Christmas Shopping In Luton
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2013 5:37 pm
All of the available Secret Policeman's Balls have been released on a 3 disc DVD set some time ago. I picked one up for my nephew as a gift (he does not follow me around the Web - especially to this site - so this secret is still safe) and as is my want at this time of year, I got a copy for myself. In previous decades I have owned the records and the VHS tapes of the Balls so I may as well continue to relive my youthful memories transferred over to DVD.
These play just as I remember them. The cream of British humor during the television era. One can trace the change in humor Across The Pond through these shows as the literate, irreverent college educated sketch artists of the Fifties and Sixties were slowly tossed aside during the Eighties for......conventional stand-up. Cleese talks about this on one of the extras in which he states that it was increasingly hard for a sketch group to follow a popular and well devised stand-up routine.
I believe the old guy is balmy....
There is absolutely no comparison between a man dressed as the Pope haranguing Michelangelo over painting three Christs and a kangaroo in "The Last Supper" and Alexei 'F**kin' Sayle spewing on about why his head is shaved. That's just crazy talk!
But comedy was also altering big time here in the US of A so I'm rather lenient towards comics standing beside a mike trying to make us laugh.....but not when you have Cook and Cleese standing in the wings. One of the later shows even brings on Emo Phillips!!! I didn't know he was English. You can have him. I would like some Brit to explain to me the fascination your country had with those damn puppets! They get to be the opening act on at least two of the 80's shows. I've despised puppets ever since the days of Kukla, Fran & Ollie. The Muppets were enough of a cultural embarrassment as it was, did we really need competition? And then there is the music. It first started as a short respite from the comedy. Then it grew more intrusive in later years.
Say, why is Rowan Atkinson performing comedy in the middle of a Live Aid concert?? Get him off! I wanna hear Sting.
But not all of the later Balls were terrible. I was genuinely surprised with the last Ball that was recorded for prosperity, the 1989 verson. They cut way back on the Rockers and brought back the Old Comedy Guard along with the new - Jennifer Saunders co-directs with Cleese. It's very entertaining throughout starting with a great twist on the opening skit, The Dead Parrot.
But when one speaks pure entertainment it is the early shows that one first thinks of. My favorite has always been the first - Pleasure At Her Majesty's. Everyone who's anyone shows up (besides Idle and Dudley Moore). The behind the scenes footage of these actors fraternizing with each other is fascinating. Some are old comrades while others are meeting their idols for the first time. Terry Jones and Alan Bennett are eavesdropped having an intimate conversation on the comedic differences between Python and the Fringe. Bennett confesses that he could never work with John Cleese because their comedic styles differ so. I kept waiting for Jones to blurt out, "Yes, he is quite a handful". In fact, it's funny hearing comments from many of the comedians expressing amazement over Python's massive popularity at that time.
Though it is essentially a documentary enough footage is devoted to the performances to get a real taste of what went on at those late night showings. But more times than not the longer sketches get cut away from (because of time limitations, I assume).The discs do feature extras of a few new skits from each of the shows but I was hoping the DVD would release the Elongated Director's Cut - featuring newly unearthed footage of filmed performances. In much the same way that the director of WOODSTOCK has released longer and longer yet versions of his film every 5 years. No such luck here.
These play just as I remember them. The cream of British humor during the television era. One can trace the change in humor Across The Pond through these shows as the literate, irreverent college educated sketch artists of the Fifties and Sixties were slowly tossed aside during the Eighties for......conventional stand-up. Cleese talks about this on one of the extras in which he states that it was increasingly hard for a sketch group to follow a popular and well devised stand-up routine.
I believe the old guy is balmy....
There is absolutely no comparison between a man dressed as the Pope haranguing Michelangelo over painting three Christs and a kangaroo in "The Last Supper" and Alexei 'F**kin' Sayle spewing on about why his head is shaved. That's just crazy talk!
But comedy was also altering big time here in the US of A so I'm rather lenient towards comics standing beside a mike trying to make us laugh.....but not when you have Cook and Cleese standing in the wings. One of the later shows even brings on Emo Phillips!!! I didn't know he was English. You can have him. I would like some Brit to explain to me the fascination your country had with those damn puppets! They get to be the opening act on at least two of the 80's shows. I've despised puppets ever since the days of Kukla, Fran & Ollie. The Muppets were enough of a cultural embarrassment as it was, did we really need competition? And then there is the music. It first started as a short respite from the comedy. Then it grew more intrusive in later years.
Say, why is Rowan Atkinson performing comedy in the middle of a Live Aid concert?? Get him off! I wanna hear Sting.
But not all of the later Balls were terrible. I was genuinely surprised with the last Ball that was recorded for prosperity, the 1989 verson. They cut way back on the Rockers and brought back the Old Comedy Guard along with the new - Jennifer Saunders co-directs with Cleese. It's very entertaining throughout starting with a great twist on the opening skit, The Dead Parrot.
But when one speaks pure entertainment it is the early shows that one first thinks of. My favorite has always been the first - Pleasure At Her Majesty's. Everyone who's anyone shows up (besides Idle and Dudley Moore). The behind the scenes footage of these actors fraternizing with each other is fascinating. Some are old comrades while others are meeting their idols for the first time. Terry Jones and Alan Bennett are eavesdropped having an intimate conversation on the comedic differences between Python and the Fringe. Bennett confesses that he could never work with John Cleese because their comedic styles differ so. I kept waiting for Jones to blurt out, "Yes, he is quite a handful". In fact, it's funny hearing comments from many of the comedians expressing amazement over Python's massive popularity at that time.
Though it is essentially a documentary enough footage is devoted to the performances to get a real taste of what went on at those late night showings. But more times than not the longer sketches get cut away from (because of time limitations, I assume).The discs do feature extras of a few new skits from each of the shows but I was hoping the DVD would release the Elongated Director's Cut - featuring newly unearthed footage of filmed performances. In much the same way that the director of WOODSTOCK has released longer and longer yet versions of his film every 5 years. No such luck here.