0:00:35 > 0:00:37My turn now, darling.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40It's a funny thing but in the 21st century,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42comedy is no longer a laughing matter
0:00:42 > 0:00:45and is instead very big business indeed.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49You can have a television show that's maybe not watched
0:00:49 > 0:00:54by huge numbers but will sell massive, massive numbers on DVD.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57With millions of pounds in ticket sales, DVD releases
0:00:57 > 0:00:59and branded merchandise at stake,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02comedians now stand to make a fortune if they manage
0:01:02 > 0:01:04to hit the nation's funny bone.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08- Comedy does pay you a lot of money if you get it right.- Hello, Dave.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12Comedy is more of a trade than pretty much anything else
0:01:12 > 0:01:14in the entertainment world.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18We asked 100 people which comedian will land on his feet and get his end away with a cracker...
0:01:18 > 0:01:21A lot of young lads now want to be comedians
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and say, "Oh, look at this", get any woman they want.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Got money, look good, clever,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29on television week in and week out,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33see the riches it brings, the financial gains, and they all want to be like them.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36- Get him off, when's the raffle? - Too much tittering,
0:01:36 > 0:01:38naughty tittermongers here.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42The psychology of a comic is complex,
0:01:42 > 0:01:47a fragile mixture of insecurity and rampant ego.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49I love being watched, I love being noticed,
0:01:49 > 0:01:52I love being laughed at.
0:01:52 > 0:01:54I am topping bills,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57theatres, clubs, anywhere.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00People think of me, I think, as a perfectionist.
0:02:00 > 0:02:0450% of a comic's act is about looking in control.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07The only thing I learnt, right, about child development,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10is they crawl, then they walk,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13then they talk, that's all you need to know.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17It's basically a visit to the pub in reverse.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20I had no act, I was terrible. I wouldn't have given me a job.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25Comedians look to their audience for the love and approval they desperately need.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28- I'm- BLEEP- and I don't give a- BLEEP.- Come on!
0:02:28 > 0:02:31The biggest reward, and ask any comic, he'll tell you the same,
0:02:31 > 0:02:34is to make a room full of people any age laugh.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39But making people laugh comes at a price.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42You can be hurt in there, wounded,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46and nobody knows, you can't let them know.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48There's functioning alcoholics on the circuit.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51I'm in the dressing room before I go on, it's so lonely,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54just waiting, you know, for the clock to go to 8 o'clock.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57You have to keep fighting fit to do stand-up,
0:02:57 > 0:02:58it's a young man's game.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00All right!
0:03:02 > 0:03:04But it wasn't always like this.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07Comedians used to be the lowest of the low in the showbiz world.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10In the music halls of the 1900s,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14comedians didn't really exist, and the nearest equivalents
0:03:14 > 0:03:18were novelty acts who sang songs or recited humorous monologues.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Comics were part of a variety bill,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26they were, in fact, a speciality act, you know, you had a singer,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30you had some comics, you had jugglers, acrobats,
0:03:30 > 0:03:32speciality acts, ventriloquists.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34Comedians were traditionally further down the bill -
0:03:34 > 0:03:38there'd be a second stream comedian and even a top-rung comedian
0:03:38 > 0:03:42would perhaps finish the first half or be the second to the top act.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45But gradually some comedians,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49people like Little Titch who became so popular that they, if you like,
0:03:49 > 0:03:51legitimised the comedy industry,
0:03:51 > 0:03:55they legitimised the comic as a star in his own right.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59While Little Titch could be seen as the first comic to top musical bills
0:03:59 > 0:04:01in the early 1900s,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05by the 1930s, the Victorian style was long gone,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08and the modern comic was born.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12The first comic star was Brighton's cheeky chappie Max Miller,
0:04:12 > 0:04:17who filled the theatres on his own, delighting audiences with his unique saucy style.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19# I am known as the cheeky chappie
0:04:19 > 0:04:20# The things I say are snappy
0:04:20 > 0:04:24# That's why the fruity girls all fall for me... #
0:04:24 > 0:04:28To see Max Miller was wonderful for me, although I didn't understand
0:04:28 > 0:04:32a lot of his risque jokes, because I was very young at the time
0:04:32 > 0:04:35they sent me there and although I'd appreciate his timing
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and when he walked onto the stage,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42when he walked on, I mean his opening line, he'd just walk on,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46the spotlight here, and he would wear this terrible floral outfit -
0:04:46 > 0:04:51it was like overdressed pyjamas he'd wear, and this homburg hat.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54I know exactly what you're saying - "Why's he dressed like that?"
0:04:54 > 0:04:58I tell you why. I am a commercial traveller and I am ready for bed.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01The way he used to just lean on the footlights,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04so that he would get nearer to his audience.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07On the side, in the bar chair with a sewer cat and a whip.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Don't laugh, haven't I got a nice figure, lady?
0:05:09 > 0:05:11No, I have, haven't I, ducky?
0:05:11 > 0:05:14No, honest, no, well, when I am talking! It's rude to interfere.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18I love the speed of his delivery and he is very bold,
0:05:18 > 0:05:20he just kind of played the audience really well.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24He's looking at them all the time, eyes going around the auditorium,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27all the time, everybody feels he's talking to them.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30I went to Blackpool, went round looking for rooms, knocked on a door,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32and the old lady came, a nice lady,
0:05:32 > 0:05:35a little bit and some more, not quite so much and then perhaps.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39And that's all I want, just a little encouragement.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43He was the first "nudge-nudge, wink-wink" comic.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47He never actually said anything
0:05:47 > 0:05:50really, really rude or filthy,
0:05:50 > 0:05:54but he was a great man for innuendo.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58I said, "Could you accommodate me?" She says, "I'm sorry, I'm full up."
0:05:58 > 0:06:01I said, "Squeeze me in the little back room, couldn't you?"
0:06:01 > 0:06:03She said, "I could, but I haven't got time now!"
0:06:03 > 0:06:07Miller's act invariably involved teasing his audience with material
0:06:07 > 0:06:08from his famous joke books,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11the "white book", which contained only clean jokes,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and "the blue book", full of risque material
0:06:14 > 0:06:18which gave rise to the expression "the blue joke".
0:06:18 > 0:06:21I watched Max for lots and lots of times, I never heard him swear,
0:06:21 > 0:06:25I never heard him tell an unpleasant joke.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28It was all seaside postcard stuff.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31I've got new ones on tonight, lady, new ones, all rubber.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Do you wear them, lady? You do, don't you, ducky?
0:06:34 > 0:06:37You want to wear them, they're very unhealthy.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43He was extremely well paid, Max,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46and he was very close with his money as well.
0:06:46 > 0:06:50And he lived in Brighton, that was his home, where he came from.
0:06:50 > 0:06:55And Ted Ray was in a pub with him in Brighton one night, Ted was at the Brighton Hippodrome and he went
0:06:55 > 0:06:58in to the pub next door and there was Max who'd been in to see the show,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01he lived in Brighton, you know, and Max is telling everybody
0:07:01 > 0:07:04about these houses that he owned in Brighton,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08and he was never guilty of buying anybody a drink was Max, you know?
0:07:08 > 0:07:12So Ted said to him, "I have got an idea, Max, you own all these houses,
0:07:12 > 0:07:15"why don't you sell one and buy us a bloody drink."
0:07:15 > 0:07:18And he said, "Very funny," and went home.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23I even played golf with him, and he...
0:07:23 > 0:07:26He was passing my dressing room and he saw the golf clubs there,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28he said, "Do you play, Bruce, do you play?"
0:07:28 > 0:07:30I said, "Yes, I do Max."
0:07:30 > 0:07:32He said, "Fine. We'll have a game.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35"What about Wednesday?" I said, "Wednesday is fine."
0:07:35 > 0:07:38He said, "All right, we'll use your car."
0:07:38 > 0:07:41You see, mean, dead mean, he was supposed to be,
0:07:41 > 0:07:42he wanted to use my car.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45He wasn't a club man,
0:07:45 > 0:07:47I don't think he was a great drinker,
0:07:47 > 0:07:52and he certainly wasn't rude, and wasn't a womaniser.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55What an actor, eh?
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Whilst Miller was the godfather of innuendo, Sid Field,
0:08:01 > 0:08:06who was working at the same time, was the pioneer of character comedy.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11I enjoyed going to Variety after I'd been to the Prince of Wales Theatre
0:08:11 > 0:08:15to see Sid Field in, I think, Piccadilly Hayride
0:08:15 > 0:08:19and I was so astounded by this man,
0:08:19 > 0:08:24this man who could just have people falling, actually falling out of their seats with laughter.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27- Put the ball down.- Right.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29That's right, now make the tee.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31- Make the what?- Make the tee.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33I thought you wanted to play golf?
0:08:33 > 0:08:37- Of course we're going to play golf. - What are you talking about tea for?
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Oh, no make the tee with sand.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44- Phew, I am not drinking that stuff. - What stuff?
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Tea with sand, don't be foolhardy.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48He was Hancock's favourite.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51- Absolutely. - I mean, an idol of Tony's.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56So, you know, there's one man, that was discrimination,
0:08:56 > 0:09:00who thought that Sid Fields was just about the funniest guy around.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03A lot of comedians thought Frankie Howard was an admirer of Sid Field.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06And most of the profession, when you talked to them they said,
0:09:06 > 0:09:08"Yeah, Sid Field, yeah, of course."
0:09:08 > 0:09:13- Where do the motor homes come from? - China.- What part of China?
0:09:13 > 0:09:15Hong-k Kong-k!
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Radio comedy and radio comedians
0:09:19 > 0:09:23had boomed during the war as a way of lifting the nation's spirits,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26but the popularity of television after the Coronation in 1953
0:09:26 > 0:09:29had encouraged many to try the new medium.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31TV, however,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34presented fresh challenges to the comics who wanted to appear on it.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38There were two things that happened almost together -
0:09:38 > 0:09:42that was the advent of television and
0:09:42 > 0:09:45the decease...ment of music hall.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49So these comedians who had made their living year in, year out for 20,
0:09:49 > 0:09:5430, 40 years, by doing tours of the music halls, now had nowhere to go.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58There were no writers, no writers as such.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01You know, I can remember having a battle with
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Bernard Delfont when I directed a show
0:10:04 > 0:10:07with Frankie Howerd at the Prince of Wales.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09And he did, wouldn't believe
0:10:09 > 0:10:12that I wanted money for directing and putting in the script.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15He said, "We have never had to pay people here before for that."
0:10:15 > 0:10:18I said, "Well, you're going to have to pay people in future
0:10:18 > 0:10:22"because a new breed has arrived - they are the scriptwriters."
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Some of our finest comedy scripts were written for Tony Hancock,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32who, in the late '50s, was one of the few comics
0:10:32 > 0:10:35to make a seamless transfer from radio to television.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38The problem with television is that sometimes people
0:10:38 > 0:10:41come on and say, "That's not him, doesn't look anything like him!"
0:10:41 > 0:10:46Because in radio they had their own idea of what people looked like.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56You didn't get his face on radio,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58and you could see
0:10:58 > 0:11:00on television, the vulnerability,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04you just felt underneath all the pomposity
0:11:04 > 0:11:07that, um...
0:11:07 > 0:11:09all he really needed was a cuddle.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Ah. I wonder if the milkman's been.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14I didn't hear him.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Only I would like a cup of tea.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19A cup of tea.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22I would like a nice cup of tea.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Hallo, bruv. Hello, Archie...
0:11:25 > 0:11:29He understood that TV is an intimate medium,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32it's not a loud medium or a brash medium.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36It's small and it's private and it's almost conspiratorial,
0:11:36 > 0:11:42and you get this wonderfully expressive face and small movements.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Oh, ho, ho, ho ah, oh, ah. Oh!
0:11:52 > 0:11:55He was one of the first comedians
0:11:55 > 0:12:00to appear on TV as a complete rounded personality and I think
0:12:00 > 0:12:03he showed in that respect that
0:12:03 > 0:12:06comedy can do everything that drama can and more.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14Tony Hancock was not alone in having an instinctive understanding of TV.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Benny Hill's mastery of visual comedy led him to be given a series
0:12:18 > 0:12:21of sketch shows by the BBC in 1957,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25and he used them to explore and innovate,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28parodying other TV programmes and creating visual effects
0:12:28 > 0:12:32to produce exciting new comedy.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42Benny was the pioneer of sketch shows on TV
0:12:42 > 0:12:44because of their originality.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Some of the things he did were very near genius.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51THUMPING IN TIME TO MUSIC
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Hill's early ideas were so fresh and original,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09many of his sketches have been copied over the years.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27People forget, and I forget myself, that Benny Hill, his first stuff
0:13:27 > 0:13:30before he went...
0:13:30 > 0:13:32Before he went downhill, was very clever indeed.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36Great Britain began transmitting TV programmes in the early '30s
0:13:36 > 0:13:40and the problem confronting producers was not the camera,
0:13:40 > 0:13:41but the microphone.
0:13:41 > 0:13:46# I'm always stuck When I'm not with Susie
0:13:47 > 0:13:51# I'm never knowing where I'm... # SOUNDS DISAPPEARS
0:13:51 > 0:13:53# ..ie...
0:13:53 > 0:13:55# She needs me, she... #
0:13:55 > 0:13:59HE MOUTHS
0:14:01 > 0:14:02# ..ing my... #
0:14:02 > 0:14:04HE MOUTHS
0:14:04 > 0:14:06# I'm...
0:14:06 > 0:14:09# ..usie! #
0:14:09 > 0:14:13He'd adapted this marvellous technique between mime
0:14:13 > 0:14:15and visual comedy.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18He was a tremendous...
0:14:18 > 0:14:20..genius of the visual gag.
0:14:20 > 0:14:25While Benny Hill was pioneering sketch comedy on TV,
0:14:25 > 0:14:28a group of four Oxbridge students -
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Alan Bennett,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34were pushing the boundaries of live sketch revue on the West End stage.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39Beyond The Fringe heralded the arrival of a new era
0:14:39 > 0:14:40in British comedy.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Young men, scarcely boys, tossed aside youthful things
0:14:44 > 0:14:46and grew up overnight in that grimmer game which is war,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49a game where only one side was playing the game.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52Young men flocked to join the few.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58- Please, sir. I want to join the few. - I'm sorry, there are far too many.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03A huge West End hit in 1961, Beyond The Fringe
0:15:03 > 0:15:05was seen to be ahead of its time
0:15:05 > 0:15:09and shocked many with its unashamed attacks on figures of authority.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Dear Prime Minister,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16I am an old-age pensioner
0:15:16 > 0:15:18in Fife,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20living on a fixed income
0:15:20 > 0:15:25of some £2...10s a week.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30And this was a show that went from the Edinburgh Festival to the West End, to Broadway.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33The Queen saw it, Harold Macmillan even went and saw it
0:15:33 > 0:15:37and Peter Cook adlibbed from the stage, you know,
0:15:37 > 0:15:42while Harold Macmillan was watching Harold Macmillan.
0:15:42 > 0:15:48The early '60s were all about satire and the opening of Peter Cook's Establishment Club in Soho
0:15:48 > 0:15:52provided a smoky safe haven for this new breed of political comedy.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55The club was a platform for cutting-edge comic talent,
0:15:55 > 0:16:00as well as a showcase for the grittier American stand-ups.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04It's now got to a point that for a cheap laugh, he just says "snot".
0:16:04 > 0:16:08There's one thing that I can tell you something about snot -
0:16:08 > 0:16:10and that is so unique -
0:16:10 > 0:16:13that you say, "Is that the truth about snot?
0:16:15 > 0:16:18"What a fool I've been.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22"I can't believe after all these years - is that real, documented?"
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Yes, that's the truth about snot.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30And the Establishment was the only place that Lenny Bruce could perform in London.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33The two times I saw him he was absolutely charming
0:16:33 > 0:16:37and the second time was slightly ruined by somebody
0:16:37 > 0:16:40- in the front who was obviously - BLEEP- and, kept heckling
0:16:40 > 0:16:42and he was in one of his benign moods,
0:16:42 > 0:16:46I don't know what he'd taken but he was very civil and carried on.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Finally the man got up in a very resentful way, and said,
0:16:50 > 0:16:53- SLURRING HIS SPEECH:- "Why don't you tell us an English joke?!"
0:16:53 > 0:16:57And Lenny Bruce just looked at him and said, "You are an English joke."
0:16:57 > 0:16:59This is BBC Television.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03AIRCRAFT DROPPING BOMBS
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Eventually, even the BBC woke up to the fact that comedy was changing,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and in 1962 bravely launched That Was The Week That Was,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15a biting live late-night satirical show,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18that was to cause a revolution.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22The idea behind TW3, that it was going to be a topical programme,
0:17:22 > 0:17:25the theory being that
0:17:25 > 0:17:27every weekend is like a mini New Years' Eve
0:17:27 > 0:17:31and you can look back over the week just as you look back over the year,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34and either shrug your soldiers - shrug your shoulders! -
0:17:34 > 0:17:36and be glad that it's over,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39or you can regret that it's passed because you rather enjoyed it,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43but it's got special quality, a punctuation mark at the week's end.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Oh, about this Aitchison thing, Jack.
0:17:46 > 0:17:51It's Harold here. Harold Macmillan.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53M-A-C...
0:17:53 > 0:17:57LAUGHTER
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I am calling from London.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Now, looky here, this thing
0:18:02 > 0:18:06doesn't represent the views of your government, does it? Oh.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09It emptied restaurants and it emptied pubs.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13You went home or somewhere to watch That Was The Week That Was
0:18:13 > 0:18:14because it was live.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18And you saw cameras in shot and people walking about,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22there was an immediacy about that which we hadn't seen on TV before.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26And Ned Sherrin was just the master of it.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28And it was unique.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31I cannot tell new instant Wilson
0:18:31 > 0:18:34from the old pipe-smoking Attlee.
0:18:34 > 0:18:40I cannot tell new instant Wilson from old stab-in-the-back Wilson.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Private Eye came out about that time
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and that was very important as well.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48Suddenly, again it was the anti-establishment feel to it.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51And it wasn't just anti-establishment, comedy was funny
0:18:51 > 0:18:55because you were knocking people in bowler hats and accountants.
0:18:55 > 0:19:01This was the first time in Britain that anyone had been so scathing
0:19:01 > 0:19:05to such a mass audience about the people at the top of society.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Despite the success of satire,
0:19:11 > 0:19:14mainstream comedy continued to thrive and had a new champion
0:19:14 > 0:19:18in the goofy form of Ken Dodd, an old-school comic
0:19:18 > 0:19:22who was enjoying huge success at a time when simply being Liverpudlian
0:19:22 > 0:19:25was a passport to fame and fortune.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29When Max Miller died,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32the biggest tribute anyone made to him was,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35"Variety died 15 years ago.
0:19:35 > 0:19:39"They buried it today with Max Miller." They forgot Ken Dodd.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43My auntie Nelly, big auntie Nelly, she was down on a beach, me big auntie Nelly,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47and a man from Blackpool Corporation said, "Get off the beach.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51"The tide's waiting to come in." Oh, she's big, big!
0:19:51 > 0:19:55I always think of Ken Dodd as like a guy...
0:19:55 > 0:19:58almost like with a machine gun.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00And he has got this machine gun
0:20:00 > 0:20:04and he fires off these jokes to you and in every direction.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09We had a job stuffing the turkey, he kept flying off the perch.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12In the end we had to buy one of those frozen turkeys, you know,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15and me mother put it in the sink to thaw, and me Grandad came out.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20He said, "I see me granny is having a wash in the sink again."
0:20:20 > 0:20:23He really is a bridge back to a time that has almost been forgotten.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28I mean, the sort of Edwardian music hall, he goes right back to that,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31and it's a through line, and not much of this was preserved
0:20:31 > 0:20:33on film or on record or whatever.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38An awful lot of it is still inside Ken Dodd's head.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41However brilliant they are, young stand-ups now don't quite
0:20:41 > 0:20:44come over in quite the same way. You can't work out what it is.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Maybe it's the pure theatricality of people like Doddy,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49but he is just giant.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51It took years to make it big in showbusiness,
0:20:51 > 0:20:55years working the northern clubs, and I've still got the ferret bites!
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Ha, ha, ha!
0:20:58 > 0:21:01What a thrill it is for a struggling artist like myself to stand
0:21:01 > 0:21:05and hear encouraging words, "Get him off! What time's the raffle?"
0:21:10 > 0:21:15Reacting to the changes in comedy taste during the 1970s, Benny Hill
0:21:15 > 0:21:19introduced a more simplistic, bawdier style into his sketch shows,
0:21:19 > 0:21:25a style that would make him a world star, but ultimately prove his undoing.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29I think the Benny Hill Show was set apart from other shows at the time
0:21:29 > 0:21:32because there was really nothing to compare with it.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36There wasn't a show where he had a so-called bevy
0:21:36 > 0:21:39of glamorous young ladies on the show for a start,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41so he got that factor right.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45And if something went down very well in one show, he would capitalise
0:21:45 > 0:21:48and it would probably force him to do
0:21:48 > 0:21:52very similar in a similar show, because he knew that the
0:21:52 > 0:21:54actual format would work very well.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58Benny recycled. It's quite amazing.
0:21:58 > 0:22:04I worked with him quite early on, and then again
0:22:04 > 0:22:09much later, and you suddenly thought...
0:22:09 > 0:22:12..or when I watched things much later, you know, in colour,
0:22:12 > 0:22:15when I'd worked with him in black and white, I thought,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19"I can remember doing that sketch about 20 years ago!"
0:22:19 > 0:22:22He was one of the funniest people on television early on.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25I think the point was it got iterative and didn't go anywhere,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29and we... you know, you can only so many times have the bicycle spoke
0:22:29 > 0:22:32catch the girl's dress and whip it off and, you know...
0:22:32 > 0:22:36The truth is it's funny the first time, the 15th time it becomes voyeuristic and salacious.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41As mainstream humour went downmarket, another group
0:22:41 > 0:22:45of university graduates was taking light entertainment in a whole new direction.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Inspired by the surrealism of Beyond The Fringe, and with an innovative
0:22:49 > 0:22:53stream-of-consciousness approach, Monty Python's Flying Circus
0:22:53 > 0:22:56pushed boundaries of what was considered acceptable
0:22:56 > 0:22:59in both style and content.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09It's very hard in anything to recapture how that felt at the time,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11when Monty Python went out.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15It went out and you really felt, "This is my show, this is for me,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18"made by people who understand what makes me laugh.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22"Not everyone gets it, but I really do get it and this is the funniest thing ever."
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Hampstead wasn't good enough for you, was it?
0:23:25 > 0:23:28You had to go poncing off to Barnsley.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31You and your coal-mining friends.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35- Coal mining is a wonderful thing, Father.- Yeah.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38But it's something you'll never understand. Just look at you.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43Oh, Ken, be careful! You know what he's like after a few novels.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Right, come on, lad. Come on, out with it, what's wrong with me?
0:23:47 > 0:23:50- You tit! - I'll tell you what's wrong with you.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Your head is addled with novels and poems, you come home every evening reeling of Chateau Latour...
0:23:55 > 0:23:58- Don't!- Look what you've done to mother.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02She's worn out meeting film stars, attending premiers and luncheons.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05There's nowt wrong with gala luncheons, lad!
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Sketch shows then were a combination
0:24:08 > 0:24:11of variety and sketches
0:24:11 > 0:24:15and they would have things like a guest star,
0:24:15 > 0:24:18they would have music, they would have dance routines,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20they would speak directly to the camera,
0:24:20 > 0:24:25introduce their guest to the audience and Python did away with all of that.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29- One of t'crossbeams has gone out of skew on t'treadle.- Pardon?
0:24:29 > 0:24:31HE REPEATS FASTER
0:24:31 > 0:24:33I don't understand what you're saying.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36One of the crossbeams has gone out of skew on the treadle.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39But what on earth does that mean?
0:24:39 > 0:24:42I don't know. I was told to say there was trouble at the mill,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45that's all. Didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Our chief weapon is surprise, surprise and fear - fear and surprise.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Our two weapons are fear and surprise and ruthless efficiency.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Our three weapons are fear
0:25:02 > 0:25:04and surprise and ruthless efficiency
0:25:04 > 0:25:07and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope. Our four... No.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Amongst our weapons...
0:25:12 > 0:25:16..are such elements as fear, surprise... I'll come in again.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21Normally, a sketch would have a beginning, a middle and an end,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and possibly a punch-line.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27Well, quite often, none of the sketches...in Python
0:25:27 > 0:25:30had a beginning or an end, or a punch-line.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32He's a chirpy little fellow, ain't he?
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Ain't he a chirpy little fellow, eh?
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Does he talk? Does he talk, eh?
0:25:38 > 0:25:42Of course I can talk. I'm Minister for Overseas Development.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Mrs Thatcher's landslide victory in 1979
0:25:45 > 0:25:49coincided with the arrival of an irreverent sketch show
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and another turning point in the story of comedy.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57A man was arrested today on suspicion of stealing the Queen's handbag.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01He was later released after she failed to pick him out at an identity parade.
0:26:01 > 0:26:06Not The Nine O'Clock News came along in the punk era, and in many ways
0:26:06 > 0:26:11was a return to drums, bass and two guitars in comedy terms.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15And Not The Nine O'Clock News was also topical and satirical
0:26:15 > 0:26:20at a time when topical comedy had been in abeyance for a while, people hadn't been doing it.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23A show like Not The Nine O'Clock News really is...
0:26:23 > 0:26:26It's got all the topicality of TW3
0:26:26 > 0:26:29and all the production values of Monty Python.
0:26:29 > 0:26:32But Monty Python took weeks in filming.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35They'd go to the Welsh mountains and the pub every night
0:26:35 > 0:26:37and we didn't have that.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40Can Gerald really speak as we would understand it?
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Oh, yes, yes, I mean, he can speak a few actual words -
0:26:43 > 0:26:47of course, it was extremely difficult to get him even to this stage.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49When I first...
0:26:49 > 0:26:54When I first captured Gerald in the Congo, '67 I think it was, I...
0:26:54 > 0:26:56'68.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00..'68, there was an awful lot of work to do.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03It was enormously slow and difficult. I had to work with him
0:27:03 > 0:27:05on a one-to-one basis...
0:27:05 > 0:27:08But can I just butt in at this point, Tim,
0:27:08 > 0:27:11I should point out I've done a considerable amount
0:27:11 > 0:27:13of work on this project myself, and if I may say,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16your teaching methods do leave a bit to be desired.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19- A bit ungrateful, isn't it? - Your diction is not really what I...
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Sorry, can I put this into some sort of perspective?
0:27:22 > 0:27:26When I caught Gerald in '68, he was completely wild.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29Wild? I was absolutely livid!
0:27:31 > 0:27:35With Not The Nine O'Clock News, comedy became cool.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39Not The Nine O'Clock News really is the first example of the comedian as rock star.
0:27:39 > 0:27:45You know, where these people had they wanted to, and Rowan did, but had the others wanted to do
0:27:45 > 0:27:46a sell-out tour,
0:27:46 > 0:27:49they could have made any amount of money they wanted to.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53And that was a surprise, it had never really happened before.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59As the '70s gave way to the '80s,
0:27:59 > 0:28:02a revolution was happening in British comedy
0:28:02 > 0:28:05that was to shake the establishment to its very foundations
0:28:05 > 0:28:08and create a new breed of comic who would dominate
0:28:08 > 0:28:11television schedules for a decade to come.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15In the early '80s, a group of performers, writer-comedians
0:28:15 > 0:28:18emerged who were perceived to have a certain political viewpoint
0:28:18 > 0:28:22and certainly had an approach to comedy in the same way punk music
0:28:22 > 0:28:25was a reaction against the concept album and the stadium tours,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29bringing it back to some kids with a mic and simple instruments.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32Alternative comedy, I think, at its core, is about that.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34People often say to me, "Alexei,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38"what is alternative, new-wave Marxist comedy?"
0:28:38 > 0:28:41- And I say, - "BLEEP- off, ya nosey- BLEEP!"
0:28:41 > 0:28:46I was working at the King's Head in about 1980, and I started to see
0:28:46 > 0:28:48posters for alternative comedy
0:28:48 > 0:28:52and for the Strip Club and, for Alexei Sayle and they were called,
0:28:52 > 0:28:56it was called alternative comedy so I'd have already gone a step ahead,
0:28:56 > 0:28:58and they're all about, they are about five years younger
0:28:58 > 0:29:01and just in that five years, everything turned around.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04Before the days of alternative comedy,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08there was talk about people paying their dues on the club circuit
0:29:08 > 0:29:11and there was this vague idea if you wanted to be a comedian,
0:29:11 > 0:29:12you started out when you were about 16
0:29:12 > 0:29:16and you might end up on telly when you were 46 or something -
0:29:16 > 0:29:22alternative comedy was a very can-do art form like that.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28Every revolution starts somewhere, and this one began
0:29:28 > 0:29:31above a strip club in Soho.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36We put adverts in Jewish Chronicle, Grocers' Gazette, Evening Standard,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39Evening News, Punch, and the advert ran
0:29:39 > 0:29:43"Are you doing the wrong job in life? Do you want to become a star?
0:29:43 > 0:29:47"Well, if you want to become a comedian then bring your talent
0:29:47 > 0:29:51"to Britain's newest form of entertainment, the Comedy Store.
0:29:51 > 0:29:56"We will invite the heads of media and we hope to make you a star."
0:29:56 > 0:29:59And we had 150 replies.
0:29:59 > 0:30:04I want to ask you tonight to bear with me.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07- Can you hear me?- No!
0:30:07 > 0:30:12The Store Late Show, particularly on a Friday night, was appalling, but it was appalling whoever you were.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15They just threw everything at everyone, so backstage,
0:30:15 > 0:30:21you developed a siege mentality, you know, when it was really bad,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25and the compere would go on like a sort of advance party
0:30:25 > 0:30:27and then come back and report to the troops.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Now, obviously, you know, it's very hard for me
0:30:31 > 0:30:34to talk about politics in this show, because I am a pathetic girlie,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36and we don't know anything about it, so you know,
0:30:36 > 0:30:41trouble brewing up in Iraq - that's not going to get the washing-up done or the beds made, is it? No.
0:30:41 > 0:30:46The whole comedy ethos, the whole Comedy Store,
0:30:46 > 0:30:53was launched on the basis of a non-racist and a non-sexist joke.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58This drunk homosexual Pakistani squatter takes my mother-in-law to an Irish restaurant, see.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06Some of them paid lip service to the fact that they were really trying to change people's political ideals,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09or make people aware of certain social injustices -
0:31:09 > 0:31:13they couldn't just say, "I'm trying to make people laugh and make a few bob."
0:31:15 > 0:31:19One of the first big noises on the alternative comedy scene
0:31:19 > 0:31:23was a short, fat, angry Marxist from Liverpool.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26I thought Alexei was very frightening
0:31:26 > 0:31:28when I first came across him,
0:31:28 > 0:31:33because he was someone that seemed kind of very different from me
0:31:33 > 0:31:36and had a kind of very different perspective on life.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39I live in a tower block. One of the worst things about a tower block -
0:31:39 > 0:31:43for a start, they spend about 20 grand on building the ... tower block,
0:31:43 > 0:31:47they spend about 80 ... grand on a piece of sculpture to stick outside it, you know?
0:31:47 > 0:31:51It wasn't just about Thatcher. In fact, loads of it,
0:31:51 > 0:31:56Alexei Sayle's early stuff, was about the pomposity of middle-class people
0:31:56 > 0:32:02who themselves thought they were very anti-Thatcher - you know, middle-class London types.
0:32:02 > 0:32:07Stoke Newington at the moment, Stoke Newington is an intensely fashionable place at the moment.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11At the moment, it's an intensely fashionable place, there's a big '60s revival going on -
0:32:11 > 0:32:14there's whole families trying to live on eight quid a week.
0:32:14 > 0:32:18He eventually did separate himself away from the others
0:32:18 > 0:32:22and of course, he's always had this big thing about Ben Elton.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28That he doesn't like Ben Elton and he doesn't make a secret of it.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32Alexei Sayle's bitter feud with rival alternative comic Ben Elton
0:32:32 > 0:32:36erupted when Sayle accused him of plagiarism.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38There's a lot of things that were trendy last year.
0:32:38 > 0:32:44For instance, I noticed not having a job became very fashionable all of a sudden, didn't it, like everybody
0:32:44 > 0:32:47looking round for jobs, caught on like wildfire, cos people are like sheep,
0:32:47 > 0:32:52you know, like, once one person's living below the poverty line, everybody wants to do the same.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55He had borrowed somewhere in the middle between Rik and Alexei -
0:32:55 > 0:32:58it was his main source, I would say.
0:32:58 > 0:33:03But he so quickly developed into something that clearly wasn't either of those two things.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07But at the time, it caused friction, and Alexei certainly felt
0:33:07 > 0:33:10that he was being ripped off and cloned in some way.
0:33:10 > 0:33:16Ben got very hurt, because he was a huge fan of Alexei's and felt hurt that it had been perceived that way.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19I think some of the other performers took sides.
0:33:20 > 0:33:25Elton became one of alternative comedy's first television stars, largely due to his appearances
0:33:25 > 0:33:28on Channel 4's groundbreaking Saturday Live.
0:33:30 > 0:33:37Saturday Live was the first big showcase on British TV for what was going on in,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40for want of a better phrase, the world of alternative comedy.
0:33:40 > 0:33:46You know, you must pay your licence, because if you don't, a great big trawling net comes and scoops you up
0:33:46 > 0:33:49and dumps you in the audience for Little and Large,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52or worse, Saturday Live, and then you'd be really bored out of your mind.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Yeah, having a go at myself! That shows how socialist I am, all right!
0:33:56 > 0:33:58The producers would just go, often,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02you know, completely unannounced, they would just go to the Store
0:34:02 > 0:34:08or to Jongleurs - they would go to any of the big comedy venues - and they would just watch,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12and if there was an act on they liked, they'd go up afterwards and say, "Come on the show."
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Alternative comedy by then had been going for a few years.
0:34:16 > 0:34:22But most of those comedians hadn't been given a big mainstream showcase on the TV.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26We are on air, studio, we are now on air - can we find Mrs Posner on the floor, please?
0:34:26 > 0:34:29- Is Mrs Posner on the floor? We are looking for Mrs Posner. - Mrs Jackson...
0:34:29 > 0:34:33- Yes.- We are coming out of the adverts, everybody... - We are out of the adverts now...
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Although Saturday Live was the first to showcase the talents
0:34:36 > 0:34:40of French and Saunders, at the end of the alternative '80s,
0:34:40 > 0:34:43female comics were still struggling for recognition.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47However, the '80s did provide us with two of our most popular and enduring female talents -
0:34:47 > 0:34:51Victoria Wood and Jo Brand.
0:34:51 > 0:34:57You have obviously noticed, haven't you, that I didn't grow up to be exactly what you would call anorexic.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Now, that is in fact completely wrong - I am anorexic,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04because anorexic people look in the mirror and think they look fat.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09And so do I, so I must be.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13If you're a woman in a pub, trying to say something,
0:35:13 > 0:35:19nobody listens to you, because first of all, a lot of women don't have the confidence to kind of...
0:35:19 > 0:35:23take the floor, as it were, in a kind of pub-type setting.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27And secondly, traditionally, women are always saying,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30"I'm so rubbish at telling jokes, I always forget the punch line,"
0:35:30 > 0:35:33and you know, cos we are all quite fluffy underneath.
0:35:33 > 0:35:34I have got the builders in.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38Two builders - there's two of them. There's Norman, he's the main one.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42He makes all the important decisions, like whether they are going to stub their fags out
0:35:42 > 0:35:45in the rubber plant or leave them floating in the toilet.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48He's very stocky, is Norman, he's very hairy.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52If a gibbon could whistle, it would be an attractive version of Norman.
0:35:54 > 0:36:00And he's embraced the idea of the plunge neckline...and applied it to the back of his trousers.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05My gender just gave me a very, very slight edge at the beginning
0:36:05 > 0:36:09when I didn't have much else going for me.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12I think, after a certain point, it really was an irrelevance,
0:36:12 > 0:36:17because I have always believed that people either think you're funny or they don't think you're funny.
0:36:17 > 0:36:23Just recently, I won a competition to spend a week at a health farm.
0:36:23 > 0:36:27I think it was probably my slogan that clinched it -
0:36:27 > 0:36:31"I would like to spend a week at a health farm, because...
0:36:31 > 0:36:33"I am mentally ill at the moment."
0:36:33 > 0:36:40I always used to sort of deliberately dress down in kind of all black with high necks and all that,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43because I think as soon as you present yourself
0:36:43 > 0:36:45as a sexual being to an audience,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48they are sort of distracted by that.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52I do think women are judged more harshly on their looks than men are.
0:36:52 > 0:36:59When you think what some of the men who can stagger out on stage, if a woman was in that state,
0:36:59 > 0:37:03they would be much more harshly criticised - I do think there's a double standard.
0:37:03 > 0:37:09It's a terrible thing, pre-menstrual tension, because when women all work together, they all start to coincide
0:37:09 > 0:37:12and they all get it all at the same time.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16Do you remember that office block in the City of London where all the windows blew out?
0:37:16 > 0:37:20We have always had this thing, haven't we, that women are sugar
0:37:20 > 0:37:23and spice and all things nice, and men are puppy dogs' tails and turds,
0:37:23 > 0:37:25and that's what it is.
0:37:25 > 0:37:29I threw my bra away in the '70s and I burnt it, in fact, which heated
0:37:29 > 0:37:33a small village in Cumbria for a couple of weeks.
0:37:33 > 0:37:38Once you've put yourself up there to hear the whole kind of gamut of what the male race has to say
0:37:38 > 0:37:41about your appearance, it doesn't do a lot for your self-confidence,
0:37:41 > 0:37:47to be honest, so no, I would say once I started listening to all that,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51I actually got less self-confidence, but I pretended to have more.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53We don't all want to be Madonna, do we? No.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57Some of us want to be Petula Clark, don't we?
0:37:57 > 0:38:01And who else, yes? Michelle Pfeiff-feif-feifer.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03She is nice. Who? Kylie Minogue?
0:38:03 > 0:38:06No, I am sorry. To me, Kylie is too much petite-oh.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09There is a point with skinny where it can tip over onto scrawny.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12And I should know, because I am dangerously near it myself.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14They always talk about people who are fat,
0:38:14 > 0:38:19especially if somebody is a woman. People would bring in tiny clothes and say, "That won't fit you,"
0:38:19 > 0:38:24and take them out again, so there's always a problem, because people thought more in straight lines
0:38:24 > 0:38:28about what you were supposed to look like - I do think that's softened now
0:38:28 > 0:38:32and I see lots more people of different shapes and sizes now on television
0:38:32 > 0:38:38than you ever used to, but I certainly didn't fit into that slim, young, blonde box.
0:38:39 > 0:38:45As old sexist attitudes became increasingly unacceptable by the end of the '80s,
0:38:45 > 0:38:50one long-serving veteran found himself tragically out of step.
0:38:50 > 0:38:56I always thought it was disgraceful when Benny Hill was fired by Thames Television.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58His shows were...
0:38:58 > 0:39:02practically all over the world - France, Germany...
0:39:02 > 0:39:06He was Garbo's favourite comedian.
0:39:06 > 0:39:09He must have been making millions for Thames.
0:39:09 > 0:39:15And he was fired because of political correctness.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18He didn't even know what political correctness meant.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21He came to see me the next day.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26He often used to pop down, because his flat was very near my office,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28within walking distance, you know.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33And he often used to pop in for a cup of tea or sometimes he would stay half an hour and go.
0:39:33 > 0:39:38This day, he stayed for three hours, while I carried on working and chatting and drinking tea -
0:39:38 > 0:39:40he was devastated.
0:39:40 > 0:39:43Comedy had suddenly moved quite fast forward in the early '80s,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47and I think putting on another series of Benny, presumably still, you know,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51would have looked a bit old-fashioned, and I think that's why they dropped him.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56In April 1992, three years after being sacked,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00Benny Hill died alone watching television in his tiny one-bedroom flat.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03His body wasn't discovered for two days.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08In a strange coincidence, fellow comic veteran Frankie Howerd died the same weekend.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12The most bizarre weekend, that was.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16Frank died, I think, on a Friday, and journalists were looking
0:40:16 > 0:40:18for Benny Hill, his contemporary.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21It was a mutual admiration society.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25I mean, comedians are like tigers circling each other in a cage,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28but those two really reckoned each other. They couldn't find Benny,
0:40:28 > 0:40:33he had been in hospital, there was an answering machine on or whatever, his agent didn't know.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38Dennis Kirkland, his producer, they finally got on to, and he said, "Don't go looking for him,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42"he's out of hospital and he's obviously resting up somewhere."
0:40:42 > 0:40:49Dennis gave the journalists a quote, which was as 'twas from Benny, "Frankie Howerd, my great friend
0:40:49 > 0:40:54"and a great comedian," and so on, this was printed as the words
0:40:54 > 0:40:57of Benny Hill, who was already gone!
0:40:57 > 0:41:03Benny Hill's lonely death illustrated once again the private sadness and torment of the comedian.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07In showbusiness,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09you get lots of highs,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12which are wonderful, and sometimes you get lots of lows,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15sometimes you get more lows than highs.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18You can be hurt in there, wounded,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21you know, and nobody knows.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25You can't let them know. You don't want sympathy.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29You just want to get on with your job and do your job and then come off.
0:41:29 > 0:41:35After the smile, you go in the dressing room, you burst into tears and put your hands on your head.
0:41:35 > 0:41:42There is an element of great melancholy in all great sort of art forms, and comedy is no different.
0:41:42 > 0:41:49I think people hone in on comedy because the paradox is so clear, you know, that gap between private grief
0:41:49 > 0:41:52and the hilarity of the people laughing in the stalls.
0:41:52 > 0:41:58Spike Milligan had this depression, this terrible depression.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01But people who are watching don't realise this, and why should they?
0:42:01 > 0:42:04You are there to entertain people.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14The onset of the '90s brought with it a new mood of optimism and light-heartedness in comedy.
0:42:14 > 0:42:22Breaking free from the shackles of political correctness, comics revelled in a new-found freedom.
0:42:22 > 0:42:25Comedy became a lot more surreal, mostly thanks to Vic and Bob
0:42:25 > 0:42:28and nodded back to even the Goons and Monty Python,
0:42:28 > 0:42:33and there was a lot more silliness, there was a lot of liberation in terms of how people could make jokes
0:42:33 > 0:42:35about things that didn't matter.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38- The things you say. - What?- They're unbelievable.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42MUSIC: "Unbelievable" by EMF
0:42:45 > 0:42:48If everyone in the '80s
0:42:48 > 0:42:51was comedy with a message then comedy with no message
0:42:51 > 0:42:55was probably going to be the next thing that came along.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58And the other things couples pretend is that they never, ever fart.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01"Fart, no, I never. No, not me. How do you do it?"
0:43:01 > 0:43:07But then there comes a time when you are sleeping with your partner and you just have to, right?
0:43:07 > 0:43:10It's either a fart or appendicitis.
0:43:10 > 0:43:11What happened in the '90s
0:43:11 > 0:43:14was there was a movement of people, and Baddiel and Skinner
0:43:14 > 0:43:16were certainly part of it,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18that said, "Well, screw that, I mean, I'll say what I want.
0:43:18 > 0:43:24"If I want to say my mother-in-law is fat, I will say my mother-in-law is fat."
0:43:24 > 0:43:29Lad culture was on the rise, and Frank Skinner was quick to cash in.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31All right!
0:43:31 > 0:43:34BLEEP!
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Who are ya, who are ya?
0:43:39 > 0:43:41Frank is an incredible gag man,
0:43:41 > 0:43:46and Frank has got an ability, I would say beyond any other comedian
0:43:46 > 0:43:53in this country, to come up with crafted jokes, really complicated puns, just off the top of his head.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57I don't know anyone else who can do it. it's like a sort of almost an autistic kind of skill.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Anyone who ever read a Superman comic in the '70s
0:44:00 > 0:44:05will remember one advert which was in every one, and it was an advert for X-ray specs.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10It was a bloke with a big thick pair of glasses on, looking at his hand like that and going...
0:44:10 > 0:44:15And he could see all the bones, all the skeleton in his hands, because he's got these X-ray specs on.
0:44:15 > 0:44:19And when I was a kid, I used to look at this advert and think,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22"You know, if I had got X-ray specs,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25- "I wouldn't be looking at me- BLEEP- hand."
0:44:25 > 0:44:28Frank was one of the first people
0:44:28 > 0:44:32that seemed to have that kind of working-class background,
0:44:32 > 0:44:33just a regular bloke, a guy that,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37you know, likes to watch football, a guy that likes to have a pint.
0:44:37 > 0:44:43I lived with a woman who wasn't very much into football, but she used to try and join in a bit, you know?
0:44:43 > 0:44:49And one day I had the radio on, and the bloke on the radio said, "And now sport, and amazing news
0:44:49 > 0:44:55"from West Bromwich Albion," and she said, "Ooh, West Brom-wich Albion!
0:44:55 > 0:44:59"That's your team! I wonder what they're doing on the radio?"
0:44:59 > 0:45:03And then he said, "And now weather. There's a warm front coming in from..."
0:45:05 > 0:45:11I think he has gradually become easier with the idea of being more like who he really is.
0:45:11 > 0:45:16I mean, who he is on camera, that is totally a part of him -
0:45:16 > 0:45:20he is an end of the pier, Jack the Lad, very, very, very funny bloke.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24He's also a really, really clever, kind of academically clever,
0:45:24 > 0:45:30religious, deep-thinking, culturally informed person,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34and at times, like maybe a lot of people in showbiz from his background, he has been worried
0:45:34 > 0:45:39about showing that, in case it puts people off, in case people think he hasn't got the common touch any more.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42But I think he is not as bothered with that as he used to be.
0:45:46 > 0:45:52Meanwhile, the sketch show had evolved, becoming slicker, sharper and faster-paced.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56Here, here, excuse me. Yes. Do you know the way to the nearest public bog?
0:45:56 > 0:45:58Over there.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00Right, thank you very much.
0:46:00 > 0:46:01Carry on skipping.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06THEY LAUGH See, you can't, can you?! Ha-ha-ha!
0:46:06 > 0:46:09Harry Enfield was the first person to realise
0:46:09 > 0:46:14that you could use a sketch show effectively like a comic on TV - it was like Viz on television.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Tim Nice-But-Dim, how do you do?
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Hello, Dick Nice-But-Thick.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24For the second series of Harry Enfield Television Programme,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Harry had a whole load of new characters,
0:46:28 > 0:46:29and we had a press launch,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32so Geoffrey Perkins, the producer,
0:46:32 > 0:46:35cut together a sort of highlights thing to showcase the new characters.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38We didn't have time to show all the full sketches,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42so we just sort of did the funny bits that he felt set up each character.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47And in a way, his kind of edit, some of it, we felt, was maybe funnier than the finished show,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51because it was very fast, and we were really amazed at how quickly
0:46:51 > 0:46:54you could pick up on a character.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56So we thought, "Wouldn't that be great if you could do
0:46:56 > 0:47:00"a show that was all highlights and take everything else out?"
0:47:06 > 0:47:09This season, I will be mostly wearing yoghurt!
0:47:11 > 0:47:13A lot of time in a sketch, the set-up is the funny bit
0:47:13 > 0:47:16and the punch line tends to be disappointing.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19If you know what the punch line is, how can you be disappointed?
0:47:19 > 0:47:23You have got to put a vegetable in front of each word in the right order.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26Look. This is how it goes, right?
0:47:26 > 0:47:32Tomatoes, aubergine, potato, turnip, carrot, asparagus,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35then you add one of your own and then it's back to tomatoes again.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41Tomato, it's, aubergine, a,
0:47:41 > 0:47:45potato, private, turnip, matter.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50- You've got the hang of it. - Don't be embarrassed, sir. It's just a little bit of fun.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57Tomato, Ted,
0:47:57 > 0:48:00aubergine, your,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02potato,
0:48:02 > 0:48:03wife's,
0:48:03 > 0:48:05turnip, dead.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Sorry... I mean, tomato, sorry.
0:48:12 > 0:48:17A lot of what we have done has been sort of dismissed almost as just catchphrases.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19It's very useful having catchphrases.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21They come from a lot of different places.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25I mean, "suit you", for instance, from The Fast Show,
0:48:25 > 0:48:30that was based on a porter at Hackney Council where Paul was working
0:48:30 > 0:48:33in the '80s, and he spoke like that.
0:48:33 > 0:48:38When Paul and his mates would come in, he would always say, "Good morning, sir. How are you today, sir?
0:48:38 > 0:48:41"Were you out with a lady last night? Ooh, suit you, sir."
0:48:41 > 0:48:43And he said it - "suit you", by the way, not "suits you".
0:48:43 > 0:48:47And so Paul said, "Well, we have to do a character based on this."
0:48:47 > 0:48:49Were you out with a lady last night, sir?
0:48:49 > 0:48:51Yes, I was, as a matter of fact.
0:48:51 > 0:48:53Did she want it, sir?
0:48:53 > 0:48:56- I beg your pardon?- The lady you were out with last night, sir,
0:48:56 > 0:49:01did she want it, sir? Oh, suit you, sir, ooh!
0:49:01 > 0:49:07I think we have all watched TV series where we think, "This is a series too far."
0:49:07 > 0:49:12When we were putting The Fast Show together, one of our ideas was we might have a kind of revolving team,
0:49:12 > 0:49:17and as we went on, we would get younger performers in to fill gaps
0:49:17 > 0:49:25as the older ones died off, but it never quite turned into that, but I suppose after The Fast Show,
0:49:25 > 0:49:30other people came along... Well, the League Of Gentlemen was probably the next big show after us.
0:49:30 > 0:49:34- Hello, Dave. - As the '90s progressed,
0:49:34 > 0:49:39comedians dragged light entertainment to a much darker place.
0:49:46 > 0:49:50What was clever about what they did was to mix all the sketches
0:49:50 > 0:49:54so they formed a 30-minute whole story which was then linked up with the next one -
0:49:54 > 0:50:00it was just a much more clever way of putting it all together, and I think much more satisfactory.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04All the characters they had been doing were all in one place -
0:50:04 > 0:50:10Royston Vasey, Roy Chubby Brown's real name.
0:50:10 > 0:50:11Oh.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17- Yes?- Good morning.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20- Can I help you at all?- Yes, I wanted to buy a can of Coke.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25- I can, I can't? - A can of Coke.- I can, I can't!
0:50:25 > 0:50:29- You are a shop, aren't you? - No, I am a lady.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31- This is a shop. - No, you misunderstand me.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36It is a local shop for local people - there's nothing for you here.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40The League Of Gentlemen is grotesque but knowingly grotesque.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43They really, really go for it, and I think that's why it works.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46Because they are not half-arsed about it at all.
0:50:46 > 0:50:51And he will come and give strength to hands that tremble with weakness
0:50:51 > 0:50:54and to legs that are lame.
0:50:54 > 0:50:59The crippled will cast away their crutches, leap and dance,
0:50:59 > 0:51:02jump up and down in praise of the Lord,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06and receive all the blessings of heaven.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12But it doesn't say they have to have six parking bays at Safeway's, does it?
0:51:12 > 0:51:17They're always empty! I left the car for five minutes.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21- I only nipped in for a bottle of Taboo. When I came out, the- BLEEP- clamped.
0:51:21 > 0:51:27I said to the fella, would it have made a difference if I'd have had a stick and a limp?
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Ramps outside libraries, and their toilets are massive!
0:51:33 > 0:51:35Hymn number 168 -
0:51:35 > 0:51:37Glad That I Live Am I.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45If you now look at a sketch show that just is sketch, sketch, sketch, sketch,
0:51:45 > 0:51:51you sort of feel slightly cheated of some sort of overview, as it were,
0:51:51 > 0:51:58and I think they were the first people certainly of their generation to come up with something like that.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08As we entered a new millennium,
0:52:08 > 0:52:10our comedy appetites had changed.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15We wanted sketch shows with an edge and our comics to be edgier still.
0:52:15 > 0:52:21One man in particular had the irony and the attitude that a new audience demanded.
0:52:21 > 0:52:22Gervais is...
0:52:22 > 0:52:25probably the most famous comedian in the land, isn't he,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29and he's got to be one of the most famous comedians in the world,
0:52:29 > 0:52:34cos he is a big hit in America now as well. You know, you go to LA
0:52:34 > 0:52:38and there are posters of Gervais everywhere, hilariously.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40He is King Gervais, Lord Gervais.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43It's that sort of laughing into your shirt again,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46in the same way that Bernard Manning would do in a working man's club.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50It's an interesting analogy. Ricky Gervais is the acceptable face of someone who can say that.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54If Bernard Manning had gone on stage, probably would have been booed off.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57It's possible, from a slightly more traditional viewpoint,
0:52:57 > 0:53:01to watch what Ricky does and say, "Well, what's funny about it?
0:53:01 > 0:53:03"It's just making me uncomfortable."
0:53:03 > 0:53:08There's a kind of knowingness and an innocence at the same time,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11and I think that that's what Ricky has - there is always a twinkle -
0:53:11 > 0:53:14so I don't think that that line is ever crossed.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18I think that Ricky again knows exactly where that line is.
0:53:18 > 0:53:19Thora Hird,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22she could walk, I've seen her walk.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25She goes shopping in one of those things, all the way home,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29right up to the front door, key in the door, straight in the stairlift,
0:53:29 > 0:53:32feet haven't touched the ground yet, ooh,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36up to the bathroom, oh, lowered into the bath.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38- Never off her- BLEEP!
0:53:38 > 0:53:41- Give her an award, she's up there like a- BLEEP- greyhound.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48On the Politics tour, there were moments where he'd try out a joke
0:53:48 > 0:53:52and he would feel the audience were laughing for the wrong reasons -
0:53:52 > 0:53:56they were actually laughing at the victims as opposed to the ideas
0:53:56 > 0:54:01behind the joke, and he did cut quite a few of those out.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07- So, I think he is quite aware of the game he is playing.- It's a con. It's not irony at all.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12They would love to be able to just go out and do that stuff anyway!
0:54:12 > 0:54:16But, yeah, there is an idea...the idea of, "Ooh, I am being risky here,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19"I shouldn't be saying this, aren't we naughty?"
0:54:19 > 0:54:23But you scratch the surface of most of those people,
0:54:23 > 0:54:24they probably mean it underneath.
0:54:28 > 0:54:34But it's not all edgy and ironic. There's still room for the gentler approach of Peter Kay.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40The last day of term, I used to love the last day of term
0:54:40 > 0:54:45where you could either bring a game in, wear your own clothes for 10p and bring a game in like Ker-Plunk
0:54:45 > 0:54:52or Tank Commander or Crossfire, or Mastermind with that Vietnamese lady on t'box, remember that?
0:54:52 > 0:54:54Who was she?
0:54:54 > 0:54:56Who was she?
0:54:56 > 0:55:00He's got this ability, this skill to just...and hopefully,
0:55:00 > 0:55:02I try and do the same,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06is to make the characters real - when he's talking about his uncle
0:55:06 > 0:55:09at a wedding, when he's talking about his auntie,
0:55:09 > 0:55:14he brings them to life, he's got a skill of with a slight intonation, making those people appear real.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Sandra, your grandma's going.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20Come and say bye-bye. It's ten to eight.
0:55:24 > 0:55:29Going. Grandma is like Yoda from Star Wars -
0:55:29 > 0:55:31she's about three foot tall
0:55:31 > 0:55:33with her anorak on,
0:55:33 > 0:55:37"Going now, am I, going now!"
0:55:37 > 0:55:41"I am going to get home and get settled.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43"Get curtains drawed.
0:55:45 > 0:55:49"That disco is too loud for me.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51"Give us a kiss, all the best."
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Go on, Grandma, you get home.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55You get home and get a shave.
0:55:57 > 0:56:03If you went to his house, his bedroom - one wall was just a mass of video tapes, but he also had
0:56:03 > 0:56:09three- or four-hour tapes that were just TV programmes and adverts, that he had sat as a young kid,
0:56:09 > 0:56:15and remember, when other kids were out doing what they were doing, you know, going egging or something,
0:56:15 > 0:56:19I don't know, or strangling cats or something, he was at home,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21taping adverts, you know?
0:56:21 > 0:56:24And he had reams and reams and reams of this stuff.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28So, when he can hit you with a piece of nostalgia, it's not something that he can just snap,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31you know, he has put the hours in to get that kind of talent.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36Go to t'school disco on a Thursday night, have a bottle of 20-20 behind a skip.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41He's just really, really bloody funny,
0:56:41 > 0:56:46and we have all been there, we have all seen it, but we have not seen it in such big detail.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Peter never apologises for what he says and what he does and who he is,
0:56:49 > 0:56:54ever, and you know you have got to admire that. He is not going to bring down a government.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57But he is more likely to sell out an arena.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00When new generations of comedians emerge,
0:57:00 > 0:57:08they need to make an impact to be saying that which has gone before wasn't funny, this is what's funny.
0:57:08 > 0:57:13Because it's in the nature of how comedies are kind of seized on as representing a time
0:57:13 > 0:57:19that whatever the next one is, it won't be like the last. It's one of the joys of British comedy.
0:57:19 > 0:57:23The impetus for people to do comedy still is the fact that they see someone on TV that makes them laugh
0:57:23 > 0:57:28and they think, "I'd love to do that, I'd love to be that person on TV making people laugh."
0:57:28 > 0:57:31Obviously the money is an added bonus.
0:57:31 > 0:57:37There's no right or wrong. It's whatever works at that time with the audience - the audience decide.
0:57:41 > 0:57:43Next time in our story,
0:57:43 > 0:57:48we examine pop music's notoriously fickle relationship with light entertainment.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51Good evening, and welcome to Top Of The Pops!
0:57:51 > 0:57:53They had the greatest show on television,
0:57:53 > 0:57:57as far as popular music and culture is concerned, and they threw it away!
0:57:57 > 0:58:00I'm the one who's appeared on it more than anybody else,
0:58:00 > 0:58:03but that's because I haven't died yet!
0:58:03 > 0:58:08We're not doing it to make a statement. It is an extension of the merchandise -
0:58:08 > 0:58:15comic, cereal packet, video, record - that's all it is.
0:58:21 > 0:58:24Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd