Pat Heigham
I watched the 1976 Christmas edition of the “Morecombe and Wise Show” via BBC iPlayer – with BT Infinity Broadband, there was no buffering, stuttering etc, and the vision quality was excellent. (and that was via a BluRay player that linked to the Internet!).
It was an super programme, and reminded me of what the BBC have dispensed with.
There is nothing, today, to match the output of those years, no high gloss LE (maybe ‘Strictly’ is the nearest remaining, now). The destruction of TVC has meant that all the in-house departments – Studios, Tech ops, Wardrobe, Make-up, Scenery construction, Quality Control and Presentation have been obliterated.
Tony Grant
I only worked on the periphery of “Morecombe and Wise”, but I did work on many “The Two Ronnies”, and there’s something I haven’t seen mentioned before: Autocue and Teleprompt. I recall that Ronnie C insisted that Sabby was on Autocue for his monologues.
I remember Sabena and (Hairy) Mary on Autocue, and am I correct in thinking that Trish was Teleprompt? Prompting the question (yes, couldn’t resist) where are they now?
I also did most of the Dave Allen shows (Ian Gibb and crew 15) and have established many legends in my own lunchtime with people who enjoy a good Irish joke (all the best ones have originated in Ireland, of course). He did all his monologues without a prompter, and didn’t rehearse them on set beforehand, so the recoding was the first time we heard them, fortunate that the three cameras on him were virtually locked off, so you could (silently, remember) shake with laughter, and try and keep the camera steady. And finally, they were EMI 2001s, of course.
Graeme Wall
Talking of shaking with laughter, there was one “Morecombe and Wise” where Stuart ? (Lindley?) was doing Camera 3 and he found one joke very funny all through rehearsals. On the take, Eric Morecambe paused just before the gag, strode to the front of the set and said to the audience, "I know the next joke is funny, Camera 3 has been in hysterics all day over it!", stepped back into character and carried on.
Peter Hider
I worked on a series of the Frankie Howerd shows and he, like Dave Allen, rehearsed in mime with every “Oooh!”, “No!” and “Missis” and “Don’t be coarse” being mouthed. The monologue at the start of the show was a slow zoom in from a MLS to a CU over the course of about 2 minutes. As the recording was the first time I’d heard the gags I was actually crying tears of laughter until, on one episode, I noticed that the shot was going slowly out of focus, about which, despite spinning the focus control from one end to the other, I could do nothing. The yoke or block had moved in the camera and had to be reset. Mr Howard was amazingly understanding when told he had to retake the entire opening, which was fortunately even funnier. His story of transporting two elephants on the Underground must be one of his funniest stories ever.
Alasdair Lawrance
I was intrigued by the RT billing for “Inside No. 9 – the Devil of Christmas”. It’s a Steve Pemberton/Reece Shearsmith effort, and in the billing states “…and has even been taped on creaky cameras from that era by veteran director Graeme Harper…” (The ‘era’ in question being 1970s).
I know the two protagonists are a bit strange, but did anyone watch it?
And I won’t go on about the Agatha Christie number, “Witness for the Prosecution” shot through a permanent green fog – I thought the red and blue guns had gone awol, but no, it was apparently deliberate. And the script including lines like “ he hasn’t got a pot to piss in” didn’t strike me as 1923 vernacular!
Geoff Fletcher
I watched the “Inside No. 9 – the Devil of Christmas” effort with my wife who was a make up artist at LWT and Anglia. We thought it was a fair crack at depicting shooting studio dramas as we remembered it from that time. There were a few errors of course, some unavoidable to be fair, but it had the right feel we thought. Some nice touches like a lenshood in shot top left of frame and being hastily withdrawn, the odd mic/boom shadow, and artists missing their mark and blocking an over the shoulder MCU 2 shot and the subsequent compensating camera ease left for example. From Anya’s point of view she thought the dodgy wigs and facial hair were right although she winced a bit at seeing the mesh! Good if slightly predictable twist at the end – and all in 4×3 too. We enjoyed it anyway.
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Bernie Newnham
I’ve never heard of “Inside No. 9” before. Presumably if I had I, I’d have some context on what sort of thing it is normally. As it was – really weird!
"Veteran director Graeme Harper" intrigued me – I was sure I knew that name, and it turned out that I did. Here he is – I remember that face –
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Of course I also remember the camera supervisor whose name I read in the credits.
John Nottage
“Inside No. 9” was a nice little series a while ago. Lots of black humour. The link between the shows was that the events took place behind a door with no. 9 on it. A house, a hotel – there were others, I forget now, but we did enjoy them. One memorable episode took place in a modern glass home with no dialogue – very funny and very black as I recall.
Dave Mundy
It was reported that 8 out of 10 most watched programs over Christmas were on the BBC. Since Sky viewers are paying more than 10 times the license fee to ‘believe in better’, what does that say about the intelligence of the Sky viewer? Answers on the back of a second class stamp please – if you can afford it!
Dave Plowman
Those few I know who have Sky, it is for the footie. It makes some sense if the alternative is to go down the pub to watch it.
I have more friends who download films etc (and pay for them). Not something I do either.
Bernie Newnham
The BBC always wins Christmas, as the other broadcasters don’t care. There’s isn’t any money in it for them so they don’t try very hard.
