0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08In 1979, a strange bunch of people made a TV programme.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11They didn't have a clue what they were doing, but that didn't stop them.
0:00:11 > 0:00:15They did it their own way and it changed their lives.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17It revolutionised comedy.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19It was Not The Nine O'Clock News.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28It was a show you wanted to watch
0:00:28 > 0:00:30'and to be part of it was'
0:00:30 > 0:00:31the best time to be alive ever.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Can I put this into some sort of perspective?
0:00:34 > 0:00:38When I caught Gerald in '68, he was completely wild.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Wild? I was absolutely livid.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45'I was hanging on by my fingernails. What I now realise'
0:00:45 > 0:00:47is that so was everyone else.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50'We didn't quite realise what we had.'
0:00:52 > 0:00:55It was an innocent time and a carefree time -
0:00:55 > 0:00:57'all for one and one for all.'
0:00:57 > 0:01:01HE SPEAKS GIBBERISH
0:01:01 > 0:01:06SPEAKS GIBBERISH
0:01:09 > 0:01:10Thank you, Cyril.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13I had nothing to lose. I had nothing to lose to.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16'I could take off anybody. I just wanted'
0:01:16 > 0:01:18to do something funny.
0:01:18 > 0:01:19American Express?
0:01:19 > 0:01:23That will do nicely, sir. And would you like to rub my tits, too?
0:01:24 > 0:01:28# Not The Nine O'Clock, Not The Nine O'Clock
0:01:28 > 0:01:30# Not The Nine O'Clock News. #
0:01:46 > 0:01:50Abu Ben Achhem, may his tribe increase...
0:01:50 > 0:01:54..awoke one night from a deep dream of peace...
0:01:54 > 0:01:58..and saw, within the moonlight in his room...
0:01:58 > 0:02:01ROWAN TALKS GIBBERISH
0:02:04 > 0:02:07'I remember watching it and going, "Where's this going?'
0:02:07 > 0:02:08"Hmm? Where's this going?
0:02:08 > 0:02:10"Hmm? Where's this going?
0:02:10 > 0:02:13"Oh, my God, that's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life!"
0:02:13 > 0:02:18I have no idea why that's the funniest thing ever in my life - please do it again.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21The Angel heard and vanished.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25- The next night...- it came again with a great awakening light...
0:02:25 > 0:02:30..and showed the names whom God of love had blessed and, lo...
0:02:30 > 0:02:33SPEAKS GIBBERISH
0:02:36 > 0:02:39SOLEMN CHURCH ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS
0:02:42 > 0:02:45It's never too embarrassing to watch.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47'The quality of the stuff was pretty good.'
0:02:47 > 0:02:49('FOREIGN' ENGLISH) Can I help you, sir?
0:02:49 > 0:02:52Yes, I would like some deodorant, please.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55Ball or aerosol?
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Neither, I want it for my armpits.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03It's got a kind of punchiness, which is quite shocking.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06You don't quite know where it comes from.
0:03:06 > 0:03:07It's somebody telling the truth,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09saying, "I love this."
0:03:09 > 0:03:12There is a lot to be said in favour of cannabis.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15Erm...
0:03:18 > 0:03:19Where was I?
0:03:19 > 0:03:24You were aware that you were watching something that was
0:03:24 > 0:03:26a little bit on the edge - a bit naughty.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29I'll have a jar of Keep It Up cream, please.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35On second thoughts, make that two jars. I'm feeling a bit randy this week.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37Hello.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Tonight, I'm talking to Billy Connolly,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43a well-known Scottish comedian.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47I regard it as a real feather in my cap and a real landmark
0:03:47 > 0:03:48'in my life.'
0:03:48 > 0:03:53Wonderful to see you, grovel, grovel, slime and it's great, grovel of you to stop in on your short
0:03:53 > 0:03:57- visit to our little country, humble, humble to talk.- My pleasure.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01When I look at clips of it, it looks to me like Thatcher's Britain
0:04:01 > 0:04:03making fun of itself.
0:04:03 > 0:04:08'If you look at the streets behind where those things are taking place,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10'it is a scuzzy, run-down, unhappy country.'
0:04:10 > 0:04:13It was a very ugly period. There were riots,
0:04:13 > 0:04:15there was a lot of unemployment and anger.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22And where there is despair, may we bring hope.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27Britain was a place of great conflict at that time.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29For Constable Savage to come on and make fun
0:04:29 > 0:04:34of a policeman, at that point, with those tensions that were going on
0:04:34 > 0:04:38'was a very necessary safety valve for society at that time.'
0:04:38 > 0:04:42I think that perhaps you're being a little over-zealous.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Which charges do you mean, sir?
0:04:45 > 0:04:47For instance, this one.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50"Loitering with intent to use a pedestrian crossing."
0:04:54 > 0:04:55Maybe you are not aware of this,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57but that is not illegal.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02Neither is "smelling of foreign food" an offence.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05Are you sure, sir?
0:05:05 > 0:05:07It was always a trick of the light,
0:05:07 > 0:05:11because it was taken and reviewed
0:05:11 > 0:05:13as though it was a satirical programme.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18'But actually, a lot of the sketches could have gone out any time, any year, any place.'
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Do you have a Biro, please?
0:05:22 > 0:05:23Thanks.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33'The thing we were trying to avoid being like was Monty Python, on one hand,'
0:05:33 > 0:05:36and the Two Ronnies, on the other hand.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39- She's very attractive, isn't she? - Isn't she, yes, isn't she?
0:05:39 > 0:05:41- Very attractive.- Isn't she?
0:05:41 > 0:05:43My word, very, very, very attractive.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Yes, woof! What?! Woof!
0:05:47 > 0:05:52The Two Ronnies didn't represent the life that we lived.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57It was guys in blazers with gold buttons and cravats in cocktail bars.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59None of us had ever been in such a place.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03It was yokels with three X's on their smocks.
0:06:03 > 0:06:09That wasn't our idea of farming - it was one man in a modern tractor.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12If the Two Ronnies ever went into a telephone box,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14I'm sure they never did, but there would be
0:06:14 > 0:06:17'a telephone in there with the telephone directory.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20'All the phone boxes we went into were used as lavatories.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23'That's what telephone boxes were for in the '70s.'
0:06:29 > 0:06:33It is about being in contemporary society,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35not just a series of fantasy jokes.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39'The sketch about the guy waiting at the petrol station and he's trying
0:06:39 > 0:06:43'to fill up his car to exactly £5 and there is a man with a little button.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45When it gets to £5, he goes - click.'
0:06:55 > 0:06:59You're just laughing yourself sick, it's just wonderful, it's wonderful.
0:06:59 > 0:07:05And that what we tried to do with Not The Nine, to surprise ourselves, to astonish ourselves
0:07:05 > 0:07:09with ideas we would never have been able to think of on our own.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13That is just the kind of bad language and, above all, endless references to parts of the body
0:07:13 > 0:07:16that are becoming, by their ceaseless repetition, knob,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21in the media. Just part and parcel and pubes of everyday conversation.
0:07:21 > 0:07:28- For the past 200 years, the American people have conjoined... - With each other.
0:07:28 > 0:07:29..with each other
0:07:29 > 0:07:33- in a great quest for...- Harmony.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35- ..harmony...- Democracy.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37- ..democracy...- Freedom.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38freedom...
0:07:39 > 0:07:41- Cupcakes.- ..cupcakes...
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Jonathan, I know these kids.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54I've worked in the areas we are talking about - Lambeth, Lewisham -
0:07:54 > 0:07:59I know their problems, I know their frustrations, lack of community facilities, I know their parents.
0:07:59 > 0:08:05And, in my opinion, Professor Duff suggesting we should cut of their goolies is the only solution.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09Absolutely, cut the goolies off. Cut them off.
0:08:09 > 0:08:10Well, there we have it.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14- Whip off the goolies.- Expert opinion seems to be in favour of...
0:08:14 > 0:08:16Cutting off their goolies!
0:08:16 > 0:08:23It all began when BBC radio producer John Lloyd teamed up with Panorama producer Sean Hardie.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28Sean knew nothing about comedy and John knew nothing about television, but they still thought it would be
0:08:28 > 0:08:31a good idea to make a comedy sketch show for TV.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35It started off being called Sacred Cows, that was the BBC's title for it.
0:08:35 > 0:08:41And it was designed to be a dissing of all the things you weren't supposed to diss.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44BBC NEWS THEME MUSIC
0:08:45 > 0:08:46Here is the news.
0:08:46 > 0:08:52'There was such a thing as the 9 O'Clock News and it was a staple, it was the nation's fireplace.'
0:08:52 > 0:08:56You knew where it was and there it was in the schedule, every weekday.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59So the idea of something running on the other side on BBC Two,
0:08:59 > 0:09:04opposite it, had real meaning and cultural resonance to everybody in the country.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08NEWSCASTER: New Yorkers can find some tabloids on the news stands,
0:09:08 > 0:09:12but not their usual papers, The New York Times and the Daily News.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17In 1978, there was a strike at the New York Times and a bunch of the journalists
0:09:17 > 0:09:20devised a thing called Not The New York Times,
0:09:20 > 0:09:22which was an absolutely brilliant,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24impeccable spoof - every typeface, every ad.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28You wouldn't have known until you went into it. We borrowed that.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32But it was a perfect title, Not The Nine O'Clock News, because it told you the time,
0:09:32 > 0:09:36which was at 9pm, and it was NOT the Nine O'Clock News, and it was opposite
0:09:36 > 0:09:40the Nine O'Clock News on One, so you couldn't really miss where it was.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The star of the show, Rowan Atkinson, had developed his unique style
0:09:46 > 0:09:49alongside two of other students at Oxford University.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51They'd been a big hit at the Edinburgh Festival
0:09:51 > 0:09:54and would go on to conquer the world of comedy and film.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59Richard Curtis, the writing genius, would go on to write Four Weddings and a Funeral
0:09:59 > 0:10:01and create Blackadder with Rowan Atkinson.
0:10:01 > 0:10:03And with musician, Howard Goodall,
0:10:03 > 0:10:09would write unforgettable comedy songs for Not the Nine O'Clock News.
0:10:09 > 0:10:14I was manning the, you know, theatre, or revue, stall
0:10:14 > 0:10:17at the Freshers' Fair at Oxford.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21And I remember this very curly-haired chap turning up,
0:10:21 > 0:10:27saying, "I do music". And it was Howard.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30In my first week at university, I went to the Freshers' Fair.
0:10:30 > 0:10:36I had decided that I wanted to be involved as a musician with the Comedy Revue.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38So I went to the desk and I said to the guy,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41"I'd really like to be involved musically, I don't know how."
0:10:41 > 0:10:44We talked for a bit and he said, "Someone will come and see you."
0:10:44 > 0:10:46He turned out to be Rowan Atkinson.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49That afternoon, Richard Curtis came to see me
0:10:49 > 0:10:53and he said, "Me and Rowan are doing a show, like a student revue,
0:10:53 > 0:10:58"in three weeks' time in the Oxford Playhouse, would you like to do the music?" "Yes!"
0:10:58 > 0:11:03I met Rowan in a, sort of, sketch writing unit,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06that was meant to put on a show at the end of a summer term.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09And, erm... I thought he was a piece of...
0:11:09 > 0:11:13I thought he was a stuffed toy for the first three meetings, he was so quiet.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17And he famously has always described me as "being like a cushion",
0:11:17 > 0:11:21in that I sat on the chair and I said nothing.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24That was our first meeting - I said little, Richard said a great deal.
0:11:24 > 0:11:30But when finally we started to submit material, Rowan stood up and did two sketches and was clearly
0:11:30 > 0:11:34so much better than all the rest of us put together,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37'that I hung on to his coat tails for a decade.'
0:11:38 > 0:11:40"Are you mad?"
0:11:40 > 0:11:42I asked.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45The Oxford Revue was billed as having eight people in it.
0:11:45 > 0:11:51By the time we got to see it, there were only two left - Rowan and Richard Curtis.
0:11:51 > 0:11:55It was, basically, Rowan doing all the funny bits and Richard being the stooge.
0:11:57 > 0:12:03And almost from the first minute of watching this show, you think, "I'm in the presence of a genius".
0:12:04 > 0:12:05Sediment?
0:12:05 > 0:12:09LAUGHTER
0:12:09 > 0:12:11Soda?
0:12:11 > 0:12:12LAUGHTER
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Tear? Tear?
0:12:15 > 0:12:19LAUGHTER
0:12:19 > 0:12:20Undermanager?
0:12:20 > 0:12:22LAUGHTER
0:12:23 > 0:12:24Zob.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27LAUGHTER
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Undoubtedly, the Edinburgh Fringe was the, sort of, melting pot,
0:12:30 > 0:12:36in terms of people seeing me and what I was doing, or what Richard Curtis and I were doing.
0:12:36 > 0:12:41I'd seen him in Edinburgh in my first year at university,
0:12:41 > 0:12:47I'd gone to the Edinburgh Festival and he did his one-man show there with Howard Goodall doing the music.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Richard Curtis being the other man in the one-man show,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54it's famous for not being one man, but of course, it's a one-man show.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57I... I mean, it blew my head off. I'd never seen anything
0:12:57 > 0:13:01so fantastically funny in my life. I was simply weak with laughter.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05We all thought, "Gosh! Wow!"
0:13:07 > 0:13:13There is a very interesting and extraordinary idea as a performer.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17PIANO PLAYS
0:13:19 > 0:13:21LAUGHTER
0:13:21 > 0:13:24PIANO PLAYS RAPIDLY
0:13:26 > 0:13:29APPLAUSE
0:13:41 > 0:13:45He was a very closed down, eccentric person, really.
0:13:45 > 0:13:52Quite lonely-looking, interested in machines and cars and quite shy, quite shy.
0:13:52 > 0:13:58I have a lot of fits of depression and lack of satisfaction.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02But they are nearly all associated with the entertainment industry
0:14:02 > 0:14:08and actually, my other interests in life, silly things, but things I happen to enjoy doing
0:14:08 > 0:14:13a fantastic amount, like electronics, like driving trucks, are very simple.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18The trouble with show business is that what you're doing is you are
0:14:18 > 0:14:24exposing yourself entirely and your heart and soul is being torn out of you and shown to millions of people.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Rowan Atkinson was just the right man for John Lloyd's new show,
0:14:28 > 0:14:32but the nerdy electrical engineering student from Newcastle
0:14:32 > 0:14:39turned up with one of the most powerful agents in show business, the legendary Richard Armitage.
0:14:39 > 0:14:44He came in with his agent, who was a very classic old-fashioned agent.
0:14:44 > 0:14:45He looked the part.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50He was squat, enormously upper-class, smoked cigars. He once said to me,
0:14:50 > 0:14:55POSH ACCENT: "I have all my combs made up by a little man in Geneva.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59"I find only the Swiss know how to make a really good comb."
0:14:59 > 0:15:02This is the man you were dealing with. Incredibly powerful.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05John Cleese's agent. He represented David Frost.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Most powerful agent in light entertainment then.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12And he brought his boy in, Rowan, the young star.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15They clearly thought this was going to be The Rowan Atkinson Show.
0:15:15 > 0:15:21BBC management, in those days, was very powerful in its own right and they were very sure of themselves.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Although, in the politest way, they said,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28"This isn't going to be The Rowan Atkinson Show and here's our reasoning."
0:15:28 > 0:15:32"We want to get other talented people and put them around Rowan,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35"so that if he's good, he'll shine by comparison,
0:15:35 > 0:15:42"and they'll support him - he won't have to carry the whole weight or use up the material nearly so fast."
0:15:42 > 0:15:46And to give Richard and Rowan credit, they saw the point of that.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48And they bought into it. And the rest is history.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53Not the Nine O'Clock News had found its shining star.
0:15:54 > 0:16:00A weird haircut on another Oxford student was the next thing to catch John Lloyd's eye.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05We were all very scared of Mel. He appeared to be so confident.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10Anybody walking around with that haircut, you think, must know something we don't.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Does it not say in the good book, "Thou shalt part thy hair in the way of the Lord"?
0:16:14 > 0:16:20"And thou shalt blow-dry thy fringe and brush the layered sides in tantalising waves to accentuate
0:16:20 > 0:16:23"the auburn highlights of the crown, so shall ye." Who did this for you, then?
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Essentially in my second year at Oxford, I started to grow it
0:16:27 > 0:16:29absurdly long for a person
0:16:29 > 0:16:32whose hair is so thin as mine was.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35So I just kept it, because it was a, sort of, sign.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39It's that pathetic, I just felt as though, "Hey, this is me.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42"This is my hair and I'm proud of it."
0:16:42 > 0:16:46I don't even remember noticing Mel Smith's hair.
0:16:46 > 0:16:52I remember once we were on location, seeing him in his underpants.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54And that was really weird.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58We all liked Mel. Mel was quite a figure.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00He was a sort of...
0:17:00 > 0:17:02I think he had a car.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05This was 1979.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08He actually had a car, he actually drove himself around town.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11We were all in our twenties. I had a bicycle.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40John remembered a very bad sketch I'd done as part of the Oxford Revue.
0:17:40 > 0:17:48It was doing a nonsense version of Modern Major General from Gilbert & Sullivan -
0:17:48 > 0:17:51"I am the very diddle of a daddle-diddle..."
0:17:51 > 0:17:55You know, "Widdle, baggle, boggle. doggle..." It was just nonsense.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57And I didn't know what I was doing at the time,
0:17:57 > 0:18:01but it was bizarre to find out that John Lloyd thought, "That's my man!"
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Everyone, hands in the air! In the air! Go on, keep 'em up!
0:18:04 > 0:18:07All right, nobody moves, nobody gets hurt, all right?
0:18:11 > 0:18:13Three ten-penny stamps, please.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21Mel Smith and his crazy hair boarded the Nine O'Clock train to Comedy Town.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24MUSIC: Theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus
0:18:28 > 0:18:29You're on television, aren't you?
0:18:29 > 0:18:31Yes, yes.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33ALL: Yes, yes!
0:18:34 > 0:18:39Up to this point, sketch comedy had been dominated by the Monty Python style of surreal acting.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44If they were to make their mark, this new show would have to do "something completely different".
0:18:46 > 0:18:50Not The Nine O'Clock News was definitively, negatively influenced by Monty Python.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54So, we... The thing we took particular joy in was
0:18:54 > 0:19:01naturalistic performances, because the Python style had been so high.
0:19:01 > 0:19:07When John Lloyd asked me to do the programme with him, in some strange uppity way,
0:19:07 > 0:19:14even though I needed the money, "£100 a programme, I'll have that", I was very concerned that we just
0:19:14 > 0:19:20didn't end up doing daft women in screechy voices, that kind of stuff.
0:19:20 > 0:19:23One of the big differences was that it was messier.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26We wanted the dialogue to be much more realistic.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30In a way, more realistic than a drama, to sound much more like
0:19:30 > 0:19:37a television discussion, with broken sentences and people going "um" and "er" and so forth.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41That was very much something that Mel Smith brought to the programme.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44This week we're going to take a look at origami, aren't we, Rowan?
0:19:44 > 0:19:49That's right, Mel - the ancient Japanese art of paper-folding.
0:19:49 > 0:19:54I remember lots of the sketches that we did together, like the origami sketch,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57in which we were just being very flat and very, sort of,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00naturalistic to camera, which is something I'd never done,
0:20:00 > 0:20:05because even then I tended to do characters that were rather extreme -
0:20:05 > 0:20:09either extremely old or extremely silly or extremely young or...
0:20:09 > 0:20:11facially very active.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Whereas with Mel, I felt this wonderful sort of peace.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18- I'll just start here. - Mel's just starting...
0:20:18 > 0:20:20You can use absolutely any kind of...
0:20:20 > 0:20:23any kind of paper for this. You can use...
0:20:23 > 0:20:24This is an old Radio Times.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28- This is an old... - Just any old bit of paper.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31- And I'm just folding, you see, like this.- Folding it again, over.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34- It's very, very simple.- It's...
0:20:34 > 0:20:40It's an ancient Japanese art dating from centuries... centuries ago.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Now if I make a tear like this...
0:20:43 > 0:20:47And another tear like THAT...
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Now you can do this on your own, but if there are two of you,
0:20:50 > 0:20:53then it probably... We'll just have a pull there.
0:20:54 > 0:20:55That's it.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03And you see, there, there we have a very nice hat.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08Here's a...
0:21:08 > 0:21:09Here's a little bracelet.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15And... And here we have a nice pair of earrings.
0:21:16 > 0:21:19And, of course, a moustache.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25'Some of the naturalism'
0:21:25 > 0:21:28was wonderful. I've got a particular favourite sketch,
0:21:28 > 0:21:35which was Rowan and Mel pretending to be identical twins.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38And you've never seen two people who look less like it!
0:21:38 > 0:21:41They're just divine. They're on Nationwide.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44And just the little nervous laughter of two completely ordinary guys
0:21:44 > 0:21:47who've found themselves on this show.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50In the studio now are two men who will tell us what it's like
0:21:50 > 0:21:54to suffer the pain and heartache of being identical twins.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04Right, now let's see if I can get it right. I've been trying to sort it out all afternoon.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07- Brian, yes?- No. David, David. Sorry.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Sorry. You'll have to wear badges or something.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Don't you find it a problem continually being mistaken for each other?
0:22:15 > 0:22:17Yeah. Yeah, we do, I guess.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20But we have a lot of laughs, as well, don't we?
0:22:20 > 0:22:23- Oh, I think so. Very much so. - A very, very funny thing happened.
0:22:23 > 0:22:28We got on a tube and we swapped tickets and the conductor didn't even notice.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36With a young team new to television, they needed at least one person with experience.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40And that came in the shape of the maverick, Chris Langham.
0:22:40 > 0:22:41PHONE RINGS
0:22:41 > 0:22:43I thought I told you never to call me here!
0:22:43 > 0:22:44PHONE RINGS
0:22:44 > 0:22:46That's better... Good evening.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48'Chris was easily the most'
0:22:48 > 0:22:51experienced person we had, going into the main series.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55'He'd worked with very good people and understood the mechanics of comedy very well.
0:22:55 > 0:23:00'He knew how timing and all that kind of thing worked, in a way.'
0:23:00 > 0:23:04Chris Langham was very important to holding the first series together,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06because he knew exactly what he was doing.
0:23:06 > 0:23:11He'd written for Spike Milligan, done stuff with the Pythons and really knew his way round.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15I'd seen him being brilliant at the Edinburgh Fringe,
0:23:15 > 0:23:17two or three years before. He was extraordinary.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22- Are you talkin' to me? - Anticipating the moment of attack...
0:23:22 > 0:23:23- Not yet!- Sorry.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Exploit your opponent's momentum,
0:23:27 > 0:23:32converting a trip and a throw out of his attack.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Let's see what that really looks like.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54All this show needed now was a funny woman to complete the line-up.
0:23:54 > 0:23:55Easier said than done.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01There were very few women doing that kind of performing comedy.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03We talked to Victoria Wood.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06We talked to Susan George, of all people, who wanted to be in the show.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Allison Steadman we offered it to and didn't want to do it.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12It was very hard to find people.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17The funny woman they were looking for was making people laugh all over London.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19You just had to go to the right party.
0:24:21 > 0:24:26For some reason I found myself invited to a Sunday afternoon party with some friends in London,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30telling silly stories in my broad Australian accent.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Being whatever I was, 26,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37I spent the entire party machinating to try to get introduced to this girl,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42who was extraordinary. I mean, she was the most luminous person you've ever seen -
0:24:42 > 0:24:44perfect figure and a fantastic smile.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47I saw her across the room and just worked my way around to her.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50"Hello, would you like to be on television, my dear?"
0:24:50 > 0:24:54And I thought, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, he just wants to get in my pants."
0:24:54 > 0:24:59And he asked me for my phone number and I gave him my phone number,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01because I actually thought he was quite cute.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05Then he did, surprise, surprise, call me up about work and it was just work.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08He called me into the BBC and I auditioned for him and Sean Hardie.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14Over the last 10 years, the Japanese have made huge strides
0:25:14 > 0:25:18in micro-technology, leaving Europe far behind.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21That is, until now.
0:25:21 > 0:25:29Because now a British company has come up with a micro-processor which is comparably effective.
0:25:30 > 0:25:37The chip, which is derived from an American design, is silicone-based.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40It represents the single greatest
0:25:40 > 0:25:44British advance in micro-technology this century.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49But, you see, it's not as small as the Japanese model.
0:25:49 > 0:25:55You know, the whole thing was a kind of junior common room student Oxbridgey type thing.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59And actually having Pamela, who was very much not part of that world,
0:25:59 > 0:26:03was a good thing and it made it much more contemporary and universal in its appeal.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07# I was into yin and yang and healthy yoga
0:26:07 > 0:26:11# Ginseng and caraway seeds and being a non smoker
0:26:11 > 0:26:15# My cauliflower quiches were better than the bought ones
0:26:15 > 0:26:19# And I walked bigger than two short ones... #
0:26:19 > 0:26:21'When Pamela exploded onto the scene,'
0:26:21 > 0:26:24she was very attractive. She was very sexy.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26And for the first time, you saw
0:26:26 > 0:26:29'a sexy, attractive woman being funny.'
0:26:29 > 0:26:34- # La-la la la - La-la-la-la la-la... #
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Pamela had balls and so I started writing for her.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40She wasn't just 'the pretty one' - though she was! -
0:26:40 > 0:26:43but she was really funny.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48'She kind of broke the mould a bit of being really attractive, but she could do it.'
0:26:48 > 0:26:51That is great. OK, OK, give me that one again.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55Yeah. Oh, these are going to look really good. We're nearly there, OK?
0:26:55 > 0:26:57OK, now give me that big one. Yeah, OK, got it, yeah.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04The search was over. Here they were.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06It was all looking good.
0:27:06 > 0:27:07Sort of.
0:27:08 > 0:27:10We had this famous lunch
0:27:10 > 0:27:12and I'm sitting there thinking,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17"I can't imagine what I've done here, I've made the most horrible mistake."
0:27:17 > 0:27:23At the lunch were Sean Hardie, a very bright current affairs director who'd never worked in comedy,
0:27:23 > 0:27:31Rowan Atkinson, a painfully shy electronic engineer from Newcastle, hardly said a word through lunch,
0:27:31 > 0:27:36Mel Smith, the man with the hedgey haircut, the strange haircut,
0:27:36 > 0:27:43Chris Langham, this sort of haunted looking somebody who looked like he took a lot of stuff in the evenings,
0:27:43 > 0:27:51and Pamela Stephenson, this kind of goddess, unbelievably pretty. And me. And I'm thinking,
0:27:51 > 0:27:53"Apart from a skip out of the back of Madame Tussauds,
0:27:53 > 0:27:56I can't think of a more weird collection.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59Just to look at them. It was the most uncomfortable lunch.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01We had absolutely nothing to say to each other.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05And rehearsals started a couple of days later.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07And it was very, very awkward, indeed.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13The oddball collection of people that was Not The Nine O'Clock News
0:28:13 > 0:28:17hit our screens on October 16, 1979.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23I am God!
0:28:23 > 0:28:26The Father Almighty!
0:28:26 > 0:28:28Why don't you piss off!
0:28:28 > 0:28:31What do you like doing in your spare time?
0:28:31 > 0:28:33Screwing.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36This is the biggest load of cock I've ever seen.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Have you... Have you got something about...
0:28:44 > 0:28:46about that long?
0:28:48 > 0:28:50Sort of...that thick?
0:28:52 > 0:28:54Made of wax?
0:28:54 > 0:29:01- Yeah.- You'd better light it then - we're cutting your electricity off.
0:29:02 > 0:29:04We had the most bizarre things in the first series.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Like we had four or five people sit inside a gigantic mouth.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11I remember that. I mean, why, I've got no idea.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16I think it was our way of doing topicality or something, what's on everyone's lips.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19'They built this gigantic mouth with the four of us sitting in it,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22'trying to be satirical. It was appalling.'
0:29:22 > 0:29:25Right, it's this big one at the front, is it?
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Beats working for Linda Lovelace, eh?
0:29:33 > 0:29:35Look, could we get on, please?
0:29:35 > 0:29:37We must think of something to say.
0:29:37 > 0:29:38'It was a completely awful idea.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41'But we tried not to be like The Two Ronnies.'
0:29:41 > 0:29:44After two weeks we dropped it, burned the set and had two people
0:29:44 > 0:29:46at a desk and it worked much better.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Back home again and Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher, spent the weekend
0:29:50 > 0:29:53quietly relaxing at Chequers and reading fan mail.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55LAUGHTER
0:29:55 > 0:29:59The rail dispute - and in a magnificent show of defiance,
0:29:59 > 0:30:03British Rail chief, Sir Peter Parker, ignored an ASLEF picket line
0:30:03 > 0:30:06yesterday and drove out a train himself.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08LAUGHTER
0:30:08 > 0:30:11Behind a desk, you got a lot on your side.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14You really have, it's like 'this is official'.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18No matter how daft the thing you are about to say is, it places it.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23'Of course, that gave it its link back to what the real Nine O'Clock News would be like.'
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Following his speech to the House of Commons
0:30:26 > 0:30:31on the outcome of the embassy siege, Mr William Whitelaw has been admitted to hospital for medical checks.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Doctors are concerned about the size of his head.
0:30:35 > 0:30:38LAUGHTER
0:30:38 > 0:30:44Pamela Stephenson had found her place in the show and never looked back.
0:30:44 > 0:30:45'She was originally hired'
0:30:45 > 0:30:48as just a cool actress.
0:30:48 > 0:30:54Then she started doing these weird voices and you'd think, "She is a bit nuts.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57"What's that weird voice she's doing now as the newsreader?"
0:30:57 > 0:31:00You think, "Where have I heard that before?"
0:31:00 > 0:31:04You shut your eyes and, my God, it's Angela Rippon!
0:31:04 > 0:31:10The West German Chancellor, Her-r-r Schmidt, has announced measures designed to bring full employment
0:31:10 > 0:31:16to Europe, create closer ties between the Allies and provide a welcome slap in the face for Russian expansionism.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19He's invaded Czechoslovakia.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23I was asked to be a generic newsreader.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26But I'd hardly heard any newsreaders.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30The only one I'd really heard was Angela Rippon,
0:31:30 > 0:31:35so when I started doing a newsreader, it sounded like Angela.
0:31:35 > 0:31:40'And then, we decided to really go for it and then I studied her
0:31:40 > 0:31:43'and tried to make myself look like her.'
0:31:43 > 0:31:44There!
0:31:45 > 0:31:48After she has finished a sentence,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51She looks down and she goes, "Foo",
0:31:51 > 0:31:54then she goes, "dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah".
0:31:54 > 0:31:56So, I just took it a little bit further.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00So instead of guerrilla, it was ger-rilla.
0:32:00 > 0:32:07Another of Mr Mugabe's ger-rilla commanders has been refused service
0:32:07 > 0:32:10in a Salisbury hotel for not wearing a tie.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15The manager was later sacked for not wearing a head.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18I loved the way that she would push her impersonations
0:32:18 > 0:32:22to a slightly grotesque place. They were very funny.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27I think, didn't she hold Jan Leeming's hands like that?
0:32:27 > 0:32:30She had the hands like that,
0:32:30 > 0:32:33and then earrings got bigger and bigger and bigger.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37But the hands, I thought, "I don't sit like that."
0:32:37 > 0:32:40Golf. And there was excitement
0:32:40 > 0:32:44at the Harrogate and District Pro-Am tournament yesterday,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47when a competitor insisted on playing the ball
0:32:47 > 0:32:50after the umpire had declared it out of bounds.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54LAUGHTER
0:32:54 > 0:32:57She got the overall impression. She got the hair, obviously,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00and the earrings, well, that was a touch of genius.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07MUSIC AND LAUGHTER
0:33:09 > 0:33:13Each week, the show took real TV news film - and ripped it apart.
0:33:13 > 0:33:16It was then put back together to look like
0:33:16 > 0:33:18no news you'd ever seen before.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27(Ahem. It's God bless America, Mr President.)
0:33:27 > 0:33:29God bless America.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31LAUGHTER
0:33:33 > 0:33:36VIOLIN SCREECHES
0:33:43 > 0:33:47What I wanted to do was say to people, things are not always as they appear to be.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50And that's why we messed with news film and things like that,
0:33:50 > 0:33:55to tell people just to look at things from another angle.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58It was fun to think that nobody is that clever,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00nobody is that beyond criticism.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03DAVID DIMBLEBY: Lord Great Chamberlain
0:34:03 > 0:34:04with his white staff...
0:34:06 > 0:34:10gives the sign for the procession to turn
0:34:10 > 0:34:11and for
0:34:11 > 0:34:14the fanfare from the trumpeters.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17BIG BAND MUSIC
0:34:25 > 0:34:29That's such an important part of what Not The Nine O'Clock News became,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33that notion of funny things against real footage.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37People looked forward to those elements in the show every week.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40CREAKING
0:34:42 > 0:34:48The first series was hit and miss and the TV critics didn't like it.
0:34:48 > 0:34:54I remember reading reviews at the end of the first series, which said, "Nice try, but don't bother again".
0:34:54 > 0:34:59"Several viewers who phoned the Mirror used the word, 'disgusting'."
0:34:59 > 0:35:05"Rarely have I seen a programme containing so much violence and hatred towards society in general."
0:35:05 > 0:35:08"It is the most obscene programme I have ever seen.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11"If the BBC want to corrupt the young, they're going the right way."
0:35:11 > 0:35:16"Monday's offering was designed to offend almost everyone."
0:35:16 > 0:35:22"I was utterly ashamed and disgusted by Not The Nine O'Clock News."
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Firstly, Not The Nine O'Clock News never got above a million, never.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29And was absolutely ripped to pieces
0:35:29 > 0:35:35by everybody and anybody who wrote TV criticism.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Just in general, we were a disaster area.
0:35:39 > 0:35:40Terrible, isn't it?
0:35:43 > 0:35:45I've been on this programme 15 months.
0:35:48 > 0:35:50I've done every single programme.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54And I think it's awful.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59There was something not quite right with the show.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03And the finger of blame was pointing at Chris Langham.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Sean and John came to see me one day in the office
0:36:06 > 0:36:12to express their worries about Chris, in the sense that he
0:36:12 > 0:36:16was a formidable character and he was disproportionately affecting
0:36:16 > 0:36:20the balance of the comedic structure of the programme.
0:36:20 > 0:36:23Every day, Chris would say,
0:36:23 > 0:36:26"Let's do this, let's do that, we can save that one, do this one."
0:36:26 > 0:36:31The others just found themselves working on stuff they didn't like.
0:36:31 > 0:36:35He would go over the top because he had the confidence to do so.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37He'd been in it a much longer than any of us.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42Chris must have been five or six years older than us and had much, much more experience.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46But the wedge, I'm pretty certain, was between Chris and John Lloyd.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48He was a difficult guy.
0:36:48 > 0:36:54He was under the influence a good deal of the time and I can say this because he has been in AA for years.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59He was a very manipulative person - his addictions produced
0:36:59 > 0:37:04a kind of paranoia which enabled him to try and destabilise any situation he was in.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06It was very hard working with him.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Do you find it risible...
0:37:12 > 0:37:14..when I say the name...
0:37:15 > 0:37:20..Biggus... Dickus?
0:37:20 > 0:37:21< STIFLED LAUGHTER
0:37:22 > 0:37:26Chris Langham's appearance in Monty Python's Life Of Brian,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29- would unexpectedly bring the tension to crisis point.- Go away!
0:37:30 > 0:37:33The film stirred up a huge controversy
0:37:33 > 0:37:36and Not The Nine O'Clock News exploited the angry debate.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Oh, come now, Bishop, the leading figure in this film -
0:37:40 > 0:37:47what is it, Jesus Christ? - is quite clearly a lampoon of the Comic Messiah himself.
0:37:47 > 0:37:48Our Lord, John Cleese.
0:37:48 > 0:37:54Even the initials, JC, are exactly the same.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58I remember the joy of discovering that Jesus Christ and John Cleese had the same initials
0:37:58 > 0:38:03and, therefore, that can form the basis of an argument
0:38:03 > 0:38:06that someone could put in a sketch. It was very pleasing.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09There had been his gloriously pompous debate between two of the Pythons
0:38:09 > 0:38:13and Malcolm Muggeridge and a bishop, as to whether it was blasphemous.
0:38:13 > 0:38:15When I look at that figure,
0:38:15 > 0:38:19I know you'll say, "It's Brian, not Jesus", but that's rubbish.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23You keep making the basic assumption that we are ridiculing Christ
0:38:23 > 0:38:27and Christ's teaching. And I say that we are not.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30I know what you're saying. If I may say so, it's rubbish.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Chris was very unhappy with the Life Of Python sketch.
0:38:34 > 0:38:38He felt it wasn't the kind of thing we should be doing,
0:38:38 > 0:38:44that it was incestuous and it was kind of a very awkward moment
0:38:44 > 0:38:46in the history of the programme -
0:38:46 > 0:38:51that question of where we were going and what we could and couldn't do.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55- I must explain to you, the Christ figure is not Cleese.- Come on...
0:38:55 > 0:39:01No, he's just an ordinary man who happens to have been born in Weston-super-Mare at the same time
0:39:01 > 0:39:05- as Mr Cleese.- Jonathan, you know as well as I do...
0:39:05 > 0:39:12He is mistaken for the Comic Messiah by vast crowds of people who follow him about, doing silly walks,
0:39:12 > 0:39:15shouting, "No, no, not the comfy chair!"
0:39:15 > 0:39:19Alexander, the final scene has attracted the most attention.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Here, I think we have the ultimate blasphemy.
0:39:22 > 0:39:27It is set in a hotel, in Torquay, where, literally, hundreds
0:39:27 > 0:39:30of Spanish waiters are being clipped about the ear by this Jesus.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36It is obviously a lampoon of the Comic Messiah's greatest half-hour.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38It's not at all... It's Torbay.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41Come on! Torbay, Torquay. We're quibbling over...
0:39:41 > 0:39:43Bishop, Alexander Walker, thank you both.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48Life Of Python, it suddenly started to gel.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53You could see there was respect between the actors, respect of the actors for the writers
0:39:53 > 0:39:58and an ability to let the production go to the producers.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01We started to believe in each other and this chemistry happened.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04It was very, very exciting and different.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08None of us could think of any sketch that had ever been quite like it.
0:40:08 > 0:40:14Chris was resentful. I think he thought he'd lost control at that point. And he had.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19A defining moment in the story of Not The 9 O'Clock News had been reached.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Something had to be done.
0:40:21 > 0:40:23It was a period of his own life
0:40:23 > 0:40:29where he was in a bit of a mess, anyway, which didn't help.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33There was a fair amount of drink and drugs going on, which didn't help matters.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37We could never make up our minds whether to keep him in the cast or not.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40John and I would agonise about it for ages and ages.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42In the end, we were told to get rid of him.
0:40:42 > 0:40:45I didn't know what I was supposed to do and I didn't want to sack him.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48That's the thing. I let it drift and I let it drift
0:40:48 > 0:40:51and then he just wasn't asked back.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54That wasn't a good thing at all. I'm not in the least bit proud.
0:40:54 > 0:40:59So, we were cowardly and...did it badly.
0:40:59 > 0:41:07The only man brave enough to give Langham the bad news was the BBC's head of comedy, John Howard Davies.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10He came in and sat down on the sofa and I said,
0:41:10 > 0:41:13"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the series."
0:41:13 > 0:41:19And he said, "Why?" And I explained, as best I could, without actually offending him.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23I think Chris was in some doubt as to what had happened,
0:41:23 > 0:41:29whether he was being praised or fired. In fact, it was the latter.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37Not The Nine O'Clock News now turned to the man who had just been a bit-part player in series one.
0:41:37 > 0:41:40He had everything they were looking for.
0:41:40 > 0:41:41He was young and funny.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44He had been in the Cambridge Footlights.
0:41:44 > 0:41:45He had three names.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49He was Griff Rhys Jones.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52Hello.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56Griff was obviously going to be famous, from the first day I knew him.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59From the first day I saw him, I thought, "This guy is going to be so famous."
0:41:59 > 0:42:04Long before I'd seen him as a student actor, I saw him in a play.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08I remember being quite jealous of Griff,
0:42:08 > 0:42:13because, Griff had this ability to make John absolutely pee himself
0:42:13 > 0:42:17with laughter by his facial expressions.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Griff would, kind of, tense up all his muscles and make this face
0:42:21 > 0:42:25and I remember a lot of the rehearsals were spent with John
0:42:25 > 0:42:28absolutely just dying with laughter.
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Me and my mates, we went down Brighton the weekend, right?
0:42:34 > 0:42:36And we met mods down there, right?
0:42:36 > 0:42:38And I hate mods, cos they make me puke, right?
0:42:38 > 0:42:43I goes down there with my mate and old Les, he got a pickaxe handle
0:42:43 > 0:42:45and I've got the old bicycle chain, right?
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Like that. So, we start doing them, you know?
0:42:48 > 0:42:53These two other ones, they got me down an alley way. I'd an old fork
0:42:53 > 0:42:56stuffed up my pullover, you know? And I really done 'em!
0:42:56 > 0:43:03With Griff Rhys Jones in place, they were finally ready for take-off.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07I remember Griff doing formal impressions of famous people,
0:43:07 > 0:43:11which he started doing with his Donald Sinden impression in series one.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14Then, he discovered this amazing gift for it.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18Good evening, I'm a famous English actor.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23I've come here tonight to this...church.
0:43:23 > 0:43:29Finally, were the Lambeth Poisoners, the Lambeth Poisoners
0:43:29 > 0:43:33also responsible for a string of bank raids in July 1979?
0:43:34 > 0:43:35No.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39I can give you some help here - nice hotel in Rio, change of identity,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41protection, 60,000 in a secret bank account.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43Yep, yeah. They did it, yeah.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Cyril...
0:43:46 > 0:43:50I'm indebted to a gentleman from Swansea,
0:43:50 > 0:43:54who wrote to tell me that his television entertainment
0:43:54 > 0:44:01is constantly ruined by the appearance of a camp old twat,
0:44:01 > 0:44:06who continuously reads his appalling drivel over the air.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09I think a lot of Griff's comedic charm
0:44:09 > 0:44:14was his boyishness, his pudginess.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17He was a bit like me - he'd do anything for a laugh.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20- Don't slurp your orange juice. - What did you say?
0:44:21 > 0:44:25I told you before not to slurp your orange juice.
0:44:26 > 0:44:27You cannot be serious?!
0:44:30 > 0:44:33You cannot be serious!
0:44:33 > 0:44:35I did not slurp my orange juice!
0:44:35 > 0:44:37I did not slurp my drink! I did not slurp!
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Did you hear a sound? Did you hear a sound? Tell me!
0:44:40 > 0:44:44It was quite a classic sketch at the time, McEnroe having breakfast.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48"I cannot believe it! You cannot be serious!"
0:44:48 > 0:44:52For a very learned man, a very wise man, a man you can't get to shut up
0:44:52 > 0:44:56about stuff a lot of the time, because he knows so much about everything,
0:44:56 > 0:45:01he played 'moron' very, very well. Half of his characters seem to be...
0:45:01 > 0:45:07That. That was a Griff Rhys Jones acting masterclass.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11That was a large part of it.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Some of these cases are just plain stupid.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18"Looking at me in a funny way."
0:45:21 > 0:45:24- Is this some kind of joke, Savage? - No, sir.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26And we have some more here.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29"Walking on the cracks in the pavement."
0:45:33 > 0:45:36"Walking in a loud shirt in a built-up area...
0:45:37 > 0:45:39"..during the hours of darkness."
0:45:40 > 0:45:44And "Walking around with an offensive wife."
0:45:46 > 0:45:50Savage was a corker, yeah. It was great.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54Very good at (PUTS ON DOPEY ACCENT) being a bit like that.
0:45:54 > 0:45:56Rowan was brilliant. It was a great idea.
0:45:57 > 0:46:00Savage, why do you keep arresting this man?
0:46:01 > 0:46:03He's a villain, sir.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06- "A villain".- And a jailbird, sir.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09I know he's a jailbird, Savage. He's down in the cells now!
0:46:09 > 0:46:16We're holding him on a charge of "Possession of curly, black hair and thick lips."
0:46:18 > 0:46:20Well...
0:46:20 > 0:46:22Well, there you are, sir.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25- You arrested him, Savage! - Thank you, sir.
0:46:27 > 0:46:28# Let's spend our... #
0:46:28 > 0:46:33Griff's arrival as a full-time member of the team luckily coincided
0:46:33 > 0:46:36with the weird goings-on in pop music videos.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38It was the New Romantic movement.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41"Nice Video, Shame About The Song" sums up the song.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45The video itself became a mammoth industry.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49All sorts of directors started making their name
0:46:49 > 0:46:52producing this flamboyant crap.
0:46:52 > 0:46:58The videos themselves that we were parodying, were already almost beyond parody.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03Actually, to show people we were making fun of it and not just doing another one, was the task.
0:47:03 > 0:47:08# The devil's lunar craft makes swathes in time
0:47:10 > 0:47:14# My Asian brother says
0:47:14 > 0:47:15"Spare me a dime"
0:47:17 > 0:47:19# Nice video
0:47:19 > 0:47:21# Shame about the song
0:47:23 > 0:47:24# Nice video
0:47:24 > 0:47:26# Shame about the song... #
0:47:27 > 0:47:33I think the session where Griff put the vocal on was one of the funniest three hours of my life.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36# The cruel sea
0:47:36 > 0:47:39# Of the heartless earth
0:47:39 > 0:47:43'Something about his innocence of singing badly
0:47:43 > 0:47:46'on the middle of that track and the madness of the video'
0:47:46 > 0:47:48makes it I think very funny.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50I thought I sung it quite well.
0:47:50 > 0:47:52# Nice video
0:47:52 > 0:47:54# Shame about the song
0:47:56 > 0:48:00# Nice video, shame about the song... #
0:48:01 > 0:48:03The songs came thick and fast.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07I Like Trucking was another one that hit the right spot.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12Good news for Rowan - bad news for hedgehogs.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14# I like trucking, I like trucking
0:48:14 > 0:48:17# I like trucking and I like to truck... #
0:48:17 > 0:48:21'Rowan absolutely loved it, because he got to drive an HGV.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24'He's the only comic, that I'm aware of, who has got'
0:48:24 > 0:48:28an HGV licence. It was absolutely fantastic for Rowan, brilliant.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31You couldn't get him out of the bloody lorry, I tell you.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35# I like truckin' I like truckin'... #
0:48:35 > 0:48:38'I can't remember whether it was because they knew I had'
0:48:38 > 0:48:41an HGV licence or because I made the suggestion myself,
0:48:41 > 0:48:43that the I Like Trucking song was contrived.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45'It was thoroughly enjoyable.'
0:48:46 > 0:48:49- #- On the road - You must be tough and ruthless... #
0:48:50 > 0:48:54'It was a rather jolly tune. It was very funny.'
0:48:54 > 0:48:58It had no real point other than that they ran over hedgehogs!
0:48:59 > 0:49:03On screen, it was clear the programme had a winning formula,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06but it was off-screen, with the release of the records and books
0:49:06 > 0:49:08which confirmed that the show was now big news.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12A Not The Nine O'Clock News book came out.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16We went to Oxford to sign it in the Penguin bookshop.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21The queue for people who had come to get their copy of this book,
0:49:21 > 0:49:26stretched all the way down Oxford High Street.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30We just sat there going like this, signing these ruddy books one after the other.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34People filed past all morning, buying these books.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38They had to send off to London for lorry-loads more books to be delivered,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42so that we could sign for this massive crowd that had appeared.
0:49:42 > 0:49:47Your album's gone double platinum and you've knocked Queen off the top of the charts!
0:49:47 > 0:49:48You kind of go, "Good Lord!"
0:49:48 > 0:49:53You mean, 600,000 people last week bought the album?
0:49:53 > 0:49:57That album's success gave us a cheque each that was,
0:49:57 > 0:49:59in those days, beyond the dreams of Croesus.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03I think we got something like 25 grand each.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05I'd rang up my parents and say,
0:50:05 > 0:50:09"Hey, guess what? I just got a cheque for this, that or the other."
0:50:09 > 0:50:12They couldn't believe it. I couldn't either.
0:50:12 > 0:50:18Suddenly, the royalties started to come in, because the record sales were quite bizarrely large.
0:50:18 > 0:50:20My predominant thought was probably,
0:50:20 > 0:50:24"Which model of Aston Martin will this buy me?"
0:50:25 > 0:50:28I suspect that was my priority when looking at a large cheque.
0:50:28 > 0:50:35It was always, immediately, cars that flashed into my head. Thinking, "I can just about run to the V8."
0:50:35 > 0:50:38It was quite a staggering sum of money.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41I remember going to see my agent. He said to me,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45"They've asked if you want to do another one of those record things.
0:50:45 > 0:50:51"Are you interested in doing that? Because you did the first one before you joined me?"
0:50:51 > 0:50:53And I said, "Yes".
0:50:53 > 0:50:56He said, "Did you make any money?"
0:50:56 > 0:50:58"Yes, well, about £30,000."
0:50:58 > 0:51:00And he fell off his chair.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07I'd never seen anybody actually do that. I'd never seen anybody go... Whoa!
0:51:08 > 0:51:11# Super duper, super duper
0:51:11 > 0:51:15# Super duper, super doo... #
0:51:15 > 0:51:17The show was now at the peak of its popularity
0:51:17 > 0:51:22and the hits just kept on coming. Everything was Super Duper.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27# One of us is ugly One of us is cute
0:51:27 > 0:51:30# One of us you'd like to see in her birthday suit
0:51:30 > 0:51:34Two of us write music Two of we are sung
0:51:34 > 0:51:38# Sorry, in translation that line come out wrong
0:51:38 > 0:51:42# But still, super duper It's super duper
0:51:42 > 0:51:45# That we're number one again
0:51:45 > 0:51:49# Singing super duper duper
0:51:49 > 0:51:51# Makes a super-duper refrain... #
0:51:51 > 0:51:55The pressure and the agony and the struggle and all the difficulty
0:51:55 > 0:52:00is repaid by ludicrous success. I mean, fantastic acclaim.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04Their figures, I don't know what they were, but I guess they were in the very high millions -
0:52:04 > 0:52:10up to eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14 million - which are now unthinkable figures.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Not The Nine O'Clock News was the hit comedy show of the day.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17The books and records were flying off the shelves
0:52:17 > 0:52:19and the awards piled up for the whole team,
0:52:19 > 0:52:23especially for the star of the show, Rowan Atkinson.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26Most of the last year of my life has been spent working on
0:52:26 > 0:52:30a notorious programme called Not The Nine O'Clock News.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34And I'd really like to devote this award, as much to myself,
0:52:34 > 0:52:38as to Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones and Pamela Stephenson.
0:52:38 > 0:52:44And to our two producers, our two relatively unsung heroes, John Lloyd and Sean Hardie,
0:52:44 > 0:52:49without whose extraordinary producing talents, the programme would never have happened.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54Earlier today, we at Game For A Laugh came round to his house and cut his wife's head off.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01I hear through my ears that Geoffrey is just coming round the corner.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05Let's see if Geoffrey Lewis is Game For A Laugh.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10SCREAMING FROM HOUSE
0:53:10 > 0:53:12Yes, yes, I think he's found her.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14Let's go and see if Jeffrey Lewis is Game For A Laugh.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18Hello, Geoffrey.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20Oh, God! Oh, God!
0:53:20 > 0:53:23Geoffrey, can I ask you, why you're looking so perturbed?
0:53:24 > 0:53:26My wife!
0:53:26 > 0:53:28Her head!
0:53:28 > 0:53:29Right...
0:53:31 > 0:53:33- You knew?- Yes, Geoffrey, we knew,
0:53:33 > 0:53:36but what you didn't know was that a couple of weeks ago
0:53:36 > 0:53:39your wife rang us up and said you'd be the sort of fellow
0:53:39 > 0:53:41who was...Game For A Laugh!
0:53:43 > 0:53:47Oh, I don't believe it!
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Oh, great!
0:53:50 > 0:53:54This is unbelievable! You mean, you guys cut her head off?
0:53:54 > 0:53:55That's right.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57And I came out and you're...
0:53:59 > 0:54:01- What a bunch of loonies.- Great.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06It was the most successful comedy show in years.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10But keeping it going put more pressure on some than others.
0:54:11 > 0:54:12It was a nightmare of overwork.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15Everything was stressful. We were green with exhaustion.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19We were within an ace of disaster more less every week.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21I thought it was very disorganised.
0:54:21 > 0:54:23We were making it up as we went along.
0:54:23 > 0:54:25We did this insane weekly turnaround.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30The show would go out on a Monday night and on Tuesday we'd have the script meeting.
0:54:30 > 0:54:37Within a week, you've started from no script to a recorded edited programme and a transmission, in a single week.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41The Not The Nine O'Clock News was in a real, um...
0:54:41 > 0:54:42A vortex of filth.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44And greyness.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48And teacups and men who hadn't shaved. It wasn't beautiful,
0:54:48 > 0:54:54the way you see these sexy offices and people coming down with trays of things.
0:54:54 > 0:54:55I don't remember eating.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59It was like being in a boys' dorm.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03My major memory of the show is sitting in a basement in Camden Town
0:55:03 > 0:55:08writing lots and lots. Sometimes you'd watch a show and there would be almost nothing by you.
0:55:08 > 0:55:15It is miraculous what we did and we were only able to do it by basically going without sleep for three months.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18For the actors, it was a very nice job.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20My job I always felt was quite straightforward.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23I just turned up and learnt the scripts and turned up
0:55:23 > 0:55:27on the Sunday and recorded them. It seemed like a very simple job.
0:55:27 > 0:55:33There was always work going on, because there would be a series of sketches that needed to be done.
0:55:35 > 0:55:40And...John would want to rehearse something with whoever was in it
0:55:40 > 0:55:43and the rest of us would read the newspapers
0:55:43 > 0:55:47and fiddle around with scripts that we were trying to work on.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51Or play pinball. A lot of pinball.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58It was partly the joy of having a big, flashing
0:55:58 > 0:56:02colourful thing that you knew nobody else had.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07The Roy Castle Special certainly didn't have a pinball machine.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11It was amazing, the energy and the fire and the creative enthusiasm
0:56:11 > 0:56:13when they were playing pinball.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16Then they'd say, "We better go back to the sketches."
0:56:16 > 0:56:21And everybody would go, "Oh." Just waiting for something funny to be said.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24COMMENTATOR: And a very good evening to you.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29You join us during the final stages of this truly titanic struggle,
0:56:29 > 0:56:32between Dai "Fat Belly" Gutbucket...
0:56:33 > 0:56:38..and the English champion, Tommy "Even Fatter Belly" Belcher.
0:56:39 > 0:56:45It's all down now to this last leg and it's Fat Belly on the oche.
0:56:46 > 0:56:47Game on.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51So, it's Fat Belly to go first.
0:56:52 > 0:56:53And it's a good start.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57Double vodka.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Single pint.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Another double vodka.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12100 milligrams!
0:57:12 > 0:57:14100 milligrams.
0:57:16 > 0:57:19That's a good start for Fat Belly.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22The writers kept the flow of good ideas coming,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26but in the cut and thrust of the script meetings,
0:57:26 > 0:57:28some of the best ones nearly didn't make it.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33I remember John saying, when I handed in the bit of paper saying,
0:57:33 > 0:57:37"Rowan walks along the street, sees a camera and hits a lamp-post"
0:57:37 > 0:57:42saying, "One, it's not funny. Two, you don't expect me to pay you for that?"
0:57:42 > 0:57:46I turned over the page, there was an interesting set up.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48"What's the joke?" He said, "That's the joke."
0:57:48 > 0:57:53I said, I don't know why you...
0:57:53 > 0:57:56I probably got a bit cross, because we were all under such pressure
0:57:56 > 0:57:59all the time, you think, "What the hell is this, Richard?
0:57:59 > 0:58:02"There's no joke in it." He said, "No, please, please.
0:58:02 > 0:58:04"Can we try it? Rowan was very keen.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08It was just something that felt funny -
0:58:08 > 0:58:12a sort of gimpish self-consciousness.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19And the minute you see it on camera, you go,
0:58:19 > 0:58:21'"What a fool!" Of course, it's brilliant.'
0:58:23 > 0:58:25'You know, this sweet reaction'
0:58:25 > 0:58:30of the self-conscious man, who has no performing talent per se.
0:58:30 > 0:58:34It's just, what you do if you notice someone.
0:58:34 > 0:58:36You know,
0:58:36 > 0:58:39I'm not sure where to put myself and so, inevitably,
0:58:39 > 0:58:41you're going to hit something eventually.
0:58:41 > 0:58:43It's not about bumping into the tree.
0:58:43 > 0:58:47It's about the vanity of looking into the camera and then
0:58:47 > 0:58:50you don't pay attention because you think, "Oh, I'm being filmed."
0:58:50 > 0:58:55It's absolutely charming and probably the most famous Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch there is.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58So, bully for me. Just shows how useless I was.
0:59:17 > 0:59:24We tried to work out things which were odd and which Rowan and I'd sort of do more on stage,
0:59:24 > 0:59:31rather than writing satirical things about trade unions or train timetables or stuff like that.
0:59:31 > 0:59:35Good evening, sir, May I take your coat for you?
0:59:35 > 0:59:37Please, yes.
0:59:44 > 0:59:46Would you like me to take your jacket for you?
0:59:46 > 0:59:47Yes, please.
0:59:54 > 0:59:58Rowan is a complete performer. I mean, everything's important.
0:59:58 > 1:00:01The size of the shot, the body position,
1:00:01 > 1:00:06tiny little tweaks of the face, the timbre of the voice, the pauses...
1:00:06 > 1:00:10You know, everything. The lines, as we know, Rowan can do an awful lot
1:00:10 > 1:00:13of things just by going "um" several times
1:00:13 > 1:00:17or going "Bob". Or "gram-o-phone".
1:00:17 > 1:00:18- Ahem, excuse me.- Yeah?
1:00:18 > 1:00:21I want to buy a gramophone.
1:00:21 > 1:00:24- A what?- A gramophone.
1:00:24 > 1:00:26Gram-o-phone?
1:00:26 > 1:00:28A gramophone, yes.
1:00:28 > 1:00:32I don't think we've got any gram-o-phones here, granddad.
1:00:32 > 1:00:35'Yes, his comedy seems to come from'
1:00:35 > 1:00:39his physical presence - his body, his face, his limbs and his voice.
1:00:39 > 1:00:43So, you've got your deck, do you want a Dolby with it?
1:00:43 > 1:00:44Er, yes please.
1:00:44 > 1:00:46GRIFF LAUGHS RAUCOUSLY
1:00:46 > 1:00:49You only get Dolby with tape recorders, chief, all right?
1:00:49 > 1:00:52- Do you want an amp? - No, I won't bother with...
1:00:52 > 1:00:53GRIFF LAUGHS RAUCOUSLY
1:00:53 > 1:00:55You won't hear anything without one.
1:00:55 > 1:00:58Oh, sorry, of course. Yes, I want an amp, yes, an amp.
1:00:58 > 1:01:00What sort of output are you wanting?
1:01:00 > 1:01:02What sort have you got?
1:01:02 > 1:01:05Ah... No, no clues.
1:01:08 > 1:01:09About medium.
1:01:10 > 1:01:12How many watts, exactly?
1:01:12 > 1:01:15I should think about, erm, about three.
1:01:15 > 1:01:17GRIFF LAUGHS RAUCOUSLY
1:01:17 > 1:01:18No, 2000.
1:01:20 > 1:01:21500?
1:01:21 > 1:01:23- 30?- 30?- 30.
1:01:23 > 1:01:2630. So, you know all about it now, then, do you?
1:01:26 > 1:01:27You want a 30 watt amp?
1:01:27 > 1:01:29- A 30 watt amp.- Do you want speakers?
1:01:29 > 1:01:32- Yes.- Do you want rumble filters?- Yes.
1:01:32 > 1:01:34- Do you want a bag on your head?- Yes.
1:01:34 > 1:01:36There we are, have a bag on your head.
1:01:37 > 1:01:41There was nothing like him on the television at the time.
1:01:41 > 1:01:48There was no one as funny bones, no one as innate, no one as just, you cannot take your eyes off him,
1:01:48 > 1:01:56because he will do that dopey face, that thing and you will want to watch that.
1:01:56 > 1:01:58A flash bulb suspended
1:01:58 > 1:02:04here, to be connected to an aerial receiver, here.
1:02:04 > 1:02:08So now, when this discreet accessory is worn,
1:02:08 > 1:02:13even a deaf person knows when the phone is ringing.
1:02:13 > 1:02:16PHONE RINGS
1:02:22 > 1:02:24'Hello. Hello?
1:02:26 > 1:02:27'Is anyone there?
1:02:28 > 1:02:30'Hello?.. Hello?'
1:02:30 > 1:02:33'I remember practising in front of a mirror.
1:02:33 > 1:02:36'I remember when, I sort of, first discovered, you know,
1:02:36 > 1:02:40how extreme my facial expressions could be for comic effect.
1:02:40 > 1:02:43And practising them and thinking, "Gosh, that looks pretty funny.
1:02:43 > 1:02:45"I think I'll try that tomorrow night
1:02:45 > 1:02:50"in front of a paying audience and see how they react."
1:02:51 > 1:02:56A runny nose cannot be prevented but it can now be cured.
1:02:56 > 1:02:58Contac 1200.
1:02:58 > 1:03:02For fast, effective, painful relief.
1:03:08 > 1:03:14Rowan, Mel, Pamela and Griff, were now television stars and their lives were changing fast.
1:03:14 > 1:03:19They were young and funny and now they were also rich and famous.
1:03:19 > 1:03:24It's wonderful to have the wind in your sails, you know? It's wonderful.
1:03:24 > 1:03:27And you think, "Yeah, why not, actually? Why not? Yep."
1:03:27 > 1:03:31There's nothing better than being 26, 27
1:03:31 > 1:03:34and being able to walk into a room
1:03:34 > 1:03:38and everybody turns around and goes, "There he is. Look who it is."
1:03:40 > 1:03:45Good evening, smarm, smarm, very good to be here with you again and tonight I am grovelling
1:03:45 > 1:03:50to one of the most extraordinary, how should I put it, smarm, smarm, performers of our generation.
1:03:50 > 1:03:53Tonight, I'm grovelling to Billy Connolly.
1:03:54 > 1:03:57The appearance on the show of the very famous Billy Connolly
1:03:57 > 1:04:01started off as a day of mutual admiration between showbiz chums.
1:04:01 > 1:04:04It soon turned into a major, life-changing event.
1:04:04 > 1:04:09Scotsmen, drunk Scotsmen, especially drunk Glaswegians,
1:04:09 > 1:04:11walk with one leg like that.
1:04:22 > 1:04:26And they ask everybody if they're all right, all the time.
1:04:26 > 1:04:28"You a' right?"
1:04:30 > 1:04:32Billy was a phenomenon in those days.
1:04:32 > 1:04:34Billy was the only...
1:04:34 > 1:04:41I mean, now we're used to the idea of stand-up comedians traipsing around England and filling halls.
1:04:41 > 1:04:43Billy was the only person who did it.
1:04:43 > 1:04:45He would go around Britain, like a rock star,
1:04:45 > 1:04:49playing these massive halls to huge acclaim,
1:04:49 > 1:04:56as, principally, the only stand-up comedian of his kind in the country.
1:04:56 > 1:04:59And so, we were in awe of him, we worshipped him.
1:04:59 > 1:05:01One of the first things I did was with Rowan Atkinson.
1:05:01 > 1:05:05He interviewed me like a Parkinson kind of guy,
1:05:05 > 1:05:11but the whole theme was that I was working class and interesting
1:05:11 > 1:05:15and he was a toff and deeply patronising.
1:05:15 > 1:05:18You know, I remember him, he said,
1:05:18 > 1:05:21"Grovel, grovel" he kept saying, "grovel".
1:05:21 > 1:05:24And then he said, "And you come from Glasgow?" And I said, "Yeah."
1:05:24 > 1:05:28And he said, "Oh, Glasgow, Gorbals, Gorbals, grovel, grovel."
1:05:28 > 1:05:29Let's get down to you.
1:05:29 > 1:05:33Apparently, you were born on your kitchen floor? How interesting.
1:05:33 > 1:05:36- We'd just moved to the Gorbals... - Oh, grovel, Gorbal, grovel.
1:05:36 > 1:05:42But I had a hugely high opinion of them and they were flying, they were rock and roll.
1:05:42 > 1:05:47When they did private appearances, the streets were jammed with people.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51So they were big, big news.
1:05:56 > 1:06:00We asked Billy Connolly to be on the show because I really wanted him
1:06:00 > 1:06:03to get married to Pamela. I'll say no more about that.
1:06:03 > 1:06:06Well, I didn't really know who Billy was.
1:06:06 > 1:06:10Because I was just this young Australian.
1:06:10 > 1:06:13I hadn't really seen him - at all. I'd actually never seen him.
1:06:16 > 1:06:17Yeah, you.
1:06:17 > 1:06:22- Aye.- Has Jimmy "Chainsaw" McPhee been in here tonight?
1:06:22 > 1:06:24No.
1:06:25 > 1:06:27What about Big Jock, "The Knee Cruncher"?
1:06:28 > 1:06:30No.
1:06:30 > 1:06:32ROWAN WHISPERS
1:06:32 > 1:06:36What about "Stick The Boot In His Head And Ask Questions Later" McDonald?
1:06:38 > 1:06:40No.
1:06:40 > 1:06:41"Hacksaw" Haggerty, the hen choker?
1:06:42 > 1:06:43No.
1:06:45 > 1:06:48Phew! Can I have a Campari and soda, please?
1:06:49 > 1:06:52We got to the rehearsal room and I saw...
1:06:52 > 1:06:55I was in a corridor and they were in a room,
1:06:55 > 1:06:58they'd been rehearsing for a while when I arrived.
1:06:58 > 1:07:02And there was a doorway and Pamela came past the door
1:07:02 > 1:07:08on a tea trolley, like Superman, horizontal on the top!
1:07:09 > 1:07:11And I thought, "This is different!"
1:07:11 > 1:07:17I mean he was just this huge, Scottish beast.
1:07:17 > 1:07:19I mean, I thought he was some kind of animal.
1:07:22 > 1:07:25And he ate his meal, the fish meal, with his hands.
1:07:25 > 1:07:29He didn't pick up a knife and fork at any point.
1:07:29 > 1:07:33And, actually, I thought that was rather attractive.
1:07:33 > 1:07:38Well, hello, and tonight I'm talking to Billy Connolly,
1:07:38 > 1:07:41a well-known Scottish comedian.
1:07:41 > 1:07:45He was absolutely brilliant and you could see there was a chemistry
1:07:45 > 1:07:47with him and Pamela straight away. The swine(!)
1:07:47 > 1:07:51When I look at that sketch, the Janet Street-Porter one,
1:07:51 > 1:07:57I can definitely see a spark between us, that was more than just a comic spark.
1:07:58 > 1:08:02It was a love affair made in the Not The Nine O'Clock News studio.
1:08:04 > 1:08:09Billy, I understand that when you first came to England,
1:08:09 > 1:08:12people had a lot of trouble understanding your accent.
1:08:12 > 1:08:15LAUGHTER
1:08:15 > 1:08:16Is that right?
1:08:16 > 1:08:17Sorry?
1:08:20 > 1:08:23The affair with Billy Connolly made Pamela Stephenson
1:08:23 > 1:08:27even more famous than she was before. Now, Pamela was a news story herself.
1:08:28 > 1:08:33Pamela went through, as you know, a sort of astral fame phase where she was probably the most famous
1:08:33 > 1:08:38woman in the country, along with Princess Diana, with whom she was quite friendly.
1:08:38 > 1:08:41And she was on the front page of the paper more or less every day.
1:08:41 > 1:08:45Pam became a very big star, very quickly.
1:08:45 > 1:08:49And often for... because she was a pretty woman,
1:08:49 > 1:08:51apart from being a very good performer.
1:08:51 > 1:08:56So, she was very high profile in the tabloids and all the rest of it.
1:08:56 > 1:09:02And so she was caught between being very famous, by that stage, and also having to try to draw
1:09:02 > 1:09:05the borderline between that and what was going on in her private life.
1:09:05 > 1:09:10So, she was under a lot of pressure in that way, much more pressure than the boys were, really.
1:09:12 > 1:09:16Pamela said to me once, "The first six months of being famous is like
1:09:16 > 1:09:19"being totally high, like being on drugs on a skiing holiday.
1:09:19 > 1:09:22"And the rest of it is just rubbish. It's awful."
1:09:22 > 1:09:25Let me see your tongue, that's right. That looks nice.
1:09:25 > 1:09:28'It was definitely quite overwhelming, everything.'
1:09:28 > 1:09:31I remember feeling very out of control.
1:09:32 > 1:09:33Pamela Stephenson.
1:09:33 > 1:09:35APPLAUSE
1:09:35 > 1:09:38'Parky invited me to go on with Reggie Bosanquet.'
1:09:38 > 1:09:42And I seem to remember, sort of,
1:09:42 > 1:09:44I don't know, climbing on top of him at one point.
1:09:44 > 1:09:47I think I did something really... pretty out there.
1:09:47 > 1:09:49Stand up for me.
1:09:51 > 1:09:52I mean, if I was sort of...
1:09:52 > 1:09:53Michael!
1:09:59 > 1:10:00Oh, my God!
1:10:01 > 1:10:05'I remember his toupee taking a full 360 turn at the time.'
1:10:05 > 1:10:10And, yeah, I don't know what I was thinking.
1:10:10 > 1:10:14Michael, I didn't realise it was this kind of show.
1:10:16 > 1:10:18She was always getting into trouble
1:10:18 > 1:10:21by doing untoward things on Parkinson
1:10:21 > 1:10:25and slightly ill-judged piece of bad luck, but again,
1:10:25 > 1:10:28it was a lark and what would have been very larky
1:10:28 > 1:10:31with your friends on a stag night or something,
1:10:31 > 1:10:36not necessarily acceptable at ten o'clock on BBC One.
1:10:38 > 1:10:42Pamela wasn't the only wild thing on TV in 1979.
1:10:42 > 1:10:48There was also David Attenborough's encounter with a gorilla on Life On Earth,
1:10:48 > 1:10:52which inspired a much weirder encounter on Not The Nine O'Clock News.
1:10:53 > 1:10:57Professor. Can Gerald really speak as we would understand it?
1:10:57 > 1:11:00Oh yes, yes, yes. He can speak a few actual words.
1:11:00 > 1:11:03Of course it was extremely difficult to get him even to this stage.
1:11:03 > 1:11:10When I first captured Gerald in the Congo, '67 I think it was...
1:11:10 > 1:11:12GORILLA: '68.
1:11:13 > 1:11:19We had a kind of strange, kind of, off-key notion of a man who's been trying to raise a gorilla
1:11:19 > 1:11:26and has become obsessed and is clearly in love with this gorilla, but daren't say it.
1:11:26 > 1:11:30Yes, I was going to ask you actually, Gerald, do you have a mate?
1:11:30 > 1:11:32Yeah, I've got lots of mates.
1:11:32 > 1:11:37There's the professor, his son, Toby, there's Raymond next door...
1:11:37 > 1:11:39No, actually, what...
1:11:39 > 1:11:42Oh, I see, I see what you mean. Er, crumpet, crumpet.
1:11:42 > 1:11:46- Well...- You didn't tell me you were friendly with Raymond.
1:11:46 > 1:11:48Do I have to tell you everything?
1:11:48 > 1:11:52'It's brilliant teamwork between the three of them because'
1:11:52 > 1:11:59Mel is playing a fantastic straight performer and Pamela is brilliant, I mean, that's wonderful acting.
1:11:59 > 1:12:02Those flat looks she gives as the interviewer.
1:12:02 > 1:12:06You can just see her brain going, "This is going horribly wrong.
1:12:06 > 1:12:07"My television career is over."
1:12:07 > 1:12:12You can almost hear the producer, in her ear, shouting, "Get them off, get them off!"
1:12:13 > 1:12:16There was a lot of work, it was slow and difficult.
1:12:16 > 1:12:19I had to do a lot of work on a one-to-one basis...
1:12:19 > 1:12:21Yes, if I might just butt in at this point, Tim,
1:12:21 > 1:12:25I think I should point out that I have done a considerable amount of work
1:12:25 > 1:12:30on this project myself and if I may say so, you're teaching methods leave a bit to be desired.
1:12:30 > 1:12:35- That's a bit ungrateful, isn't it?- And your diction, for instance, is not really...
1:12:35 > 1:12:39I'm sorry, can I put this into some sort of perspective, when I CAUGHT Gerald in '68...
1:12:39 > 1:12:41he was completely wild.
1:12:41 > 1:12:43Wild?! I was absolutely livid!
1:12:43 > 1:12:47God knows how you make that terrible gorilla costume look funny.
1:12:47 > 1:12:49Because it's, you know,
1:12:49 > 1:12:52not wanting to knock what we could afford as a costume,
1:12:52 > 1:12:57but it really doesn't stand up as anything like the Planet of the Apes, does it?
1:12:57 > 1:13:01But there was something in the body attitude that was perfectly possible
1:13:01 > 1:13:07to convey while in a gorilla suit and it was nice to discover that,
1:13:07 > 1:13:12you know, the body language could be...heard.
1:13:12 > 1:13:14I know you've never got on with my mother...
1:13:14 > 1:13:17She didn't exactly like me, did she?
1:13:17 > 1:13:19She got on perfectly well with David Attenborough.
1:13:19 > 1:13:23David Attenborough! All I ever hear is David bloody Attenborough!
1:13:23 > 1:13:25- Leave Dave out of this. - Shut up and have a banana.
1:13:25 > 1:13:29'I remember that I couldn't see the plate,'
1:13:29 > 1:13:35and I couldn't feel my mouth. It was very difficult physically, very challenging sketch.
1:13:35 > 1:13:39The programme had gained a reputation for being edgy and outrageous.
1:13:39 > 1:13:42Every week, they were accused of going too far.
1:13:42 > 1:13:48But when complaints started coming from other comedians, it was time to fight back.
1:13:48 > 1:13:51There were a lot of snide remarks that used to go on
1:13:51 > 1:13:54about how Not The Nine O'clock News was rude and juvenile,
1:13:54 > 1:13:55and how pathetic it was
1:13:55 > 1:14:02and shouldn't be allowed, and I think Ronnie Barker was not averse to dropping those sort of remarks.
1:14:02 > 1:14:06A tragic accident has ended the career of Plastex, the amazing plastic man.
1:14:06 > 1:14:10He sat on a radiator today and made a complete pool of himself.
1:14:10 > 1:14:11LAUGHTER
1:14:11 > 1:14:14I went through a whole episode of the Two Ronnies,
1:14:14 > 1:14:18counting all the rude jokes, and there were 54 in half an hour.
1:14:18 > 1:14:20They were just unbelievably smutty.
1:14:20 > 1:14:25But they posed as this thing, that they weren't rude, because they disguised it, and we were rude
1:14:25 > 1:14:28because we actually said bloody rather than ruddy.
1:14:28 > 1:14:30# I had a nice little donkey
1:14:30 > 1:14:33# I fed it on nettles and grass
1:14:33 > 1:14:35# One day my donkey went wonky
1:14:35 > 1:14:38# And now I can't sit on my ass... #
1:14:39 > 1:14:43I mean, we were all sick of old-school comedians
1:14:43 > 1:14:46pretending to almost say a rude word and then not saying it.
1:14:46 > 1:14:51And, you know, while Ronnie Barker is a legend,
1:14:51 > 1:14:58it's not the greatest comedy device in the world to ALMOST say, "Poo."
1:14:59 > 1:15:04The Not The Nine O'Clock News team didn't have to wait long before a chance came
1:15:04 > 1:15:08to show Ronnie Barker just how far the rudeness envelope could be pushed.
1:15:08 > 1:15:11Good evening, it's wonderful to be with you again, isn't it, Ronnie?
1:15:11 > 1:15:14No. It's a bleeding pain in the arse, frankly.
1:15:14 > 1:15:17But, you will be reassured to know we'll be using exactly
1:15:17 > 1:15:20- the same sort of material... - As we've used for the last 20 years.
1:15:20 > 1:15:24In the fourth series, we had this brilliant sketch from a guy
1:15:24 > 1:15:27who was a disaffected Two Ronnies writer.
1:15:27 > 1:15:31And it was an absolute assassination thing, which is to say, when he says
1:15:31 > 1:15:33cobblers, I mean testicles, and so on.
1:15:33 > 1:15:36And it was a brilliant destruction of the Two Ronnies.
1:15:36 > 1:15:39Later in the show, I shall be implying, through smutty innuendo...
1:15:39 > 1:15:42- ..that I have a very small part... - And I have an enormous penis.
1:15:42 > 1:15:47They basically called the bluff of innuendo and the Two Ronnies chose to be very offended by this.
1:15:47 > 1:15:51What we did was just to say, "This is what it would sound like
1:15:51 > 1:15:54"if they actually said what they were pretending to say."
1:15:54 > 1:15:57And all the way through the show, I shall frequently cry...
1:15:57 > 1:15:59- Spectacles...- Meaning testicles.
1:15:59 > 1:16:01- Cobblers...- By which he means testicles.
1:16:01 > 1:16:03- Didgeridoos... - By which he means penises.
1:16:03 > 1:16:05- Water melons.- Breasts.
1:16:05 > 1:16:08- Articles.- Testicles again. - Bristols.- Breasts again.
1:16:08 > 1:16:12- And bouncers.- Breasts or testicles.
1:16:12 > 1:16:16I mean, the Two Ronnies always ended with a big musical number where they
1:16:16 > 1:16:23basically sort of marked time and did sort of silly rhymes marching up and down upon the spot, spot, spot.
1:16:23 > 1:16:25You see, I used to love the show.
1:16:25 > 1:16:30It's just a bit old-fashioned and, in the way that young people,
1:16:30 > 1:16:36as we were in those days, have to, you know, slag those things off, and so we did. Slag them, we did.
1:16:38 > 1:16:41# We like birds We're ornithologists
1:16:41 > 1:16:43# Orni-porno-thologists
1:16:43 > 1:16:46# I've got a nice pair of binacu-nocul-arse
1:16:46 > 1:16:49# You can stick them up on your tripod... #
1:16:49 > 1:16:53It was quite malicious, actually. It was quite funny.
1:16:53 > 1:16:57It was about the choreography, "We're marching up and down upon the spot, spot, spot.
1:16:57 > 1:17:01"Cos the sodding choreographer's a twat, twat, twat."
1:17:01 > 1:17:03# And I couldn't care a jot if we're military men or not
1:17:03 > 1:17:05- # With a bum...- Tit
1:17:05 > 1:17:08- # How's your father - Oops!- A-diddly-ay-do...
1:17:08 > 1:17:11# ..Just crawling through the grass Thistles in me hair
1:17:11 > 1:17:13# And bracken up me anus
1:17:13 > 1:17:15# Thrilled to bits if I see a pair of tits
1:17:15 > 1:17:18# And I love to watch the sun go down
1:17:18 > 1:17:21# Oh, vagina, oh, vagina Over Chinatown... #
1:17:21 > 1:17:26Poor old Ronnie Barker saw this and thought, "OK, what bastards."
1:17:26 > 1:17:30I mean, he hated it. And he was what they call in the BBC,
1:17:30 > 1:17:34there's always, at any time, the BBC have a thing called the guv'nor.
1:17:36 > 1:17:39Well, he was the guv'nor in those days.
1:17:39 > 1:17:41And he had a lot of clout.
1:17:41 > 1:17:46Although, all power to everyone's elbow, it went out and that was it.
1:17:46 > 1:17:49Sorry if it offends you but there you go.
1:17:49 > 1:17:51Ronnie Corbett loved it.
1:17:51 > 1:17:53# J Arthur Rank and the titty bum Urals
1:17:53 > 1:17:55# Nippling away with a pain in the Balkans
1:17:55 > 1:17:57# Spotty botty wee-wee piddling about
1:17:57 > 1:17:59# In the Jimmy Riddle camiknicker orchestra
1:17:59 > 1:18:00# Knickers up and down to me willy bum gooly
1:18:00 > 1:18:02# Knockers to the mammary Nympho beaver
1:18:02 > 1:18:04# Knackers in the Baltic clappering away
1:18:04 > 1:18:05# So we knicker and we knacker and we knocker all day
1:18:05 > 1:18:07# Knickers up and down to me willy bum gooly
1:18:07 > 1:18:09# Knockers to the mammary nympho beaver
1:18:09 > 1:18:10# Knackers in the Baltic clappering away
1:18:10 > 1:18:12# So we knicker and we knacker and we knocker
1:18:12 > 1:18:14# And we knacker and we knocker all day! #
1:18:14 > 1:18:16I didn't want to do it at the time, anyway.
1:18:16 > 1:18:18Not because, not because...
1:18:18 > 1:18:24I just didn't see what the big satirical edge was in having a go at The Two Ronnies.
1:18:24 > 1:18:27Griff, I think, met Ronnie Corbett at a party and he said,
1:18:27 > 1:18:30"We shouldn't make jokes about Ronnie Corbett. He's very nice."
1:18:30 > 1:18:33And I thought that's when I knew I'd lost everybody, you know?
1:18:33 > 1:18:37That you are...that the famous are different from us.
1:18:39 > 1:18:43The Fab Four had gone from a tight-knit team of unknowns
1:18:43 > 1:18:47to a collection of ambitious stars with big career plans.
1:18:47 > 1:18:50Rowan, who was the only real technologist amongst us said,
1:18:50 > 1:18:52"We really ought to do a video from this."
1:18:52 > 1:18:59So he said, "I'll get some video time and I'll cut together a 90-minute special from all the best sketches."
1:18:59 > 1:19:03So he took months doing this and eventually called me and said, "Would you have a look?
1:19:03 > 1:19:05"What do you think? I'm quite pleased."
1:19:05 > 1:19:08So I went and saw this 90-minute video and I watched it
1:19:08 > 1:19:14right the way through and I said, "Rowan, where's Pamela?" He said, "Pamela?"
1:19:14 > 1:19:18I said, "Yes. She doesn't appear to be in it at all.
1:19:18 > 1:19:21"You've managed to take out every frame of Pamela.
1:19:21 > 1:19:24"There wasn't one sketch or song with her in it?" I said.
1:19:24 > 1:19:28He said, "Do you know, I never really thought she was that funny."
1:19:28 > 1:19:30I said, "Yes, but, Rowan,
1:19:30 > 1:19:33"She's one of four people." So that never saw the light of day.
1:19:33 > 1:19:36But that was how strongly he felt, I think.
1:19:36 > 1:19:39There wasn't a lot of love lost between them towards the end.
1:19:39 > 1:19:44There were rumours of various misunderstandings, shall we put it,
1:19:44 > 1:19:47between the female and male members of the cast.
1:19:47 > 1:19:50And I think they became
1:19:50 > 1:19:54a bit of a more formidable problem as time went on.
1:19:54 > 1:19:57I think there was a lot of strain in there as well.
1:19:57 > 1:20:01There was a lot of stress and strain between people, individuals.
1:20:01 > 1:20:04You know, bits of jealousy
1:20:04 > 1:20:08and all that crap that goes on in shows like that.
1:20:08 > 1:20:12I was always a bit too much of a sexpot or something.
1:20:12 > 1:20:15I was always sort of interested in being attractive.
1:20:15 > 1:20:17And you have to kind of drop that
1:20:17 > 1:20:20if you want to be matey with the boys and get on with them.
1:20:20 > 1:20:23I think they were, understandably, a bit wary of me.
1:20:23 > 1:20:26I think it was a bit...
1:20:26 > 1:20:28electric in there.
1:20:28 > 1:20:32Even when I was working with them, you could see the shape of it.
1:20:32 > 1:20:36You know, the way they hung out, physically.
1:20:36 > 1:20:38They were there and he was there and she was there.
1:20:38 > 1:20:40You could see the shape of it all.
1:20:40 > 1:20:44It happens with bands, it happens with most performing teams
1:20:44 > 1:20:48that it starts off tentatively, you get a period of time...
1:20:48 > 1:20:52It's only a matter of time where it's all gelling
1:20:52 > 1:20:55and then things start breaking down.
1:20:55 > 1:21:01Dennis, wilt thou leave this woman who is thy wedded wife?
1:21:01 > 1:21:08Dost thou dislike her, despise her, hate the sight of the moth-eaten Snoopy doll she's had since college,
1:21:08 > 1:21:12and despise her brother, the chartered surveyor
1:21:12 > 1:21:17who invites himself for dinner and drinks thy scotch after ye have gone to bed?
1:21:17 > 1:21:25Dost thou dislike her mother, hate her cooking, get irritated that she picks at her toenails in bed
1:21:25 > 1:21:30and that the clippings somehow find their way into that little crack in the side of the duvet?
1:21:30 > 1:21:33And wilt thou forsake her for as long as ye both shall live?
1:21:33 > 1:21:35I will.
1:21:35 > 1:21:40Muriel, wilt thou leave this drunken shit who is thy wedded husband?
1:21:40 > 1:21:46Not The Nine O'Clock News had reached the top of the comedy hill.
1:21:46 > 1:21:52They were now faced with a big decision - take it to the next level or quit while they were ahead.
1:21:52 > 1:21:55We had an empire, we had a franchise.
1:21:55 > 1:22:00And what I wanted to do was break into America and I wanted to do movies.
1:22:00 > 1:22:02And I, you know, I wanted to...
1:22:03 > 1:22:06..to make something that would last forever.
1:22:06 > 1:22:09Sean and I asked the cast, the full cast, to dinner.
1:22:09 > 1:22:14And the proposal that we were going to make was that we were going to do exactly what the Pythons had done,
1:22:14 > 1:22:18which was they started Monty Python Productions and then we would go on doing as we had done.
1:22:18 > 1:22:22Very successful books. One of the books sold a million copies.
1:22:22 > 1:22:25The Not The Nine O'Clock News books were very successful in their own right.
1:22:25 > 1:22:30And Rowan said... These were not his words, they were the words of Richard Armitage, his agent,
1:22:30 > 1:22:34of whom I spoke earlier, the man with the huge cigar, who said,
1:22:34 > 1:22:38"I don't think you should play with the second 11 any more."
1:22:38 > 1:22:40And that's what Rowan passed on to us.
1:22:40 > 1:22:44He said, "My agent thinks I shouldn't play with the second 11 any more."
1:22:44 > 1:22:47And he prefaced it by saying, "You're all very nice people
1:22:47 > 1:22:50"and I like you a great deal and you are all very talented."
1:22:50 > 1:22:52I remember thinking, "Gosh...
1:22:56 > 1:22:59"There are people here
1:22:59 > 1:23:04"with stronger ambitions to be these big international stars than I."
1:23:04 > 1:23:08Rowan then left the restaurant and everybody else got fantastically drunk
1:23:08 > 1:23:12because we all thought, "That's the end of our career, basically."
1:23:12 > 1:23:17And had to go in the next day and be polite to each other in rehearsal, which was pretty tricky.
1:23:17 > 1:23:20It was rather weird when it all finished.
1:23:20 > 1:23:22It was sort of, "Oh, right.
1:23:22 > 1:23:25"What do we do now?" I'd left the BBC and didn't have a job.
1:23:25 > 1:23:29I seriously did not know what I was supposed to do.
1:23:29 > 1:23:31Retrospectively, I'd like to apologise
1:23:31 > 1:23:35for my high-handed attitude towards the whole thing.
1:23:35 > 1:23:38You know, you won't get Rowan being rude to people.
1:23:38 > 1:23:39He doesn't do, "rude to people."
1:23:39 > 1:23:43He was passing on a remark from somebody else.
1:23:43 > 1:23:50It would have been an odd thing had he stayed in a topical weekly TV show forever.
1:23:50 > 1:23:51It would just have been odd.
1:23:51 > 1:23:57You're talking much more kind of Chaplin, Jacques Tati-type character and that...
1:23:57 > 1:24:01that would have needed to find a bigger, wider stage to play on.
1:24:01 > 1:24:05And, boy, did he find a wider stage to play on!
1:24:05 > 1:24:07That's the end of this series.
1:24:07 > 1:24:11It looks as though we're all going our separate ways now.
1:24:11 > 1:24:15We've had some good times and some bad times, haven't we, Mel?
1:24:15 > 1:24:17Yes, Rowan, we have.
1:24:17 > 1:24:20It's easy to be glib, when you're in the middle of that
1:24:20 > 1:24:24and it's been successful and you just go, "Do you know something? I think I'll move on."
1:24:24 > 1:24:28It never makes sense to the public, does it, that kind of thing, ever?
1:24:28 > 1:24:33But I remember it was more of a relief to her than a heartbreak, when it ended.
1:24:33 > 1:24:36But that's been my experience of people in shows like that.
1:24:36 > 1:24:42People in television shows, when it ends, often there's a great relief to everybody.
1:24:42 > 1:24:45Sometimes it isn't later on, but with Pamela, it was.
1:24:45 > 1:24:49It's continued to be a relief. I think she was glad to see the back of it.
1:24:49 > 1:24:54I think I was ready to move on by the time I heard that it was over.
1:24:54 > 1:24:59I mean, people were going their different ways. We were all tired.
1:24:59 > 1:25:03I think it stopped at the right time. If you're going to carry on with that idea,
1:25:03 > 1:25:08you have to do something different - bring new people in or lose some people or both
1:25:08 > 1:25:11or take it in a different direction or try and do something different.
1:25:13 > 1:25:17Not The Nine O'Clock News had come to an end.
1:25:17 > 1:25:23The cast would perform together for one last time at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
1:25:23 > 1:25:28When they walked off stage on the final night, it was all over.
1:25:28 > 1:25:33But Not The Nine O'Clock News had left its mark and no-one would ever forget it.
1:25:36 > 1:25:39My hope is that when people watch it
1:25:39 > 1:25:45they are surprised by how funny it is and that their memory, when they did watch it, was that it was funny.
1:25:45 > 1:25:48And I hope it's still... Some of it holds up.
1:25:48 > 1:25:51Wild? I was absolutely livid!
1:25:51 > 1:25:56BILLY CONNOLLY: The show is as much part of me as it is of Pamela, although she was the show
1:25:56 > 1:26:02and I was only a wee guest but, without the show, my life wouldn't have changed so radically.
1:26:02 > 1:26:08It's a hugely important part of my life.
1:26:08 > 1:26:10Ah! Ah! Ah!
1:26:10 > 1:26:15It seems like, kind of, I went out on a long bender, you know?
1:26:15 > 1:26:18It was a glorious bender I went out on, 30 years ago.
1:26:19 > 1:26:23As a producer, I try not to have any ego about my own work.
1:26:23 > 1:26:25Of course, it's fantastically flawed.
1:26:25 > 1:26:30You probably couldn't watch a whole episode without cringing with embarrassment.
1:26:30 > 1:26:33But there's enough in it to say,
1:26:33 > 1:26:35"Yeah, pretty damn good."
1:26:35 > 1:26:37I look back on it with great affection.
1:26:37 > 1:26:42It was an innocent time and a carefree time. It was the fact that,
1:26:42 > 1:26:48you know, that's what I liked most, really, was the fact that, creatively,
1:26:48 > 1:26:53there were many, many different styles and tones of comedy in there and I enjoyed them all.
1:26:53 > 1:26:57I don't think we realised just how good it was at the time.
1:26:57 > 1:26:59We knew we were successful,
1:26:59 > 1:27:03but did we think we would be talking about it 30 years later?
1:27:03 > 1:27:04Absolutely not.
1:27:04 > 1:27:06It was the show you wanted to watch.
1:27:06 > 1:27:11It was a great, funny show and it was iconoclastic and all the rest of it.
1:27:11 > 1:27:13And satirical and, I mean, it was great.
1:27:13 > 1:27:18And to be part of it was the best time to be alive ever.
1:27:21 > 1:27:27I know that, looking back now, if I watch an old sketch or a bunch of old sketches, I know that I think
1:27:27 > 1:27:31it's a very good programme, which is something one should be very careful about thinking.
1:27:31 > 1:27:34But I think it was brilliant.
1:27:34 > 1:27:37You know, we all have our moment in the sun, I think.
1:27:37 > 1:27:39And we had one, that's for sure.
1:27:39 > 1:27:42# I never thought it would come to this
1:27:42 > 1:27:47# Saying cunnilingus and then walking away
1:27:47 > 1:27:51# But at least it's better than saying goodbye
1:27:51 > 1:27:57# Cos goodbye is the hardest word to say
1:27:57 > 1:27:59# So we sing cunnilingus
1:27:59 > 1:28:02# We've had some fun
1:28:02 > 1:28:05- # Cunnilingus - But what's done is done
1:28:05 > 1:28:07# Cunnilingus
1:28:07 > 1:28:13# You'll soon find someone new who'll never say cunnilingus to you
1:28:13 > 1:28:15# Cunnilingus... #
1:28:15 > 1:28:18Cunnilingus, Mel.
1:28:18 > 1:28:19# Cunnilingus... #
1:28:19 > 1:28:22Cunnilingus, me old mate.
1:28:22 > 1:28:23# Cunnilingus... #
1:28:23 > 1:28:27- Cunnilingus, Pam.- Oh, Griff!
1:28:28 > 1:28:34# Even seeing cunnilingus brings a tear to my eye
1:28:34 > 1:28:36# But at least we never said... #
1:28:36 > 1:28:39- Goodbye.- Goodbye.- Goodbye.