Harry Enfield has almost never been interviewed without at some point saying "I loved Dick Emery and not Monty Python and always wanted to be the new Dick Emery, not Monty Python, Dick Emery" – I presume L&W were just echoing him.

Lucas & Walliams are only a few years older than me, so it's hard to see where they could have been influenced by Emery, unless it was some random repeat of the 'Ooh You Are Awful' film. I don't recall any repeats of his show in the 80s, certainly not 90s.

As for repeated characters, every sketch show needs plenty of variety (which Watson & Oliver does seem to have to some extent). If a character has mileage, you can see them in a thousand situations and always want more. If it's just a case of 'we have these costumes and this set, and no more budget, just do the same thing again in a different hat', as can sometimes seem to be the case, that's not good. Little Britain presumably had plenty of budget, but their characters were too one-dimensional to hide the repetition every week. With Enfield, Burke and Whitehouse – and obviously the Fast Show team – it was never an issue.

Quote from: Jemble Fred on March 06, 2012, 01:29:13 PMLucas & Walliams are only a few years older than me, so it's hard to see where they could have been influenced by Emery, unless it was some random repeat of the 'Ooh You Are Awful' film. I don't recall any repeats of his show in the 80s, certainly not 90s.

He was still working on TV in the early 80s, that's when he did those 2 comedy-serial shows about a detective, one of them was "Jack Of Diamonds", can't remember the other. They were both on BBC in about 1982. Imagine a more trad Happy Families, that was the tone.

Anyone growing up in the late 70s will have seen his sketch show anyway. I did, and I think I'm the same age as DW.

Quote from: Jemble Fred on March 06, 2012, 01:29:13 PM
Harry Enfield has almost never been interviewed without at some point saying "I loved Dick Emery and not Monty Python and always wanted to be the new Dick Emery, not Monty Python, Dick Emery" – I presume L&W were just echoing him.

Lucas & Walliams are only a few years older than me, so it's hard to see where they could have been influenced by Emery, unless it was some random repeat of the 'Ooh You Are Awful' film. I don't recall any repeated of his show in the 80s, certainly not 90s.

Lucas and Walliams both have both said they were trying to emulate Emery when promotion Little Britain in interviews – one was in the Radio Times. Also, a little while ago, Walliams fronted a well-received documentary about Emery and it was quite clear that he's a fan.

You're quite right about not recalling any of his shows being repeated as they weren't, but Emery was a huge star - I don't think it's unreasonable to compare him with Hill at that time – one of the biggest comedy acts on British TV.  Walliams would have been 11 when Emery died, so he probably did remember certain elements vividly. It could well be that Enfield was a big influence and they would rather not 'fess up – and I guess they might also think that Emery doesn't get the respect that he should.

Quote from: Jemble Fred on March 06, 2012, 01:29:13 PM...As for repeated characters, every sketch show needs plenty of variety (which Watson & Oliver does seem to have to some extent). If a character has mileage, you can see them in a thousand situations and always want more. If it's just a case of 'we have these costumes and this set, and no more budget, just do the same thing again in a different hat', as can sometimes seem to be the case, that's not good. Little Britain presumably had plenty of budget, but their characters were too one-dimensional to hide the repetition every week. With Enfield, Burke and Whitehouse – and obviously the Fast Show team – it was never an issue.

I think that's a good point. Sorry to hark on about Emery, but he used to have one sketch with Pat Coombs – essentially, they were playing the same types of females in different situations. For example, two women at a solicitors for the reading of a will and realising they were married to the same man; two ladies at a high society dinner; cellmates in prison; neighbours bickering. It was the change of setting that really help keep things fresh and from what I've seen, it was usually the stand-out sketch or one of the best bits in a show.

Re: Little Britain – from what I was told by someone who worked on the pilot and who kept in touch with what was happening, money was very tight to begin with, but as soon as it was a hit, budgets were bumped up.

Quote from: Mark Steels Stockbroker on March 06, 2012, 02:03:33 PM
He was still working on TV in the early 80s, that's when he did those 2 comedy-serial shows about a detective, one of them was "Jack Of Diamonds", can't remember the other. They were both on BBC in about 1982. Imagine a more trad Happy Families, that was the tone.

Anyone growing up in the late 70s will have seen his sketch show anyway. I did, and I think I'm the same age as DW.

Good call on those shows - he was tired of the constraints of sketch shows, which is why he started doing that kind of series – Legacy of Murder was the other. Also, there was a Christmas Special For Whom the Jingle Bells Toll, from a couple of years earlier that was suggested the direction he was heading – location-based shooting and story-based show. I'm pretty sure I saw Phillip Franks being interviewed on television and a clip of from Jack of Diamonds with him was shown (he was one of the main supporting actors) but nothing on imdb.com about that.

Quote from: Jemble Fred on March 06, 2012, 01:29:13 PMLucas & Walliams are only a few years older than me, so it's hard to see where they could have been influenced by Emery, unless it was some random repeat of the 'Ooh You Are Awful' film. I don't recall any repeats of his show in the 80s, certainly not 90s.

Repeats from the time tailed off in 1983. UK Gold repeated a large number of Dick Emery Shows in 1993-94, with another burst in 1998. A couple of half hours were shown on BBC-1 in 1993 and a further repeat on BBC-2 in 2000.

As both Lucas and Walliams are fairly obsessed with Doctor Who I find it hard to believe they weren't watching UK Gold religiously in 1993/4.

Quote from: benthalo on March 06, 2012, 02:39:00 PM
Repeats from the time tailed off in 1983. UK Gold repeated a large number of Dick Emery Shows in 1993-94, with another burst in 1998. A couple of half hours were shown on BBC-1 in 1993 and a further repeat on BBC-2 in 2000.

As both Lucas and Walliams are fairly obsessed with Doctor Who I find it hard to believe they weren't watching UK Gold religiously in 1993/4.

That's interesting - I knew the UK Gold showed them, but I thought it was a little later (possibly, I was mixing the earlier run with the 1998 one) and couldn't remember the BBC ones.

The BBC showings were virtually one offs rather than long runs, but I knew I'd seen BBC1 showings at some point in my youth so had to check the Guardian archive site. That's where the UK Gold dates come from. 1998 was their relaunch.

Cheers – the BBC not showing much rings a vague bell. A little strange to think how long Emery's career was, but so little is available to buy.

I'd definitely buy them, which is something I'd never do with something like The Benny Hill Show. Emery hired some quite eccentric writers over the years.

I just watched episode 4, and thought I'd made a mistake and done episode 1 again. The Wills and Kate thing was almost exactly the same sketch, word for word, and same for the greasy spoon sketch.

If they bring it back, then they need to drop the first late-night showing or just hire some funnier writers. It's such a waste of decent performers.

The material is indeed patchy, like every sketch show ever (ever tried to watch something like Alas Smith and Jones recently?), but they are really good performers and the end result is decent.

Quote from: rimbaud on March 21, 2012, 02:05:40 AM
(ever tried to watch something like Alas Smith and Jones recently?)

Indeed I have, and comparing it to a cut-'n'-paste affair like this, bearing in mind the talent involved in AS&J, and the variety throughout their many series, seems pretty ridiculous.

Quote from: Ignatius_S on March 06, 2012, 01:25:40 PM
Quite – and I was under the impression that character-based sketch comedy becoming getting in vogue again was due to his success, rather than other shows that came along. In the case of Little Britain, I'm happy to accept the claim of Walliams and Lucas that they wanted to be the new Dick Emery Show – a programme that I feel also influenced Enfield (e.g. the elongated sketches involving various Enfield characters that started appearing).

For me Harry Enfield seemed to fuse together elements of The Dick Emery Show with the humour of Viz.

edit: I thought the last post on the previous page was the most recent, damn.

Quote from: Jemble Fred on March 21, 2012, 08:50:33 AM
Indeed I have, and comparing it to a cut-'n'-paste affair like this, bearing in mind the talent involved in AS&J, and the variety throughout their many series, seems pretty ridiculous.

There always was a lot of talent involved, which always made the end result more disappointing.

This was really bad. Punchlines you could see a mile off. Sketches trying hard to be memetic. Sketches that mirrored other sketches. Sketches that seemed to draw directly on rejected sketches from shows long since dead. Truly awful.

Just watching Episode 4 now - it's only the receptionists with the nails that I find utterly hopeless, and it's quite disappointing when the quality of everything else is so high.

who are you all?
this was the most terrified-to-offend, cosy and safe 'comedy' since Cannon & Ball

Amazed to see any praise for this show on this forum.
I saw one episode and it made me profoundly sad.

Sdly, have to agree with the comment about Smith&Jones above - seeing the "Sketchbook" shows from a few years ago I was very underwhelmed by the clips they showed. Just not as amazing as it all seemed in 1988.

So what if it's not going to offend anyone? It's just a light-hearted comedy show with no pretence to be anything else. That's a bloody stupid argument to not enjoy it. It's a shit of a lot better than any of the recent shows that thought they were oh-so-clever and offensive.

Quote from: Mark Steels Stockbroker on March 29, 2012, 06:43:16 AM
Sdly, have to agree with the comment about Smith&Jones above - seeing the "Sketchbook" shows from a few years ago I was very underwhelmed by the clips they showed. Just not as amazing as it all seemed in 1988.

I would recommend watching the old episodes. There's a lot of high quality stuff that never gets into the clip shows. Although there were some good bits in the 'Sketchbook' series, it could be that the cynical structure of those shows was just so depressing.. or perhaps you don't like Smith & Jones.