Messy television & cinema moments

[ARS452]

Having seen the Emmerdale clips I am really frustrated I didn't get into that soap - if I only I knew what I was missing. But you may recall some of these?

Graham Garden falling into 'black pudding & micro chip mix' , Goodies-Ecky Thump.
Michael Crawford - barrell of tar -Some Mothers Do Ave 'Em.
A brilliant Laurel & Hardy - golf & mud.
Bernard Cribbins getting creamed in Fawlty Towers (Hotel Inspectors).
Kenneth Connor in Carry on Cabbing - infiltrating glamcabs and getting into a barrell of water.
Carry on Abroad - scottish geezer falling into the cement from his balcony.

There must be loads more.

A x

[BillShipton]

There are thousands more and for a while there was a Wet & Messy Guide produced by a guy in Swtizerland that listed a good deal of them. I don't know if he still sells it. It was a great work. He should put it on the net!

Meanwhile, of course, the WAMTEC clip0tapes which we can order for you have a vast selection from past and present.

[RexBeans]

Four words:

Tommy
Ann-Margret
Beans

(or is that three words? stupid hyphenated names)

[BillShipton]

Four words:

Tommy
Ann-Margret
Beans

(or is that three words? stupid hyphenated names)

That's the other thing I like about this forum, the comedy pedantry. Well spotted. And you spelt Ann-Margret's name right.

[T-34]

Best has got to be the end of 102 dalmations (takes a real man to watch that)

[matt2matt2002]

Charlie Drake did a lot of good work.
Hello my darlings was his catch phrase I believe.

[BillShipton]

Certainly was Charie Drake's catchphrase and he was a very inventive slapstick routine writer/performer (many are still being done in pantos around the country).

[matt2matt2002]

Did he really knock himself out on live TV?
I vaguely remember seeing a show where the baddies / heavies threw him through a book case - and he didn't get up.
(sorry to digress from the thread theme)
I also remember a skit where the was talking and about to say a word and the lady said - 'Don't mention that word' and then proceeded to smash eggs onto his head. Charlie then said 'You mean......' Cue next mess; etc.
I well remember stockings or tights being wound around his head.
Good ol' days - black and white I recall?
Mind you, I'm so old, I can remember radio in black and white!
And did the phrase ' A right Charlie' come from Mr. Drake?

[Lizzie_Claymore]

Did he really knock himself out on live TV?
I vaguely remember seeing a show where the baddies / heavies threw him through a book case - and he didn't get up.

Yes he did, though I can't recall whether it was a bookcase. I had a notion that they hit him with a plank.

I well remember stockings or tights being wound around his head.

Who was in them at the time?!

Good ol' days - black and white I recall?

Yes 405 line on band 1 or 3 VHF (depending on your location)!

Mind you, I'm so old, I can remember radio in black and white!

And steam power!?

And did the phrase ' A right Charlie' come from Mr. Drake?

That's an interesting one. I suspect it predates him. Possible Charlie Cairoli but more likely to be Charlie Chaplin, I suspect.

[BillShipton]

Hey, a chance to pontificate and show my on our forum....again.

Charlie Drake did knock himself out on live TV. He was pulled through a 'comedy' bookcase and then meant to be thrown through the window. Unfortunately, the props people thought the bookcase looked a bit rickety and glued it together rather too sturdily and it knocked him unconscious. Assuming it was part of the act the 'baddies' then tried to throw him out the window (where he was supposed to then come back and deliver the punchline) but being a dead weight, had some difficulty. After a great struggle, they got him out but of course he didn't deliver the expected line cos he was unconscious. After a long pause, the BBC went back to continuity. To make matters worse, as he was bundled out the window he hit his head on a stage weight so wound up in hospital for a long time and sued the BBC for a considerable amount. Some say that Mr Drake was so disliked by his colleagues that the stiffening of the bookcase was deliberate. This must have been in the very early 1960s so defiinitely black and white. I can actually remember it happening as a child (and have seen it since) when it was quite traumatic. You don't expect your clowns to not get up!

Don't know about the stockings but the egg routine is very much in his style. He was certainly one of us!

The phrase - a right Charlie - is actually cockney rhyming slang. It comes from Charlie Astead a famous criminal and is rhyming slang for bastard. One of many innocent insults used on children's TV that is actually far ruder. A Berk for instance is also from rhyming slang namely Berkley Hunt - cunt. Charlie Cairoli did have a TV series called Right Charlie though as Clown Julie will testify.

Okay and in the words of BBC continuity, now I am happy to say we can go back to great slapstick TV and film moments...

[eden]

I seriously think someone should compile, if not an archive a decent list of wam in film and tv. It'd be a good addition to the splosh site, though a ridiculously long and thankless job!

[Etonman]

I had an elderly relative, sadly long departed, who worked on the technical side of TV in the 50's and early 60's, and remember him reminising about the problems of live B&W tv....no video recorders or dozens of takes to get things right. He said it was a wonder that anything ever got broadcast successfully!

All studio work was live, except that, if a prog had an outdoor scene this would be prefilmed, usually on the cheapest 16mm film, complete with dust and scratches. Viewers could easily notice the switch-over and back from the live show.
Usually one Saturday football match would be shown live, any others would be actually filmed with newreel-type cameras and the spools of film rushed back to the studio to be developed and edited in time to show later in the day. Most of the film was apparently then binned, so much interesting stuff was lost.

Sorry, bit OT but interesting, wish I'd asked him a lot more about his memories.

[BillShipton]

I seriously think someone should compile, if not an archive a decent list of wam in film and tv. It'd be a good addition to the splosh site, though a ridiculously long and thankless job!

As I said before, somebody did, but I don't know what happened to it. I shall try and find out. It would make the perfect internet site.

[Lizzie_Claymore]

I had an elderly relative, sadly long departed, who worked on the technical side of TV in the 50's and early 60's, and remember him reminising about the problems of live B&W tv....no video recorders or dozens of takes to get things right. He said it was a wonder that anything ever got broadcast successfully!

All studio work was live, except that, if a prog had an outdoor scene this would be prefilmed, usually on the cheapest 16mm film, complete with dust and scratches. Viewers could easily notice the switch-over and back from the live show.
Usually one Saturday football match would be shown live, any others would be actually filmed with newreel-type cameras and the spools of film rushed back to the studio to be developed and edited in time to show later in the day. Most of the film was apparently then binned, so much interesting stuff was lost.

Sorry, bit OT but interesting, wish I'd asked him a lot more about his memories.

Believe it or not, film was still quite a common medium for 'inserts' into live programmes until about 15 years ago! ENG (electronic news gathering), or PSC (portable single camera) as the Beeb had to term it to avoid the union problems, only really took over in the early 90s.

Many non-live programmes recording in front of studio audiences for the indoor scenes often used 16mm for the outdoor segments too, until quite late - probably about the mid 90s. The changeover was, indeed, highly noticeable as the characteristic response curve of the film (to say nothing of scratches and blotches) was always a dead giveaway since the gamma and colours would always be totally unlike that which can be achieved with video. (This is rarely understood by people now seeking to recreate a 'film look', who think that just bunging some scratches and blotches on the video is all you need.) If I recall correctly, film inserts for TV had to be shot either on special stock or processed especially for the telecine operation.

[54321plop]

I can just about remember the filmed segments on crackerjack "CRACKERJACK" involving peter glaze and co in the 70's although i remember them being slapstick based i cant actually remember any of the scenes. Any memories of these Bill