OK take a deep breath and be prepared for the bizarre introduction - and then witness the bizarre pleasure that is Frankie Howerd singing the Beatles’ When I’m Sixty-Four from the odd odd odd Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band “movie”…
One of only two highlights from a seriously utter load of tripe; the other is Steve Martin singing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
Really.
German filmmaker Uwe Boll has bemoaned the lack of US cinemas picking up his 9/11 comedy Postal, which was due to screen in 1500 cinemas in the States this Friday but will see the light of day in around 13.
Of course let’s just have a look at the evidence: anyone with anything new to add to the 9/11 national security disaster is instantly silenced, so why did Boll think that his movie - apparently a Python-esque affair - would be treated any differently?
“They don’t like the political content. This is my personal feeling after trying for four or five weeks to get the distributors to book it. It’s a ruthless comedy and makes jokes about September 11 and all kinds of stuff, but at the same time I feel like it’s my best-received movie so far.”
“People were laughing their asses off,” said Boll, who will distribute the movie himself. “It works very well for the young male audience. It’s a Monty Python kind of comedy, and I think that kind of product is missing right now because of political correctness.”
Best of luck with the distribution - I expect this will be a much sought after movie in years to come, achieving cult status and finaly making back some money. Perhaps non-USA countries will appreciate it?
Best known for Little Britain (although their Rock Profiles series for UK Play was certainly as funny in places), Lucas and Walliams are apparently developing a new project with Working Title (Hot Fuzz) while simultaneously working with Dreamworks.
Shooting on the US version of Little Britain is apparently underway following the resolution of the Writer’s Strike in the USA. 10 new characters are apparently planned, as well as cultural revisions to some current favourites in the HBO-produced series.
Success in any of these projects would be significant; Lucas and Walliams are now able to command audiences around the world on a par with the Pythons in the late 1970s.
How did this happen? Is it really that bad?
No. Certainly no worse than Run, Fat Boy Run - but of course Simon Pegg is a doyenne of the reviewers, whereas Crook isn’t.
In fact it succeeds where so many other films fail, by both having a genuine comic premise and being suitably real and sensitive whenever needed.
It’s not Withnail & I - yet I suspect it will be a popular draw in 20 years time when it is re-released on digital video liquid or something.
3 and Out is the new comedy movie starring Mackenzie Crook (Gareth from The Office) about a man trying to get paid off from his job as a London tube driver by killing a third suicider in as many weeks.
Typically for “Whinge Britain” - the land in which everyone has to have something to complain about - tube drivers have taken exception to this. You can feel the tears welling up, can’t you?
So Crook and his costars have got together to defend the movie, and rightly so.
Drivers’ union Aslef has criticised the film for its “insulting” storyline.
Crook, who said he was “very proud” of the British-made movie, said he was “disappointed” people had been “jumping to conclusions”.
“They’re imagining we’ve made a very distasteful, bad-taste film, which we haven’t,” he said while promoting Three and Out in central London.
The movie also features Colm Meaney (ex of Star Trek, Far and Away) who said that the film was more about relationships than suicide.
“It’s about two guys who meet in the most bizarre circumstances, become friends and learn to care about each other.”
“I don’t think anyone involved in the film would argue that suicide is a laughing matter,” he told BBC News.
“But this film is not about suicide, and I think anyone who sees the film will see that clearly.”
London Underground allowed filming of the movie at stations, which also carry promotional posters for the film that is released on 25 April, and is directed by Jonathan Gershfield.
The tortured soul that was Tony Hancock was remarkably portrayed by Ken Stott in this weeks Curse of Comedy drama on BBC Four.
Tender moments between him and his aging best friends young wife were counterpointed with a stark insight into the dark side of this most tragic of comics, who would finally succumb to depression and die following an overdose in an Australian hotel room.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Tony Hancock - viewing this masterly executed drama has, however prompted me to consider reappraising his output.
A series that has had top comedy writers such as Douglas Adams and Steven Moffat writing for it, Doctor Who with all of its wondrous idiosyncrasies, would be perfect Carry On fodder. Third Doctor Who jon Pertwee meanwhile appeared in Carry On Cowboy and Carry On Screaming before taking the TARDIS controls in 1970.
Carry on Doctor Who was one of 10 unmade Carry On films. Location scouting had been carried out in London in 1990 but finances fell through
Imagine that!
Just two years prior to Carry On Columbus, one suspects that the finances were well to hand, but BBC permission wasn’t. In fact, Carry On regular Jim Dale was once linked to a Doctor Who movie - perhaps this was in fact that project?
You can read more on this item at Doctor Who webzine Kasterborous.com
We hear so much about the “tragic” comics – Tony Hancock, for instance – that the tragedy tends to overshadow the body of work that they leave behind.
Of course it makes a good story for the media to talk about lonely comics, holed up in hotel rooms, away from their families and friends, topping themselves.
Dwelling on these actions, however, enforces the tragedy, and increases the legend, which always results in us being unable to forget these characters.
Personally speaking I’m not a big fan of Tony Hancock’s; but there are others, such as Kenneth Williams, who might well have committed suicide, whose loss was a sad one for many British comedy fans.
Yet these types of figures don’t (I hope I’m not tempting fate here) seem to be with us anymore in the world of comedy, at least. There are obviously the mental health problems that Paul Merton suffered, and other comics have terrible times on the road, from the club circuit all the way to the top.
Is it that these days comedians are made of sterner stuff?
It’s silly, bawdy, in many cases badly and cheaply made, yet Carry On… is still wonderful, giving us some of the biggest stars in comedy history, launching careers, giving work to old actors who need it and generally being British.
Without Carry On…, we would have no Barbara Windsor. Kenneth Williams would never have become so well known, Sid James might have languished as a serious movie actor gangster type, Frankie Howerd might never have been Lurcio… the list is endless.
So it’s good to know that the old stars – mostly co-stars or stars of the later films these days – get together to celebrate anniversaries still, and Leslie Phillips, producer Peter Rogers, Valerie Leon, Frank Thornton, Dora Bryan, Anita Harris, Bill Maynard, Shirley Eaton and Fenella Fielding are all expected, along with Norman Hudis, the scriptwriter that gave us the first 6 films, which started with Carry On Sergeant, starring William Hartnell and ably assisted by Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques – staples of the later films.
Give me double entendre over Ricky Gervais any day of the week…
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