0:00:02 > 0:00:04Comedy Playhouse was a great job to get.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07You know, if you were an actor, you'd love to be in one.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09It was always a sense you didn't know what you were going to get,
0:00:09 > 0:00:11or indeed, who was going to be in it.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14We all seemed to think everything was possible,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17and a lot of us proved that it was.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20- I loved all of them. - HE LAUGHS
0:00:20 > 0:00:24I can't understand why it hasn't gone on all over the years,
0:00:24 > 0:00:26why anybody stopped it.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Is it coming back?
0:00:28 > 0:00:29I haven't been informed.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33No one's rung me and said, "Hello, are you busy?"
0:00:33 > 0:00:34Hmmm.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Comedy Playhouse was a happy accident
0:00:58 > 0:01:00that was conceived in 1961...
0:01:01 > 0:01:04Oh, you dirty old man!
0:01:05 > 0:01:10..and ended up running for 13 years and notching up 120 episodes.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12Steady...go!
0:01:14 > 0:01:16Some of the best writers and actors of the day contributed,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20and though the shows were first created as individual one-offs,
0:01:20 > 0:01:2430 of them would go on to become fully-fledged comedy series.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28What's on BBC One?
0:01:28 > 0:01:30But the series may not have happened at all
0:01:30 > 0:01:32if it hadn't been for the sudden break-up
0:01:32 > 0:01:35of one of the most established comedy teams of the day.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Ray Galton and Alan Simpson
0:01:39 > 0:01:42had been writing for Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour,
0:01:42 > 0:01:45at that point the most successful comedy show on television.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50We'd written everything that Tony Hancock did for nine years,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54radio, television, films, stage, everything.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56And one day, to our surprise,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00Tony Hancock announced that he didn't want them
0:02:00 > 0:02:01to write for him any more.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06It was like a break-up of a very close-knit family overnight.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09We were all a bit shattered about that.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Fortunately, the head of BBC Light Entertainment, Tom Sloan,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17held Galton and Simpson in such high regard
0:02:17 > 0:02:19that he didn't want to lose them,
0:02:19 > 0:02:23so he called them to his office and made them an offer.
0:02:23 > 0:02:24He said, "I want you to do
0:02:24 > 0:02:27"10 half hours called Comedy Playhouse.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29"You can do what you like.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32"You can be in them, you can direct them,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34"you can do whatever you like.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36"Sketches, storylines, whatever.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40"Just bring me 10 shows called Comedy Playhouse."
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Somebody just says, "Well, you know
0:02:42 > 0:02:45"do what you want, you've only got to do half an hour."
0:02:45 > 0:02:47You just go, "What makes you laugh?
0:02:47 > 0:02:49"OK, we'll have, we'll do a thing about, er...
0:02:49 > 0:02:53"OK, we'll do a thing about a rag and bone man. OK."
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Episode Four of Comedy Playhouse was a two-hander called The Offer.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08Set in a ramshackle scrap yard in Shepherd's Bush, West London,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11it introduced us to two of the most memorable
0:03:11 > 0:03:13comedy characters of the '60s.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19We didn't know who they were.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21We didn't know what their relationship was.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24Didn't have names for them.
0:03:24 > 0:03:29I typed, "first rag and bone man" and "second rag and bone man",
0:03:29 > 0:03:32and we wrote 10 pages, which is half a script,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35and said, "Where are we going with this? Who are they?"
0:03:35 > 0:03:39And then we had to...are they brothers, cousins, uncle and nephew?
0:03:39 > 0:03:43And then one of us said, "Father and son." And that was it.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48Oh, Harold! It's my heart. It's started again!
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Harold, I'm going.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52Do you hear me, Harold? I'm going.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Well, that makes two of us, don't it?
0:03:55 > 0:03:57You know, it's normally about
0:03:57 > 0:04:00someone unable to leave their mother. But in this case, it isn't,
0:04:00 > 0:04:01it's about Harry H. Corbett
0:04:01 > 0:04:03desperate to go off and do stuff with his life,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06but not really ever being able to escape from...
0:04:06 > 0:04:10"Oh, Harold!" All that...you know, I mean, it's just brilliant.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14Normally when you did comedy, you were supposed to keep at it,
0:04:14 > 0:04:16you know, laugh, laugh, laugh.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22And it allowed the audience to not laugh and still be successful.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27I know that sounds silly, but it was unusual at the time.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30I never got nothing in the past from you, so don't do me no favours.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33I don't want none now. It don't bother me.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35I'll soon have that on the move.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38It wasn't only the tone of the show that was unusual.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Galton and Simpson had also chosen to depict a world -
0:04:41 > 0:04:45and a class - rarely portrayed in television comedy,
0:04:45 > 0:04:47and they'd also made a conscious decision
0:04:47 > 0:04:50to use established stage actors rather than comics.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Right at the end of it, he's trying to move out of the house
0:04:55 > 0:04:57and the old man won't let him have the horse.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00So he tries to pull the cart himself and he can't,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04he can't. He's driving... and he realises he's trapped.
0:05:06 > 0:05:07I can't go!
0:05:08 > 0:05:12I can't get away! HE SOBS
0:05:12 > 0:05:15'We just wrote down "breaks down in tears", you know,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17'thinking he would pretend.'
0:05:17 > 0:05:21In rehearsal we see Harry crying his eyes out, tears, real streaming.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25I said, "God Almighty, that...he's an actor."
0:05:25 > 0:05:27Never had this before in our careers,
0:05:27 > 0:05:28and we got this wonderful...
0:05:28 > 0:05:31he was literally crying. I couldn't get over it.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35The frustration and just the sheer sort of anger and the,
0:05:35 > 0:05:40the feeling of complete sort of lack of power or potency,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42you're...you're stuck here forever.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Until one day you'll be the same age as that man
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and you'll be there on your own,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50surrounded by scrap metal and rag and bones.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53It's...it's heart-breaking, really.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55I'm surprised it got any laughs at all!
0:05:55 > 0:05:59The mixture of comedy and pathos was certainly not lost
0:05:59 > 0:06:01on the man who commissioned the series in the first place -
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Tom Sloan the head of BBC Light Entertainment.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07Tom came down to the first rehearsal,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11and he nudged Ray in the ribs. "You know what you've got here, don't you?" Ray said, "What?"
0:06:11 > 0:06:15He said, "You've got a series." Ray said, "Nah, no way."
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Galton and Simpson remained unconvinced,
0:06:19 > 0:06:23and agreed to do a series on the condition that the actors were also on board,
0:06:23 > 0:06:26secretly hoping that this would be the end of it.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31But once Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell signed up,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34they had no choice but to write...
0:06:34 > 0:06:36and write and write.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Eight series, two spin-off films,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and a comic creation that altered the television landscape.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45For the second season of Comedy Playhouse,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49Galton and Simpson wrote the classic and often revisited script Impasse,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52starring Bernard Cribbins and Leslie Phillips.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58It was a particularly apt title for an idea conceived
0:06:58 > 0:07:01after an alarming bout of writer's block.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07They were struggling one week, Monday nothing,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Tuesday nothing, Wednesday, Thursday they were looking at the walls,
0:07:10 > 0:07:14by Friday they've counted every single nail that's in the room
0:07:14 > 0:07:16and, you know, nothing's happening at all.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19And then Graham Stark a friend of theirs, an actor, um,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22turns up late on Friday. He's got a sort of newspaper cutting,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24he says, "Look, I just saw this story in The Times."
0:07:24 > 0:07:27And we said yeah, that'd be good.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29He said, you know, um...
0:07:29 > 0:07:32two cars come down the same very narrow street,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34in the countryside
0:07:34 > 0:07:38and neither of them could get out of the way for the other one.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40And we listened to that, and we said...
0:07:41 > 0:07:46.."That's it. That's exactly what we want. I think it will be."
0:07:46 > 0:07:49I said back up! I can't get past here, can I?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Then I suggest you back up.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55I'm not backing up. Oh, no. It's not up to me to back up.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57If there's any backing up going on, it's going to be you, mate.
0:07:57 > 0:08:00I know my Highway Code! I'm further of the lame than you are.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03I don't think I actually drove that car,
0:08:03 > 0:08:06because I don't think I'd passed my test then.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09And then in the studio, it was me going, "Oi, you, get out of my way!"
0:08:09 > 0:08:11It's lovely, isn't it? Classic, isn't it?
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Toff and a yobbo.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17- Come on, then!- Come on. - Put 'em up, then.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21I'm quite ready for you, mate. You just make your move, that's all.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25I can quite see that to construct a good comic half hour
0:08:25 > 0:08:27could take a week or so,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29but certainly with Impasse,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31it just felt that they'd gone, "Boom, boom, boom.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34"What about, what about, what about...?" Bang, bang, bang.
0:08:34 > 0:08:35And off it went. Terrific.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39I used to do the typing, and my shoulder was aching,
0:08:39 > 0:08:44with the speed at which I was typing. It just wrote itself.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49This expertly-crafted script was brought to the screen again
0:08:49 > 0:08:54in Graham Stark's film The Magnificent 7 Deadly Sins in 1971,
0:08:54 > 0:08:59and again when Galton and Simpson teamed up with Paul Merton in 1996,
0:08:59 > 0:09:04with Merton and Geoffrey Whitehead taking on the main roles.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06You great toffee-nosed berk!
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Just try it, just once, that's all!
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Come on, then. Make your move, you great vulgar scruffbag!
0:09:13 > 0:09:14Oh, well...
0:09:14 > 0:09:19And in 2009, the script was reprised again
0:09:19 > 0:09:21by David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27As the hugely successful Steptoe And Son
0:09:27 > 0:09:30turned into a full-time job for Galton and Simpson,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32they decided they could no longer write for Comedy Playhouse.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36On the plus side, this gave a new wave of writers
0:09:36 > 0:09:39the chance to showcase their comedy talent.
0:09:40 > 0:09:41And if that went well,
0:09:41 > 0:09:44there was always the possibility of a series to follow.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51I suppose the most successful one after them was Johnny Speight.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54He was a very good writer, very unafraid as well,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57He said to me one day, "I've got an idea about a family,
0:09:57 > 0:09:59"keep arguing all the time, you know,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01"politics, religion and everything".
0:10:03 > 0:10:05And that was Till Death Us Do Part.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07And it was really original at that time.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10So he did it for Comedy Playhouse,
0:10:10 > 0:10:12it was another big hit.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16You...you Geordie yobbo!
0:10:17 > 0:10:19Get off, I'm a Scouse!
0:10:19 > 0:10:21- Yeah?- Yeah!- Yeah?
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Well, they're the worst kind of Geordies, ain't they?
0:10:24 > 0:10:27The programme centred on the angry and prejudiced Alf Garnett,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30and his relationship with his family,
0:10:30 > 0:10:32especially his left-wing son-in-law, Mike.
0:10:32 > 0:10:38Difficult series in the beginning, because it was very controversial
0:10:38 > 0:10:43and it needed to be, otherwise it was just a series about a family.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47There were some episodes of Till Death Us Do Part from the early '70s
0:10:47 > 0:10:50which are completely unbroadcastable because the, er,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53the politics and the language are extreme.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56I mean, if we're so overcrowded, they want to make a bit of room,
0:10:56 > 0:11:00get rid of a few people, let 'em start a war!
0:11:00 > 0:11:03Get rid of your long-haired brigade, some of your bloody youth!
0:11:03 > 0:11:08Oh, charming! Get rid of the young, that's your solution, is it?
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Well, they're the ones doing all the breeding, innit?
0:11:10 > 0:11:12Oh, I see, and make the pill compulsory
0:11:12 > 0:11:14and stop them having babies altogether!
0:11:14 > 0:11:16I never said that, did I?
0:11:16 > 0:11:18- You did!- Never said that!
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Look, I had you, didn't I?
0:11:20 > 0:11:22I had her.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26'I had a bit of difficulty with Till Death Us Do Part,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28'and I know you sort of say,'
0:11:28 > 0:11:29well, it's a laugh at racism,
0:11:29 > 0:11:32he's a racist and stuff and that's what it's meant to be about
0:11:32 > 0:11:34but, I'm not so sure in some of those shows
0:11:34 > 0:11:36that we were laughing at the right thing.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40It was about prejudice, bigotry, all those things,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43not normally dealt with in a comedy series.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46But it's surprising what you can get away with if you're clever
0:11:46 > 0:11:48and if you're funny, and they did.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Meanwhile, Beryl Virtue, agent to many of the top writers of the time,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01embarked on a mission to take the scripts of Galton and Simpson
0:12:01 > 0:12:04and Johnny Speight to a much wider audience,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07as she became a pioneer in selling British comedy abroad.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12Her first success was a Dutch version of Steptoe And Son,
0:12:12 > 0:12:15where it was remade as Stiefbeen En Zoon.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Vader!
0:12:17 > 0:12:21In Sweden, they adapted it, renamed it Albert And Herbert,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23and it ran for five series in the '70s.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28DIALOGUE IN SWEDISH
0:12:30 > 0:12:34Whilst in Portugal, it found success as Camilo & Filho.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38SPEAKS PORTUGUESE
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Beryl also had her eye on America, having already tried
0:12:48 > 0:12:51to sell Steptoe And Son there in the '60s without success.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57Her next step was to team up with American Producer, Norman Lear,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01in an attempt to bring the much more controversial Till Death Us Do Part
0:13:01 > 0:13:02to the US market.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07The Duke's special was all about America, and I mean the real America.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11Oh. Well, then, it must have been all about our racial problems, huh?
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Sing Out, Sweet Land, it was called, and it was beautiful.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17- And the crisis in the cities. - Must've had a hundred stars with him.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19- The war in Vietnam. - Sing Out, Sweet Land.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21It was all about what's good with America.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23It was all about John Wayne.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Well, John Wayne is... BOTH: ..what's good with America.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27That's right.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30And it was about bigotry and prejudice,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34different prejudices to ours, but very relevant for them.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37They put on extra phone lines the night it went out
0:13:37 > 0:13:40to wait for this barrage of protest,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43which didn't come because everybody laughed.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47He's very unafraid, Norman Lear, he was like Johnny Speight,
0:13:47 > 0:13:48let's have a go at it.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51# Those were the days... #
0:13:51 > 0:13:55The American version, All In The Family,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58ran for nine series and 208 episodes
0:13:58 > 0:14:00and was the top-rated show in the States for five years.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05# Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again... #
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Having been successful with Till Death Do Us Part,
0:14:12 > 0:14:15Beryl was convinced that Norman Lear could do the same
0:14:15 > 0:14:19with Steptoe And Son, and she was right.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21The result was Sanford & Son,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24and it ran for five successful years in the US.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35Back in Britain, Comedy Playhouse continued to entertain
0:14:35 > 0:14:37and bring new writers to the public's attention.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40# Talks with all the choicest words... #
0:14:40 > 0:14:43And the next young talent to showcase her ability
0:14:43 > 0:14:46was Carla Lane, who, along with co-writer Myra Taylor,
0:14:46 > 0:14:51created a comedy about two young women from Liverpool living together.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57I remember Carla Lane doing Liver Birds, very successful,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59run for donkeys' years...
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Good too that it had two female leads,
0:15:03 > 0:15:04that in itself was quite unusual.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08I don't know, women didn't seem to be much in comedy then for some reason.
0:15:08 > 0:15:15But you mustn't feel upset. After all, you're alive, aren't you?
0:15:15 > 0:15:17And you've got your rabbits to think about.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Oh, me rabbits, yeah.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Oh, one day I'll really branch out in a big way.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24You know, fur gloves,
0:15:24 > 0:15:25fur hats,
0:15:25 > 0:15:26fur coats...
0:15:28 > 0:15:32My favourite character in The Liver Birds was always Michael Angelis.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34I think his name is Lucien and he kept rabbits,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37and he was always going on about his rabbits.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42I mean, I don't know why I found that very funny. Very, very funny.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53Carla would write for the Comedy Playhouse slot again in 1974,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55with another flat-share comedy,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58but this time she brought a man into the equation.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01No Strings featured Rita Tushingham
0:16:01 > 0:16:04and Keith Barron as the reluctant housemates.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06Keep your rotten flat!
0:16:06 > 0:16:09LAUGHTER
0:16:10 > 0:16:12SHE WHIMPERS
0:16:12 > 0:16:13I loved Carla's writing.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17She does understand relationships,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22and what a man and a woman say to each other, within reason.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27And I loved, I loved studio audiences, you see.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30Desperately hard work, because it was a five-day turnaround,
0:16:30 > 0:16:34and then when you were knackered after cam rehearsals,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38all the lunatics came in to watch, and you just had to do it.
0:16:39 > 0:16:42But I found that... still find it very exciting.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44Oh, by the way, I hope this doesn't offend you,
0:16:44 > 0:16:47but I always walk about like this.
0:16:47 > 0:16:48Not at all.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51If you're going to learn to live with my cushion,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53then I'll have to learn to live with your legs.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55LAUGHTER
0:16:55 > 0:16:59I've spent a lot of time in dressing gowns,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02not always pale blue, but usually quite short,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04cos I've got quite good legs, you know,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06and it's about the only thing that's left.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10So I did have a tendency, if it was a dressing gown -
0:17:10 > 0:17:13"Oh, can I have it shorter, please?"
0:17:13 > 0:17:15I quite like a bit of thigh action.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20I just hope it's appreciated, otherwise you look daft.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Comedy Playhouse continued to experiment,
0:17:27 > 0:17:29and not just with dressing gown length.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33There were contributions from a host of stars,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36such as Marty Feldman and Barry Took,
0:17:36 > 0:17:37Graham Chapman from Monty Python,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40and Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden from The Goodies.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44Series such as All Gas And Gaiters,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Beggar My Neighbour and Not In Front Of The Children
0:17:47 > 0:17:49all started out on Comedy Playhouse.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56In 1972, Comedy Playhouse produced a show written by David Croft
0:17:56 > 0:17:59and Jeremy Lloyd that would go on to become another huge hit,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03run to ten series, make household names of its cast
0:18:03 > 0:18:06and push the double entendre to its absolute limit.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13TILL CLANGING
0:18:13 > 0:18:16'Ground floor - perfumery, stationery and leather goods,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19'wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food.
0:18:19 > 0:18:20'Going up.'
0:18:22 > 0:18:25LIFT WHIRS AND CLUNKS
0:18:29 > 0:18:31Oh, is that the best you could do, Miss Brahms?
0:18:31 > 0:18:34Well, it's not my job, is it? I'll try again.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41It was based, I think, on Simpsons of Piccadilly, wasn't it?
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Which has now become a Waterstones, which I go into quite a lot
0:18:44 > 0:18:48and every time I go in there, I get in the lift
0:18:48 > 0:18:51and say to myself "First floor..." whatever it was.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Actually, I can't remember what it was.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58And I kind of hum the theme tune to myself when I press the button.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:19:03 > 0:19:05Everybody makes an entrance.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07Mrs Slocombe will come in, her hair will be pink,
0:19:07 > 0:19:08she'll come out the lift,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11or John Inman will be in drag one week.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14You know, it's very theatrical,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17it is quite pantomime in many ways, I think.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19Well, I can't stay too late.
0:19:19 > 0:19:21The man next door is popping in every half-hour
0:19:21 > 0:19:23to keep an eye on my pussy.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25LAUGHTER
0:19:25 > 0:19:26He's coming up!
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Double entendre has been with us for ever, hasn't it?
0:19:29 > 0:19:33And it's one of the mainstays of some sorts of comedy
0:19:33 > 0:19:38and I think Mrs Slocombe's pussy will be remembered for a long, long time.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42You cannot come in here with that animal!
0:19:43 > 0:19:45You could sort of watch it with your parents
0:19:45 > 0:19:46and you sort of couldn't.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49They were getting bits that...
0:19:49 > 0:19:51"I don't understand all this stuff about pussy.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53"Why are you looking so..?
0:19:53 > 0:19:54"What?"
0:19:54 > 0:19:57It just seemed a very innocent joke to me at the time.
0:19:57 > 0:19:58Mr Humphries, are you free?
0:19:58 > 0:20:01I'm busy pricing my ties, Captain Peacock.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03The gentleman wishes to try on a dress.
0:20:03 > 0:20:04I'm free!
0:20:04 > 0:20:06LAUGHTER
0:20:06 > 0:20:08If you cast the actors right
0:20:08 > 0:20:10and people start to fall in love with the characters
0:20:10 > 0:20:12and you've got a couple of catchphrases in there,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15then, actually, the lack of dramatic tension
0:20:15 > 0:20:17that's available in a department store -
0:20:17 > 0:20:19you can override that.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25Comedy Playhouse continued to produce hit shows
0:20:25 > 0:20:28throughout the early 1970s.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Shows like That's Your Funeral, Now Take My Wife,
0:20:32 > 0:20:34and It's Awfully Bad For Your Eyes, Darling.
0:20:36 > 0:20:37But in 1973, an episode aired
0:20:37 > 0:20:41that would go on to be the biggest hit of them all.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE THEME
0:20:54 > 0:20:57Roy Clarke wrote three shows for Comedy Playhouse...
0:21:00 > 0:21:04..but it was Last Of The Summer Wine that would become a record-breaker,
0:21:04 > 0:21:07with 295 episodes.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12We wrote eight series and thought we'd exhausted it.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14He wrote 31 series.
0:21:14 > 0:21:15I mean, amazing.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20The longest-running sitcom in the world.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23I don't know how many episodes they did.
0:21:23 > 0:21:24Several million, I think.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Has thou ever thought of getting married again?
0:21:30 > 0:21:31Never!
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Has thou ever thought of just living together?
0:21:35 > 0:21:36Oh!
0:21:36 > 0:21:40How about if I just had... visiting privileges?
0:21:42 > 0:21:45How come you're still interested in women at your age?
0:21:45 > 0:21:49I think it's because they're the only opposite sex we've got.
0:21:49 > 0:21:50LAUGHTER
0:21:50 > 0:21:54And they don't come any more opposite than thee!
0:21:57 > 0:22:01The scenery was the star, I think, of that show
0:22:01 > 0:22:05and, of course, the people around it who are all marvellous,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09but without the scenery, it wouldn't have been the same.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Last Of The Summer Wine is again a classic,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20what I call a gang film, everybody has their own little bit in it,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23and comes forward, says their bit, goes back again
0:22:23 > 0:22:25and lovely characters.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27I've been practising up here
0:22:27 > 0:22:30till I've got the balance of a monkey on a twig.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34- VAN STARTS - Go, Davenport, go!
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Argh!
0:22:38 > 0:22:41I think your monkey's just fell off!
0:22:41 > 0:22:42They had me doing stunt work in that -
0:22:42 > 0:22:45I mean, standing on top of a van being driven along the road
0:22:45 > 0:22:47pretending I was skiing.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48No safety equipment at all.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52I'm going to write to my agent about this because it's serious, that.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54No, great fun.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58Very different in style, very well cast...
0:22:59 > 0:23:02..if they died, new people came in.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06I was the one whose husband kept locking himself in the shed
0:23:06 > 0:23:09and was never seen, but talked about.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12That was fun. Nelly, yeah.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17I'm sorry I shouted at you, Travis.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Now, come out.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21You can sulk indoors.
0:23:23 > 0:23:24Do come out, Travis,
0:23:24 > 0:23:27before the word gets round that I keep you in a shed.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30I mean, usually, they talk about,
0:23:30 > 0:23:33"There are no parts for older women".
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Well, parts for some.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43June Whitfield was also in the final big hit
0:23:43 > 0:23:46to emerge from Comedy Playhouse, in 1974.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51June had already worked alongside Terry Scott
0:23:51 > 0:23:53in the variety series "Scott On..."
0:23:53 > 0:23:55and this brief encounter was the inspiration
0:23:55 > 0:23:58for the Playhouse episode, Happy Ever After.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04The pair featured as Terry and June Fletcher,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06a middle-aged couple who find themselves home alone
0:24:06 > 0:24:08after their grown-up children have fled the nest.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15- Come on, sit over here. - Oh, not now.- No, no, no.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17That's one thing you've said far too often.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19This is just the time for us
0:24:19 > 0:24:21to have a good look at each other to see what we've got.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24LAUGHTER
0:24:24 > 0:24:27We've still "got" what we've always had.
0:24:27 > 0:24:28Yeah, but I haven't had a look at it lately.
0:24:28 > 0:24:30LAUGHTER
0:24:30 > 0:24:32He was extremely...
0:24:34 > 0:24:36..yes, pompous, I think,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40and quite sure that he could do anything.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Whatever it was, "Yes, yes, I can do that," and he couldn't.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46We'll see you over there, then!
0:24:47 > 0:24:49Erm, what time are we sailing?
0:24:49 > 0:24:51Well, we hope to catch the morning tide.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54What a good idea, yes.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Yes, I think it's set fair. High cumulus.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59Visibility fair to middling.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02Not much of a swell. What sort of wind have we got?
0:25:02 > 0:25:03Hmm, nor... Argh!
0:25:03 > 0:25:06LAUGHTER
0:25:06 > 0:25:08Man overboard!
0:25:08 > 0:25:09Man overboard!
0:25:09 > 0:25:12And, of course, he was always falling in the water,
0:25:12 > 0:25:14which he was very good at.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16I was the one who fished him out, sort of thing.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Happy Ever After proved extremely popular with viewers,
0:25:23 > 0:25:27but in 1979, after six series, John Chapman, one of the writers,
0:25:27 > 0:25:30declared that they had exhausted the ideas and that the show should end.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37The BBC disagreed and brought in other writers,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39but in order to continue the story,
0:25:39 > 0:25:43they had to change both the setting and the name of the show.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47Terry and the directors thought of all kinds of titles
0:25:47 > 0:25:51and eventually they couldn't come up with anything and so Terry said,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53"Why don't we call it Terry And June?"
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Which is how that happened.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05So six months after Happy Ever After disappeared from our screens,
0:26:05 > 0:26:10the reassuringly familiar Terry And June launched in October 1979
0:26:10 > 0:26:11on BBC One.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16I remember watching that and it was one of those middle-class,
0:26:16 > 0:26:21genial sort of comedies where June has given
0:26:21 > 0:26:23his gardening trousers to the jumble sale
0:26:23 > 0:26:26and he's left ten quid in the pocket or something like that.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28So it wasn't sort of cutting edge,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30but then comedy doesn't have to be cutting edge.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35It can also be cosy and create a world of niceness
0:26:35 > 0:26:38that sort of resembles what people thought that Britain was like
0:26:38 > 0:26:39in the 1950s or whatever,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41but, actually, it wasn't like that at all.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45I mean, the viewers did enjoy it. Critics absolutely hated it.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48Said it was too middle-of-the-road, middle-class,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51middle this, middle that.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53TERRY SIGHS
0:26:53 > 0:26:55- Are you all right? - I'm finished.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Oh, no, you're not! You're good for another ten years yet!
0:26:59 > 0:27:02'People did think we were married.'
0:27:02 > 0:27:05I can remember drivers coming to the door for filming
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and my husband, Tim, would open the door
0:27:08 > 0:27:11and we'd be halfway down the road and the driver would say,
0:27:11 > 0:27:13"I quite expected Terry Scott to open the door".
0:27:16 > 0:27:18June, I'm home.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21APPLAUSE
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Terry and June proved that sometimes critics and viewers
0:27:24 > 0:27:27must agree to disagree.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30The show regularly pulled in 15 million viewers at its peak
0:27:30 > 0:27:36and ran for nine years before finally coming to an end in 1987.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38ANGRILY: Bon voyage! LAUGHTER
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Au revoir!
0:27:42 > 0:27:45Comedy Playhouse itself came to an end in 1974
0:27:45 > 0:27:48after an impressive 13-year tenure.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Right, you can have it any time you like, mate!
0:27:51 > 0:27:54It's what I call long-term applause, that - things you've done
0:27:54 > 0:27:57that you've forgotten about and somebody says,
0:27:57 > 0:27:58"Oh, weren't you in..?"
0:28:00 > 0:28:02AUDIENCE ROARS WITH LAUGHTER
0:28:02 > 0:28:04So from a hasty last-minute idea,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Comedy Playhouse went on to become
0:28:06 > 0:28:08not just an institution in its own right,
0:28:08 > 0:28:13but the birthplace of some of the BBC's biggest successes.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16It's not a bad track record, is it?
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Not everything on Comedy Playhouse was a hit
0:28:19 > 0:28:23but then it was allowing writers and actors to try out new ideas,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26to experiment and often to push boundaries.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27ALF: It'll just encourage them!
0:28:27 > 0:28:30They'll have anybody on the bloody telly these days!
0:28:30 > 0:28:33I'm a bit chuffed I was there absolutely at the beginning.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41Ultimately it gave rise to 30 series and 1173 episodes...
0:28:41 > 0:28:43If you're mucking about, I'll wallop you!
0:28:43 > 0:28:48..not bad going for an idea conceived to keep two writers happy.