I’m signing off from work for a whole three days, folks, so I wish you all a fantastic Christmas. A Carry On heads up before I go. Channel 5 is awash with innuendo on Boxing Day, with four black & white classics, the first TV Christmas special and the documentary ‘Greatest Ever Carry On Films’. Broadcast from 11.30pm, I’m in this quite a lot and it’s fun for all the family guessing which Carry Ons make the grade! ‘Carry On Christmas’, ‘Greatest Ever Carry On Films’ and ‘Carry On Spying’ are repeated on Channel 5 from 10.20am on Sunday, 28th December.
Monthly Archives: December 2014
22nd December 2014
I did a quick live lunchtime interview with Richard Latto on BBC Radio Solent with regards a beautiful, recently discovered filmed interview with Harry H. Corbett. Discussing pantomime, Shakespeare and, of course, Steptoe and Son, this is a brief insight to an actor of truth and integrity. The interviewer is a little impertinent but Harry survives with his dignity totally in tact.
21st December 2014
To the Museum of Comedy, Bloomsbury for the very first Robert Ross Requests the Pleasure… interview. I was requesting the pleasure of one of my all~time comedy heroes, Bill Oddie, and he was on fine, funny and candid form throughout. The interview should be available as a podcast very soon, while my next Museum of Comedy event is on Sunday, 18th January 2015.
19th December 2014
I was delighted to make my third appearance at the Concert Artistes’ Association as a guest of the Jack Hulbert & Cicely Courtneidge Society. This time it was in celebration of the centenary of Charles Hawtrey. The packed audience enjoyed a selection of clips from such Hawtrey treats as the rare Will Hay classic Where’s That Fire, an episode of The Army Game unavailable on DVD and the classic 1969 ‘Carry On Christmas’. I was especially pleased that my dear chum, actor Hugh Futcher, came along to share his memories of filming seven Carry On films. Typically, the Hawtrey chat turns to a little Sid James worship too. I just can’t help myself! Hugh was a delight, as always. Still, despite a little peer pressure, what happened in Deal stayed in Deal.
8th December 2014
I guested on Mike Read’s BBC Radio Berkshire show, discussing the news item that the funnier the comedian the more likely of an early death. We both agreed that this was a nonsense, but it was a fun and respectful chat about such comic heroes as Tony Hancock, Norman Wisdom, Eric Morecambe and Graham Chapman.
7th December 2014
‘Missing Believed Wiped’ at the National Film Theatre, as a cheerful and blissfully articulate John Cleese presented two prized episodes of ‘At Last the 1948 Show’.
4th December 2014
40 years since the last episode of ‘Monty Python’ aired on BBC Television. Suitably, dinner was with Terry Jones, following a filmed tribute assignment for Bristol’s Slapstick Festival.