Britcom Goes To The Movies

We’re on a roll with the 70s sitcom spin-offs. Hot on the heels of George and Mildred and Mutiny On The Buses comes 1971’s Please Sir! This is, in no small part, down to our guest this week, Jason Hazeley, being the world’s loudest cheerleader for this film and its preceding sitcom. We didn’t even need to show him the list; he was straight in there for a personal favourite since his youth.

But never two to hold back, would Rob and Guy’s thoughts on Please Sir! align with Jason’s? Certainly, the ingredients were there for that not to be the case. Some dated attitudes, men and women in their 20s playing teenagers, a rushed release capitalising on the success of its TV predecessor, and our old favourite, a flimsy pretext to get the cast to a holiday camp.

Having said that, both Rob and Guy come to this fresh. Neither had ever seen as much as an episode of this once-beloved sitcom, but both were aware of the all-round entertainment chops of the cast. Not least Deryck Guyler, in whose washboarding hands anyone could feel at ease.

Join us as we delve into one of the last ITV sitcom spin-offs left to cover, which could well prove the best of the lot.

Please Sir! SE1 Ep1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8PVA-TDeYwDeryck Guyler on the Washboardhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKHTcC-I8k&list=RDGWKHTcC-I8k&start_radio=1Derrick Geyler Scotch Tape Adshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL3mpzAvHFAMichael Winner Esure Adhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efl5pFTFnBUVictor Lewis Smith pranks Michael Winnerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTGc1PKVrH0Please Sir! (1971) Trailerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhhiqg0aKOMPlease Sir! Full Filmhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa0CL4bhlH8
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After some time away, we’re ready to dip back into the On The Busesverse. Our resident expert in all things Butler and Blakey, John Rain, returns to discuss the Empire Strikes Back of the trilogy. It’s time for Mutiny on the Buses. A mere year after the first film and backed by a (slightly) bigger budget, none of which the actors saw, the Ronalds, Chesney, and Wolf had forged a screenplay with much more of a semblance of a plot and some new characters to boot.

There’s all the usual fun (at Blakey’s expense mainly) as well as naked protest, Arthur joining the depot, a huge fire extinguisher leak, and fun and frolics in Windsor Safari Park in which Reg Varney shits himself with a chimp on his lap.

Great to welcome back John Rain and his unique brand of analysis and even tee up the promise of Holiday on the Buses to come…but one instalment at a time, eh?

Morris Bright’s Elstree On The Buses Documentary

https://youtu.be/luKxuhVxNGQ?si=pZduxvq7pY1CLk5c

Mutiny on the Buses Filming Locations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9dv6flrmW4

Mutiny on the Buses Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LQbflW--q4

Mutiny on the Buses - Radio Control

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECzCL97E28w
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Time to get our teeth into another straight spin-off. It’s a significant one at that. The final of the ITC/EMI/Hammer spin-offs of ITV sitcoms, which many credit as the death of the genre altogether. That’s right, it is the 1980 big-screen adaptation of the long-running sitcom that in itself was a spin-off. George and Mildred.

Long-time listeners will know that in the first series, Rob and Guy were pleasantly surprised by Man About the House...if not the movie, the sitcom itself. So there’s every chance that George and Mildred could follow suit. As we always end up repeating, this show is all about expectations, which would obviously be on the floor with the reputation this film has preceding it. So things could only look up, right?….RIGHT?!

Joining us to find out is comedian Alison Dennison, so committed to the G&M cause she’d already watched every episode ever made in preparation. With attention to detail like this, episode two of series six would prove to be one of the best we’d ever made. A tale of comedy and tragedy, life and death, both metaphorical and literal. Join us for George and Mildred!

George and Mildred Opening theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ygWHpvoFE

Best of George Roper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2YQtqXTktY

George and Mildred Last Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE-3utPaAdU

George and Mildred Movie in Full

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAaNz1DW1DY
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No sooner are we gone than we’re back with a brand-new series. In series six, we’ll pass 60 films viewed and reviewed for a project that still has plenty of legs in it yet! But we begin this brand new series by embracing the familiar. Tom Salinsky returns to BritCom Goes to the Movies for the first time since episode six, and not only does he join for a film all three of us have seen before, all three of us love it!

The film in question is the 1955 classic Ealing comedy, The Ladykillers, a real contender for the top ten of our table and beyond. But how will we link this to the small screen, I hear you ask? The answer is…we won’t. We’re going down the Sellers route. As this was one of Peter Sellers’ earliest big-screen appearances, we’ve decided to match it with one of his earliest radio appearances and the rather forgotten, if not prolific, Ray’s A Laugh from the 1950s BBC radio.

Ray’s A Laugh was exactly the kind of broadcast variety/comedy that Sellers and co would go on to blow out of the water with the pioneering Goon Show. While a fair few episodes still exist on BBC Sounds and YouTube, you can hear the star quality of Sellers rising above what was already a pretty tired format in the early 1950s.

Then, of course, the film itself. Widely considered not just the best Ealing Comedy (and the three of us will offer some of our other favourites) but also one of the greatest British comedy films of all time. A heist/farce with some career-best performances, not least from Alec Guinness, Katie Johnson, and many of the supporting cast. But how will it hold up against the top echelons of the BritCom Goes to the Movies league? Tom has already had one table-topper with The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, but could he have another? Tune in and find out.

Ray’s a Laugh - 1954

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBQ7YrPNx9A

Ray’s a Laugh - 1949

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s77ZhWxf9JU

The Ladykillers - Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDVMD8dktKI

The Ladykillers - Such Pretty Windows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuIvga5t_Hc

Alec Guinness as George Smiley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCm3IrscqH8

Tom Salinsky - All British Comedy Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kFktzEvNuI&list=PLmJSdGQRAwRyQjtWhrtFtDpOLo6iaRmpX
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Happy St David’s Day! To mark the occasion here at Britcom Goes to the Movies, we are celebrating one of Wales’ most beloved comedy sons, Rob Brydon, and…actually, it is just a ham-fisted way of doing a round table episode on Cruise of the Gods!

This TV film was written by Tim Firth (remember him from our Blackball episode?) and contained not only some Britcom heavyweights of the time, but also ground zero for the careers of some of the most controversial Britcommers of the 21st century, including Russell Brand, David Walliams, and James Corden.

Despite all that, its stars Brydon and Steve Coogan, along with its premise of forgotten 80s kids sci-fi being celebrated by nerds on a cruise, made it a firm favourite for Rob and Guy, and they welcomed back returning guests Steve Dunne and Stuart Laws, neither of whom had seen the film before. So how would this have aged, and would our guests immediately be regretting their decision? Only one way to find out. Join us in Leicester, 1982…

Cruise of the Gods - Full Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uPsHGPKnWk

Children of Castor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPOMIHJHPks

Sherlock Holmes in Miami

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj8A3OEicBg

Human Remains - Swingers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVAqWMGyqH0

Marion and Geoff - Student House

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5V60QG0mJ0

You’re a Star - New Faces theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMfzr2Bufkk
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