Tuesday
22Dec2009
Blog No. 27
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 11:33AM Firstly, no I’ve never lived in Holyhead Road, the only place I ever lived in Liverpool was Valley Road, Liverpool 4. I went there a while ago and every house in the street has been meticulously done up apart from our old house.
Secondly, Dean, I would like to see that school book yes, you could send it to my agent Cassie Mayer Ltd , Old Garden House, The Lanterns, Bridge Lane, London, SW11 3AD, if you don’t mind. I’ll send some sort of signed thing back if you do. I didn’t know my mother had gone around giving my stuff away. Or am I being old fashioned do you want to send it electronically somehow?
Now favourite sketch, though as a character I love Bobby the best, I have to agree with those who say they like the Bishop Sketch. They used to have this thing at TV centre called the “Ring Main” which was TV monitors in all the corridors and when we were recording that sketch I had to keep leaving the studio because I was laughing so much and they’d switched the ring main over to our studio so everybody in the BBC too was crying with laughter too, over that sketch as we were making it.
I also love the way it was written. David Renwick and Andy Marshall used to come round to our house once a week for writing meetings. At the time we had this ferocious tom cat called Dexter who was the love of my wife’s life.
So while we were writing Dexter would wake up and walk to the window and sit staring at it, so I’d say “Do you want to go out, do you want to go out the window?” Then he’d turn and walk back to his basket but then a few minutes later the whole thing would start again. And all that David and Andrew did was change a cat to a bishop which was brilliant.
I’m sorry the wooden head sketch was scary but there’s an interesting reason why its in the show twice. I haven’t seen it recently but I think the boy has been decapitated by a charging elephant and on the day it was due to be transmitted for the first time a woman in Kenya on holiday was decapitated by a charging elephant so we had to quickly take the sketch out and put it into another, later, show. Obviously what they’ve done for the DVD is to put it back in its orignial show and leave it in the one it was actually TXed in too.
It would be good if all my TV shows were for sale. The Stuff ones sell pretty well. I guess if you write/email to BBC worldwide they may decide to put the “All New...” on sale on DVD. I bumped into Edgar Wright a while ago and he said he’d love to do a director’s commentary for “Merry-go-round.” If they put that out on DVD. (That was weird as I typed Edgar Wright, he came on the radio, doing a trail for 6 Music. Spooky.)
Finally, my memoir is going very well thank you, out in September, and I'll be doing a live tour of readings but this first volume only goes up to when I’m seventeen and there won’t be any photos because I’m the sort of pompous ass who thinks he’s writing literature which doesn’t have photos, but I must get Tony’s book it sounds really interesting.
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Reader Comments (14)
Yes, would love to see "The All New..." on DVD. Stuff is great but it feels a bit like a proto-type to some of your better shows. Merry Xmas Big Man!
Thanks for answering my inane questions. Hey, a new campaign for all the folks on the fan page to bombard BBC with requests, that's an idea! I have All New ... & Merry Go Round already (Sorry, can't divulge my sources! ). Met Edgar Wright a couple of times, all I could seem to talk to him about was me having a bad hair day. Cool Jay, smooth.
I got Tony Allen's book when I went to Roehampton uni. It was part of a stand-up comedy course being run by Kevin McCarron. Either do a stand-up act at his club in Richmond or a 5,000 word essay. Took the essay. Chicken. A really good read. If you can't find it, I can give you my copy. Highlighted sections and all.
And last thing, A very happy Christmas and New Year to Alexei, your wife & family, as well as all the regulars on this board :) My new years resolution is not to clog up this comments section so much. I promise.
xx
Don't be silly, Jay! We love your comments. Keep them clogged up and clarty thats what I say.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!
No photos? I was so looking forward to seeing the angry man in a child's toy hat.
Good to see BBC repeating Great Railway Journeys at the moment.
Thu 31 Dec 2009 09:00am Aleppo to Aqaba
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074pk9
Merry Xmas, Alexei, lots of nice meals with good friends to you.
I hope you will include photos in your bio after all, I'm with Jake on that one.
Alexei,
Easily the funniest man last 30 years,Hoped to possibly see you at a Rovers owners club meet in the lake district early this year.some of the guys there said they knew you...
thanks Leon :) loved your turn in Marple Alexei! Open question folks, is it very childish to feel disappointed when you read that one of your childhood heroes is in panto? Read that Adrian Edmondson was in Peter Pan and couldn't help feeling let down....stupid uh?!?!?
b-b-b-b-bishop!
xx
Well, well, aren't you some clever half-bahrsted, got yer own little soapbox site to spew your degenerate filth to the masses.....we'll fix you....that's right, the FunFascists are heading for your back door (don't want to be TOO obvious) right now and we WILL put a STOP to ALL this foolishness.
But seriously folks (God, how I HATE that phrase....but it does seem to work) sitting here in East Ontario Canada and counting it a privilege to drop you a thought or two. The first thing I'd like to thank-you for is the way your tune "Didn'cha Kill My Brudder" helped me to make my brother's funeral such a good time. After the old folks had drifted off, a group of my brother's friends and I started to riff on what a right shit he could be sometimes, and a buddy of mine pulled out the video of your song from my collection, threw it in the machine, cranked the volume, lit the spliffs, and proceeded to goof on the title for about an hour, afterwhich everyone was so deliriously inspired that we marched outside and proceeded to flip over my uncle's car.....ahh, GOOD TIMES!!!
The second thing is.....well, I can't think what it was, but it was probably something about YOU never stopping what you are doing to put a smile....on the dial.. It's a little difficult to follow what you are up to on this side of the pond, so I suuggest that you drop everything and move immediately to Canada....the weather's lousy, the women are cold too, the beer is weak and the bud is the BEST....PERFECT inspiration for those of the comedic persuasion.Keep on chooglin'!
Alexei, I wanted to give one of your books to a friend but there is no shop in Amsterdam that still stocks any of your titles, including Waterstone and American Bookstore. I know I keep going on about you & Amsterdam but still...only 1 hour by plane and you're only known for the Young Ones. That's wrong.
Hi Alexei, I really (really!) enjoyed reading about your writing process. It's very exciting imagining David Renwick, Andy Marshall and yourself sitting around and writing sketches that are still talked about 20 years later. So thanks for that. It made me feel a bit giddy.
Also - I know you said you wouldn't be including pictures in your memoir but I was wondering if you'd be including any of the illustrations you did before you got into comedy?
I hope so, some illustrations would be cool :) Evelyn, can I ask, are you Dutch or a Brit living in Amsterdam? What sort of comedy do the Dutch usually enjoy? My all-time sporting hero comes from Den Hague (apologies if that's spelt wrong!) - yes, darts is a sport!
xx
Hi Jay, I'm Dutch and living in Amsterdam. Dutch people like English comedy a lot, we get all the BBC-shows and some others. The Belgians are better though, Flemish television show all the good English comedy series, and before we do. Both Dutch and Flemish tv use subtitles for all foreign programmes so we don't suffer from badly dubbed versions, like the Wallonians or the Germans. (Dutch comedy is popular too, but you wouldn't recognize any of them. Hans Teeuwen is my favorite and he did perform in England last year or so)
Thanks Evelyn, I'm glad that British comedy is so well undestood in the Netherlands. :) it got me wondering how our British humour translates across Europe and the world. I have to admit I don't think i've heard of any Dutch or German comedians. Omid Djalili has a joke that Iran has one comedian, which is technically three more than Germany, which taps into a view over here that Germans aren't funny, but i think it's more what is lost in translation and is culturally different. I'll have to seek some out online, I hope they've subs as well!
And dubbing would show the Young Ones and Alexei in a whole new light, so much of the grit and angst in the performances would be lost I suppose.
:) xx
Many a year ago (perhaps 10 years) I was on Holiday with my kids at Sea Acres holiday park on the Lizard in Cornwall. My daugter was 2 years old, and every day at 4pm we went to the kids club. The puppet show for this club was hosted and performed by an exact replica of Bobby. I have to say that I have rarely laughed so much and would give anything to see that puppet show again. Bobby still holds a deep place in my heart, Thanks.