off topic. R I P Mrs. Slocomb

[BillShipton]

I don't believe in Golden Ages of anything to be honest. I love old comedy but that includes every era from Laurel & Hardy to the present day. As for modern comedy, there is SOME very good stuff and I certainly wouldn't moan about it. I think one of the reasons I like older comedy is the simplicity of it and that I associate it with times when life was less complicated. Saturday night was sitting watching telly with my Mum and Dad, not dressing up to go out and worrying about spending too much (again). The humour itself was simpler too. You don't get many slapstick gags these days and (as a former Two Ronnies writer) I have to say you don't get mainstream sketch shows with that level of wit much now either.

Can I also put in a word for Light Entertainment? Money these days doesn't stretch to big TV shows with singers, dancers, comics, sketches, yet in the 70s there were dozens. It was always fun watching a mainstream singer such as Lulu trying to do a comedy sketch with somebody like Frankie Howerd. I admit, even though it sounds as gay as fuck, that I love that sort of show - it's what I was brought up with. Perhaps a SPLOSH! version of variety would work but I doubt it. In our Youtube, three-minute, one-gag-and-out world, I doubt anyone would enjoy it except me. Mind you, thanks to youtube, some great classic sketches (Carol Burnett & Julie Andrews slapstick sketch par exemple) can be viewed in all their glory. If you look at the pace of that, the excellence of the timing, acting and facial expressions, it's superb, but would never make a popular download (no fucking blow-jobs for a start!).

Off to the pub now to spend too much...

[HenryWilcox]

There is another classic comedy star who is still alive. I don't think he was in carry on going off biographies but is of the same era and of the same ilk.

Sir Norman Wisdom.

Check out 'One Hit Wonderland' by Tony Hawks, it's all about his journey to get a top ten hit somewhere in Europe, and ends up including Norman Wisdom...
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/minisites/1hitwonderland/

Henry

[ClownJulie]

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