already pre-ordered it.

Quote from: "Munday's Chylde"I'd bet my aunts cat that there's be a few rose tinted spectacles in the bin come March 28th.

I don't know about that, but I bet you it never gets mentioned on forums ever again.

Quote from: "Emergency Lalla Ward Ten"

Quote from: "Munday's Chylde"I'd bet my aunts cat that there's be a few rose tinted spectacles in the bin come March 28th.

I don't know about that, but I bet you it never gets mentioned on forums ever again.

Things do lose their specialness when you can easily buy them down Mick's Vidz don't they? The dvd era along with downloading from the internet has made collectively scratching together tv memories from golden summers ago a thing of the past, and the fun discussions that went with it. You know who I blame? The fans! Selfish gits.

Quote from: "Lord Spong"

Quote from: "Munday's Chylde"
...did the hypnotism thing involve one of them repetatedly singing "strangers in the night"? if so i remember that as well.

IIRC it was 'Oh Danny Boy'  (the pipes the pipes are calling)

You're both right. Lindsay would sing "Strangers in the Night" and Threlfall would immediately follow with "Danny Boy." Fantastic show. Roll on March 27th (which reminds me, Serenity on Feb 27th).

Quote from: "Munday's Chylde"
Things do lose their specialness when you can easily buy them down Mick's Vidz don't they? The dvd era along with downloading from the internet has made collectively scratching together tv memories from golden summers ago a thing of the past, and the fun discussions that went with it. You know who I blame? The fans! Selfish gits.

It's a strange phenomenon, though - certain shows are perrenial topics on forums...until the day when they finally get a DVD release, whereupon no one ever mentions them again. A few years ago on Mausoleum Club, you couldn't move for discussions about The Stone Tape and Edge of Darkness; start a thread on either of those shows now that they're on DVD, however, and it'll be totally ignored.

Screenselect have its release date as 6th march, not 27th.


EDIT - no , it didn't, I wasn't looking right. They had the 27th.

Anybody got this then? (urhhh, chickens)

I couldn't find it in the shop, having stupidly looked under the 'Comedy DVDs' section for it. About to give up hope, I quickly browsed through the 'TV/General Interest' section and instantly found a spanky copy of it.

Watched the first three eps so far, great stuff. The sudden Shakespearean tilt in 'Takeaway' had me in stitches.

I'd forgotten how much of a psycho Bell was as well. :)

Sorry for this almighty bump, but one of the posters predictions came true, once the dvd was released, nobody talked about it. Does anyone who has seen it recently want to say anything about the show? I bought the dvd on the strength of seeing a couple of episodes on youtube and absolutely love it. I too was a little wary about Nightingales being any good so long after it was first shown (having seen most of the series 1 & 2 episodes originally), but fortunately, the performances and the material are still superb.

I think that's the biggest bump I've seen on here.

I didn't know this thread existed, or I would definitely have posted here before now. It's funny, reading through the comments posted before the DVD was released that everybody is remembering scenes exactly but thinking that they must have got them wrong somehow.

It's bloody marvellous, probably the best thing that Robert Lindsay or David Threlfall have ever been involved in. I watched them all again quite recently for the umpteenth time and still think they're hilarious. My favourite is definitely the hypnosis episode, which has to be up there as one of the finest half hours of television ever produced. I remember when it was first on, seeing the headline about 'Local Man Rapes Horse' next to Threlfall's mental face absolutely floored me.

Although my favourite individual scene has to be when Threlfall is shining a torch at his relection in the mirrors in the toilet:"You're dead!"

I'm pretty sure that Paul Makin died a few years ago, which is a shame. At least he created one of the true cult TV programmes of all time before he went.

Quote from: Roy*Mallard on August 18, 2009, 12:34:50 PMSorry for this almighty bump, but one of the posters predictions came true, once the dvd was released, nobody talked about it.

Ahem, I think you'll find that the fragrant sex lever immediately above your post did.

I was In The Midst of rewatching it a few months back, but got stuck somewhere in series 1, I should pick it up again.

I love it though, great show and thankfully wasn't a case of rose-tinting either. It manages to be offbeat and surreal without being dutifully 'random', and sets it off against some brilliant low-key pacing-about at the mundanity of the job.

If there was anything I would criticise it for, it's that the frenetic squabbling can be a little 'overcranked' from time to time (a famiilar problem when you've seen Filthy, Rich & Catflap).

Yes, unfortunately Paul Makin passed away last year. Obituary by Laurence Marks

Quote'Local Man Rapes Horse'

I'd forgotten about this, brilliant. And managing to get hearty laughs from that was also quite daring, I thought.

Quote from: Roy*Mallard on August 18, 2009, 12:34:50 PM
Sorry for this almighty bump, but one of the posters predictions came true, once the dvd was released, nobody talked about it. Does anyone who has seen it recently want to say anything about the show? I bought the dvd on the strength of seeing a couple of episodes on youtube and absolutely love it. I too was a little wary about Nightingales being any good so long after it was first shown (having seen most of the series 1 & 2 episodes originally), but fortunately, the performances and the material are still superb.

There has been discussion on this on here, I just think there was a different thread (you know, the 120 day rule for bumping occasionally gets adhered to). I remember buying it based on the recommendations it was getting, and posting about it, so clearly there's more discussion than this one bit.

It was a rare pleasure in that, after I bought it, I watched it all the way through both series pretty much without stopping. The characters were brilliant, well-written and very well-acted; the situations were fantastic, the oddness quotient was just about right and I was sad to see it end.

I might have to get this. Sounds good.