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RICHARD "BEANS! Beans! Chunky chicken!" O'SULLIVAN gets bored of lying ABOUT THE HOUSE and opens a restaurant with TESSA WYATT. Plagued by endless sitcom problems: double-bookings, triple-bookings, double-bookings which become triple-bookings, double-bookings by comical stereotypes (Geordies, labourers, stockbrokers), cancelled double-bookings meaning the restaurant is totally empty (a popular one, this, as it meant they didn't have to employ any extra cast), double-bookings caused by Tessa's meddling dad TONY BRITTON, and double-bookings who turn up late/early/when Richard and Tessa are having a sneaky tumble. Unaided and non-assisted by one-armed (there's the gag, right there) washer-upper and Irish ex-con Albert.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."THEME TUNE WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY RICHARD O'SULLIVAN"
ENDLESS FRENCH cartoon, often found filling in summer weekday mornings, about a small girl and a group of wrecked old robots building a train, and continually running from Cylon-like robots confusingly called "Rotos" in the titles but (due to hasty dubbing) "Wrigglers" on the soundtrack. Many moral lessons taught along the way, no doubt, but all equally forgettable.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."NEVER FORGET, YOU ARE THE LOWEST OF THE LOW!"
THE ROBOTIC STOOGES
(1970s)
HANNA-BARBERA
ALARMING SPIN-OFF of The Three Stooges, featuring giant robots that had the heads of the old black and white slapstickers, plus INSPECTOR GADGET-style protruberances. Even by H-B standards, a hopelessly hare-brained idea.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."NYUK! NYUK! NYUK!"
ROCK FOLLIES/ROCK FOLLIES OF '77
(1976-77)
THAMES
TONSIL-TRILLING "EXPOSE" of the music business following the fortunes of girl band (sorry, it's the 70s - "group") The Little Ladies. Original line-up: RULA "WATERMAN" LENSKA, JULIE "ARGENTINA" COVINGTON and CHARLOTTE "WHO?" CORNWELL. Weird fantasy sequences spiced things up, while dopey manager Derek Huggin (EMLYN PRICE) did his best to hinder not help. Sequel saw SUE JONES-DAVIES join the band.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...TUNES PENNED BY ROXY MUSIC GUITAR MAN ANDY MACKAY
SO HOW many young careers of the time staked their hopes on this thrown-together educational band? How many would-be drummers followed the Octapad-enhanced antics of Geoff the drummer? How many hundred-per-cent 80s casualties swooned over The Speccy Bank Of Keyboards Bloke? How many people even remember the bass player? But most important of all, how many nascent axe-heroes were shown the ropes by girl power goddess, DEIRDRE CARTWRIGHT? Well, maybe some. All right, none. But she could strike a mean pose with a Synth-Axe.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."NOW, YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT WHILE DEIRDRE WAS PLAYING A D MAJOR SEVENTH, I WAS ACTUALLY PLAYING AN AUGMENTED A..."
ROCK WITH LAUGHTER
(1980)
YORKSHIRE
OR SIT IN sour-faced sod-it silence. Short-lived revue-type palaver rounding up, Spanish Inquisition-like, "top" Northern cabaret talent, shoving them in front of a rolling camera, then salvaging "best bits" for public airing. Which included PHIL "RUBBER FACED RIBALDRY" COOL, BOBBY SOX, THE IVY LEAGUE and THE DON JUANS.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...DON'T CALL US. EVER.
ROCKET ROBIN HOOD
(1970s)
NO IDEA
FUTURISTIC CARTOON CAPERS relocating the Robin Hood legend lock, stock and barrel into some bizarre world where everyone wears jet packs and eats, no doubt, roast hog on a spit-flavoured pills.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."BAND OF BROTHERS/MARCHING TOGETHER/HEADS HELD HIGH/IN ALL KINDS OF WEATHER/THERE'S A PLACE TO MEET/AT THE SIDE OF THE STREET/FOR ROCKET ROBIN HOOD"
THE ROCKFORD FILES
(1975-82)
UNIVERSAL
RIIIIING! RIIIIING! "Hello, this is Jim Rockford, at the tone leave your name and message - I'll get back to ya." Humorous answerphone gag and worldstopping Mike Post theme over stills kicked off this JAMES GARNER fest in fine style. Rockford was an ex-con, living in a "trailer" in on an LA beach, taking on cases others had dropped. Sarky-toothed solipisms came from pal and ostensible rival DS Becker (JOE SANTOS). ISAAC HAYES turned up once or twice, and the last series featured TOM SELLECK as a proto-Magnum private eye.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...200 DOLLARS A DAY - PLUS EXPENSES
ROCKLIFFE'S BABIES
(1987-88)
BBC1
BILL-BAITING FRIDAY night coppering, focusing on seven wet-behind-the-ears trainee detectives, taken "under the wing" of textbook world weary hard-but-fair copper Rockliffe, played by moody IAN HOGG in a maroon anorak. Chanty nursery rhyme type theme song, with lots of tower blocks in the title sequence to denote grit, before Rockliffe and charges stood moodily in front of a van with show's title written on the side in the grime as a blue light flashed. Practically every episode set on some council estate or other, and plenty of hot-headed mistakes from the decidedly rash Babies to raise the ire of the beleaguered Rockliffe. At least one McGann brother well to the fore, but stars of the show were reformed crim Steve Hood (BRETT FANCY), charismatic Welsh lardbucket Paul "Get us a pork pie,will you, and a sachet of brown sauce" Georgiou (MARTYN ELLIS), and not-at-all-unattractive Karen Walsh (SUSANNA SHELLING), forced on one occasion to pose as a nurse in order to catch a rapist: "Are those tights or stockings?" demanded a lustful McGann, and indeed the entire fourth form. Slightly annoying stylistic gimmick of constantly circling cameras detracted slightly from the action.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...ROTTEN FOLLOW-UP, ROCKLIFFE'S FOLLY, WAS EXCEPTIONALLY WELL-TITLED IF NOTHING ELSE
THE ROCK'N'ROLL YEARS
(1985-87, 1994)
BBC
PREEMPTING THE keenness of all VT editors to stick a pumping soundtrack of the day behind anything recorded, albeit in a more measured fashion, the changing face of pop was measured out in newsreel footage that eventually covered 1956 to 1980 inclusive. Trevor Dann's idea, apparently. Inspired by the baby boomers and inventing the TV easy uncritical nostalgia boom, so has a lot to answer for.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...VIDIPRINTER-ESQUE FONT WOULD SCROLL ACROSS THE SCREEN TO TELL YOU THE LATEST ON THE YOM KIPPUR WAR WHILE EYE LEVEL PLAYED IN THE BACKGROUND
ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE
(1959-63)
JAY WARD
PREVIOUSLY JUST "Rocky and his Friends", this original wisecracking Ward cartoonery lined up helmeted, jet-packed squirrel of the title with Bullwinkle, the dumb slacker moose of legend and shish-kebab swordsman of note. Other characters included Boris Badenov, Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties, and Professor Peabody. A lot of punchlines written up in big letters on the screen, a neat side-effect of animating for crap quality '60s US TV sets.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...NOT FORGETTING ROGER RAMJET (SEE BELOW), TOM SLICK, SUPER CHICKEN...
GROTTY KIDS grimeathon serial, based on "A Pair Of Jesus Boots" (sandal-related kids' novel) set in Liverpool. Eponymous leather-jacketed hero (MICHAEL MILLS) lives in a boarded up building with a dysfunctional family (brother Joey in prison) and ne'er-do-well mates. When not busy dreaming about becoming a professional footballer ((c) every child's drama of the 1970s), our kid runs mouthy street gang The Cats, peopled by Nabber (JAMES HOEY), Chan (PETER CHAN) and wheelchair bound Billy who always rode a trike and kept watch. Rival gang peopled by Chick and Spadge. Climax comes when Rocky gets kidnapped by mob in grey Jaguar and gets framed for vandalising a gym, who left one of Rocky's new gloves (a Xmas present) at the scene. Typical Scouse hard-done-by, angry-letters-to-Radio-Times, heart-in-right-place fare.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."I NEED SOME CASH, MAM. I NEED IT ALL"...
ROD, JANE AND FREDDY
(1982)
THAMES
TOUSLED RAINBOW trio tootlers spin off with a quickly-forgotten "musical play" set around some misjudged theme - eg "Wobblyworld" where everyone was made of jelly. The kids wouldn't have it.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."WE WOBBLE-OBBLE-OBBLE ALONG/WITH OUR WOBBLE-OBBLE-OBBLY SONG..." *CLICK*
SOMETHING AMUSING about that name, hmmm? Jut-jawed helmeted pilot Ramjet and his juvenile cohorts, the American Eagles, embark on familiar sarcastic adventures featuring proton energy pills and punchlines spelt out on the screen a la ROCKY above: Thanks, Ramjet. I'd have handled them myself but my religion forbids it. I'M A DEVOUT COWARD. And so on.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...FLEW THROUGH IN AND OUTER SPACE/NOT TO JOIN 'EM, BUT TO BEAT 'EM...
ROLAND RAT - THE SERIES
(1985-86)
BBC
RAPPING RODENT jumps previously sinking ship of TV-am for primetime Saturday evening slottage just before DR WHO. And bombs, spectacularly. Lousy "rogue channel" format consisted of a collection of "television programmes" (in reality just a sequence of, mostly very brief, sketches) brought together under the banner of a fictional television schedule. Shortest skits transmitted under the guise of fake commercials, and sequences such as a spoof advert for dandruff ending with Roland's sidekick Kevin the Gerbil wearing a brown paper bag on his head, at least had brevity on their side. Also present: Roland's decrepit parents Iris and Freddy; an inevitable spoof of the genuinely-everyone's-talking-about-it EASTENDERS, and JAMES SAXON as hapless lickspittle manager Darcey de Farcey. Wretched Stock Aitken Waterman acid house-esque title music ('I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I'm back!') didn't help, nor did the endless guest appearances by COLIN BAKER. Other wholly non-obvious guests included TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR, SAMANTHA FOX and BRIAN BLESSED, while the likes of Curiosity Killed the Cat and Nik Kershaw plied their musical wares. Iggy Pop turning up on the Christmas special must have been a bonechilling sight for the youngest viewers. "Don't stop, we're having fun," lied the signature tune.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."OH GET ON WITH IT. CURRRRR!"
ROLF HARRIS CARTOON TIME
(1984-88)
BBC
NEVER ROLF HARRIS'S CARTOON TIME, oh no. From behind giant easel in customised "studio", our man wielded fat marker pens in attempt to recreate genius of Merrie Melodies and such like. Trademark under-the-breath "om pom pom" to the fore. Montage would slowly build up of different characters from each cartoon, accompanied by relevant animal sound effects to underscore emotions ("And there's poor old Sylvester, miiiiiaaaooowww, and I've drawn him next to old Daffy, not looking too happy about it I'd say!"). Signature 'Rolfaroo' would be added to bottom left hand corner upon completion: faintly unsettling hybrid of Rolf's head on a kangaroo's arse. Masterworks not available for purchase; donated to children's wards instead. "Catch yer later!"
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."'AH SAY, AH SAY, BOOOY'...I WISH I COULD DO HIS VOICE!"
ROLF ON SATURDAY...OK!
(1970s)
BBC
FALLING BETWEEN old school, black-and-white HEY PRESTO - IT'S ROLF! and the above came this, the inspiration for many a tenth-rate Harris imitation. Songs, crazy aboriginal instruments, Jake the Peg, guests, precocious kids and the climactic outback-story-while-he-paints: you really couldn't go wrong on a Saturday teatime. "Rolf's here, whadda ya say? Ready to go?" "OK!!!"
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."I SUPPOSE WE'D BETTER PAINT A LOINCLOTH ON 'IM, LIKE THAT...YOMPO-POM...SPLONGE!"
ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN
(1985)
CENTRAL
UNASSUMING NAIF waif LIZA GODDARD dwells in unassuming English sitcom village with dad RICHARD VERNON and goes about her unassuming business until brushing up against one of the most unconvincing "rock stars" ever, even for the '80s, NIGEL PLANER. With whom she promptly falls in love. A Marks and Gran affair. Definitely not an ode to joy.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...DER-DER-DER DUMMMMM
WAIT! IT gets worse, for here's ARTHUR MULLARD and QUEENIE WATTS living it up in a down-at-heel caravan park. JAMES "Private Walker" BECK lived next door for the first series, before regenerating into JONATHAN CECIL and GAY SOPER. Spun off horribly into YUS, MY DEAR.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...JOKES TO LET
ROMPER ROOM
(1960s-1980s)
INTERNATIONAL SYNDICATION
PRODUCED IN both "national" and "regional opt-out" flavours, this pre-school programme cropped up everywhere from Norwich to Nebraska, customised to suit the locale. Consistent across the board, however, was the arts/crafts premise. Toddlers, with parents looking on, would be supervised by a friendly adult host teaching them a variety of educational pastimes in the PLAY SCHOOL mould (games of 'Simple Simon', musical chairs and the like). After an hour of this, the presenter would hold up a 'Magic Mirror' and address the viewers through the TV screen, in truth reeling off a list of popular children's names of the day to create the false "fourth wall" illusion. Co-hosts would invariably be two cat mascots and a large, costume bumblebee (rather cynically marketed during the advert break as cuddly toys).
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."I CAN SEE JOHNATHAN AND BILLY, SAMMI AND SARAH, ALAN AND JO..."
ROOBARB
(1974-75)
BOB GODFREY FILMS/BBC
THAT WOBBLY felt-tip animation technique patented by Godfrey and co. was called "boiling", and gave a distinctive look to NOAH AND NELLY and the Briers-narrated adventures of this acid-green nasal dog, forever trying to better himself to constant derision of garden birds, worms and hot pink next-door cat, Custard. Famous episodes involved Norse gods getting Roobarb to shut up, and abortive attempt at becoming a bird revealing one fatal flaw - birds had beaks, and Roobarb had a spike. And a beak is a beak, and a spike is a spike. Created by one Grange Calverley. Scuzzy guitar theme predated punk by at least a year.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."'I COULD DO THAT', THOUGHT ROOBARB..."
ROOM AT THE BOTTOM
(1986-88)
YORKSHIRE
UPDATED 1960S sitcommery painting the nefarious world of the media in big, fuck-off-obvious strokes. JAMES BOLAM was your ailing TV producer to KEITH "AMY!" BARRON's domineering studio head with RICHARD WILSON and DEBORAH GRANT looking in and muttering along the way. Shoved out in the SPITTING IMAGE Sunday 10pm slot.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...WRITTEN BY RAY "STEPCOCK" GALTON AND JOHN "BEDSIT" ANTROBUS
ROOSTER
(1982)
OH MY GOD, IT'S THE GLEN TO THE A. TO THE LARSON. AGAIN.
SHAMELESS STUFF from our favourite tatmeister. A 5'2" police psychologist (PAUL WILLIAMS) uses loads of kooky gadgets to track down wrongdoers in a one-off pilot that - would you credit it? - crashed like a madman.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...ALSO INVOLVED WERE TCF, THEY OF DIGBY AND DOUBLE DECKERS FAME. IT ALL FALLS INTO PLACE...
MADE-FOR-TV MULTIPART marathon of a miniseries, based on the novel of the same name by Alex Haley (and later subjected to "falsification of family history" accusations by both The Times and a BBC documentary). LE VAR "STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION" BURTON played the young Kunte Kynte, a name made for endless classroom bandying ("But it was on the telly last night, miss, I heard it!) and GEORGE STANFORD BROWN was the narrator, Tom, tracing his... erm, roots back to slavery days. Also starred LLOYD "I picked a fine day to give up smoking" BRIDGES and O.J. "I picked a fine day to give up stabbing people" SIMPSON.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...ALSO LOOKING IN: SCATMAN CROTHERS, IAN MCSHANE AND BURL IVES - TOGETHER AT LAST!
THE TIME had come for him to leave. All his family, and indeed his girlfriend, grieved. Not too dynamic early-evening sitcom 'bout a certain PC Penrose (PAUL GREENWOOD) who's having problems at home and - tsk! - problems at work, too. Still, no-one could tell him how to run his life. And now he's found a home without a wife! Bah! These things are sent to try us. Sharing (senior PC) Wilmot's (TONY HAYGARTH) far-from-ideal home, to be precise. "Gentle humour" resulted, as you'd expected from the perspicacious pen of ROY CLARKE.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."THE OUTLOOK DON'T LOOK ROSIE..."
THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTH
(1975)
BBC
REDOUBTABLY AIMLESS sitcom providing a crust for off-duty GOODIE TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR as a posho (of course) comedy writer to JOHN JUNKIN's more "earthy" scribe. They were forced to work - and, oh dear, live - together. Results missing "hilarious" barn door by a country mile.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...COMEDY ABOUT COMEDY WRITERS: POSTMODERN, OR JUST DESPERATE?
AN ITV alternative to TOP OF THE POPS? Surely it could never work? And set in a pretend "nightclub" (we're talking Hippodrome here, rather than Trade) hosted by DAVID JENSEN with unknown-then-and-now KEVIN SHARKEY? Get out of here! Sure enough, after just six months it did. They didn't try that again.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...ACHIEVED BRIEF NOTORIETY FOR SEE-THRU ATTIRE OF PUBESCENT WASTREL VANESSA PARADIS ON THE FIRST SHOW, ALSO FEATURING BLACK AND PSBS AT NUMBER ONE
RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY
(1978-92)
THAMES
.JPG)
EVER-RELIABLE COURTROOM sparring from JOHN MORTIMER, charting weaselish exploits of tetchy, defence-cases-only, cigar-toting, hangdog hero Horace Rumpole, aka LEO MCKERN. Resident of 38 Froxbury Mansions, the ‘pole blasted many a snide, snivelling prosecution brief into a thousand pieces, before retiring to Pomeroy's Wine Bar and spouting pithy extracts from the Oxford Book Of English Verse. All of which narked legendary acid-tongued "she who must be obeyed" wife Hilda (PEGGY THORPE-BATES). Once memorably represented shifty 70s "drop-out" yoof accused of theft when he was actually at nearby Rolling Stones gig. Friends, foes and "old darlings" numbered PATRICIA "SHE DEVIL" HODGE, PETER "MANOR" BOWLES, BILL "CLAUDE SNUDGE" FRASER, RICHARD "MUCH BINDING" MURDOCH and JOANNA "DUTY FREE" VAN GYSEGHEM. Plotting, acting, direction all ultra-high vintage.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...HAND-DRAWN END CREDITS WENT ON FOR ABOUT FIVE MINUTES
RUNAROUND
(LATE 1970s-1981)
SOUTHERN
ENJOYABLE EARTHY nuts-and-bolts kids quizzery helmed by the behemoth of bespectacled bonhomie, MIKE REID. Our Frank asked the questions before inviting the teams of sprogs to "g-g-g-g-goooooo" (i.e. run from one side of the studio to the other and stand under one of three multiple choice answers). Once there, very kids were ordered to "runaround" (i.e. change their answer, should they so desire). And that was it. Or was it? Tactics could, and did, play a big part, if, for instance, you didn't know the answer to the question and plumped for the circle that most people were standing on, or the circle that the girly swot was standing on, in the hope this would be right. However should you be the girly swot, and you do know the answer to the question, maybe you deliberately run to the wrong one first, and, as all the other kids jump onto your circle, scarper off to the one you know is right. Hmm. Cascade of stereotypical yoof prizes - Scalectrix, Fuzzy Felt - rumoured to have been wrestled back off the kids once the cameras had stopped rolling in order to save Southern TV some pennies.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...NOTED ALSO FOR THE TRIUMPHANT TENNIS-BALLS-IN-A-TUBE SCORING SYSTEM
EYEBROW RAISING (and, at the Beeb, hackles raising) gritty children's serial, ramming home the titular message with an opening credit double-whammy of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' and a Nike-obsessed tracking camera 'running' shot. CHRISTOPHER "Burnside" ELLISON provided the gangster menace, dispensing assorted blackmail, racialism and bullying plots to JULIA MILLBANK's young girl Paula Prescott. Grim and, at times, shocking stuff for 5.10pm on a Wednesday.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."OI! WHERE DID I LEAVE MY BINS?" "LEAVE IT AHHHT (AGAIN)"
STRING-POWERED ANTICS for early-morning kiddies' telly. Credits sequence featured young child at bed time being read to from illustrated "Rupert" book, before the characters would come to life in Nutwood. Terrifying jumping-from-out-of-nowhere stick-creature, "Raggetty", provided the pre-adolescent nightmares (although he/she/it wasn't even in the original stories, and we can only surmise that some fat, ciger-chomping exec issued a decree from his desk to introduce an element of terror to the otherwise gentle cartoons.)
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."THERE'S A LITTLE BEAR..."
ARTICULAR AVUNCULARISMS twice-weekly at 8.30pm, with our man live from the Greenwood Theatre in London on Tuesdays and at BBC Manchester on Thursdays. Russ's first gig after quitting LWT, and his most high-profile to date. Well, in timeslots at least. Ensuing would be erudite natterings with whoever was in the vicinity, usually involving a raconteur, someone from musical theatre and a B-list Hollywood star doing the promotional circuit. Russ's insistence on seating himself in the middle of his guests, rather than to one side, won as many plaudits as punches. Literally.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...GRADUATED TO PRIMETIME SPOT ON BBC1, IN THE PROCESS LOSING HIS FIRST NAME
RUSSELL HARTY PLUS
(1970s)
LWT
LONG-RUNNING PREDECESSOR of the above, and the one that made Russ a household name. Began life as the brilliantly-named ELEVEN PLUS, a tactful way of reflecting the fact it was shoved out at the arse end of the schedules when everyone had gone to bed. Rebranding helped boost both it and its owner's profile, and soon everyone from RALPH RICHARDSON to ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER was beating a path to Russ's tatty be-carpeted boudoir. Our host would devoutly engage every single guest in some bit of cultured - if barmy - bit of business, be it breaking the arms off a chair, prancing around the stage, trading quips about the alphabet or introducing them to his mother. He did, though, seem a bit flustered by The Who ("Can I go home now?") and there did seem to only ever be about a couple of dozen people in the audience.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
..."TELL ME, DO ANY OTHER TENNIS PLAYERS HAVE BOTH THEIR FIRST AND LAST NAMES BEGINNING WITH THE SAME LETTER?"
RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE
(1980)
BBC
COLD WAR-MOCKING adult education affair wherein TANYA FEIFER taught eager proto-Glasnostians the Cyrillic alphabet, basic phrasebook expressions and how to ask for a black bread sandwich. Had token pissy romantic photostory, "Goodbye Summer" (sorry - "Dosvidanya Lieta"). Made under tight restrictions, but still managed to have a go at Brezhnev et al on a visit to a Soviet "super" market, when Tanya commented, "The store was PARTICULARLY well-stocked when we arrived." You bet it was.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...FLAK IN THE USSR
RUTLAND WEEKEND TELEVISION
(1975-76)
BBC
ERIC IDLE and Not The Unofficial Python NEIL INNES churned out dozens of these Temazepam-smeared post-Liberty Bell bonanzas of errant hoopla on a shoestring which introduced Bert Fegg and, more notably, Innes's Rutles, subsequent stars of much-lionised mockumentary All You Need Is Cash.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...PLAY "SPOT GEORGE HARRISON" IN EPISODE NINE
RYAN AND RONNIE
(1971-73)
BBC CYMRU
BI-LINGUAL WELSH sketch effort anglicised by the Beeb for a wider audience. There was, predictably, a very Celtic flavour to the comedy. The best remembered part was soap-opera, 'Our House', in which RYAN DAVIES played the mother and RONNIE WILLIAMS the father of a generally dysfunctional valleys family. The errant daughter (called Phyllis-Doris and played by MYFANWY TALOG) was constantly berating her parents for their general lack of anything approaching modern attitudes. The son (Nigel Wynn, played by BRYN WILLIAMS) was good for nothing much but this didn't stop "Mam" from referring to him constantly as 'the light of my life'. Ryan died of a heart attack mid-70s in New York. Ronnie tried to carry on, but life collapsed into alcoholism and bankruptcy. Everyone else lived happily ever after. Probably.
TV CREAM immortality rating -
...FIRST SERIES PREMIERED AT THE SPECTACULAR HOUR OF 5.20PM ON FRIDAY AFTERNOONS
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