Great British Comedies Talking Pictures


Great British Comedies

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Charlie Chaplin -

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cinema's first truly international star. Born in London.

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Stan Laurel, born in Cumbria

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and one half of one of comedy's greatest double acts.

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Ever since the heyday of this glorious pair,

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British comedians have had fans rolling in the aisles with laughter.

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In this programme we're looking at some of the funniest

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home-grown film stars to make their mark on British cinema audiences.

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We start with a man who, armed with only a ukulele and a cheeky grin,

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became Britain's biggest box-office star of the 1930s and '40s.

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So here is the great George Formby,

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explaining how his movie career took off.

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People have said to me many, many a time,

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"How did you start in pictures?"

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Well, have you ever felt that

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if you got the chance, you could do a thing really well?

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Well, that's the way I felt about pictures.

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And many years ago

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I came down to London

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and I even wrote my own scripts, along with Beryl

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and a man called Arthur Mertz, and we went all around the studios.

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They'd never heard of George Formby,

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the didn't even WANT to hear about him.

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I went everywhere, but nobody wanted to know at all,

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so back up to the provinces I went, and we worked around for a long time

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and I was playing in a place called Warrington, and a man called

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John E Blakeley came round

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and he said, "I'd like to make pictures with you."

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I nearly grabbed his hand off.

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Anyway, he said, come up on Sunday and we'll talk it over.

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So we went up on the Sunday, and we talked it over and he said,

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"Yes, I'd like to make pictures, but I haven't got a story."

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I said, "I have."

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And we brought out this little story we had written,

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called "Boots! Boots!" So the whole thing was settled,

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we came to London and we went to the film studios. Studios(!)

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One room over a garage in Albany Street!

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And when we wanted to start making the picture,

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we had to press a button so that they stopped the engines down below.

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Well, at the end of 14 days we'd finished the picture,

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and it cost the large sum of ?3,000. Then came the time to sell it.

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Nobody wanted to buy it.

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At it did get a world premiere in a place called Burslem.

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LAUGHTER

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It did, you know, and I'll never forget because I went up there

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and, strange as it may seem, it packed them out.

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Oh, and it was a lousy picture.

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LAUGHTER

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Ooh, it was so dark in places you had to strike matches to see it.

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The courting couples liked it, though.

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But at that time Basil Dean was making a lot of very big pictures.

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He was going round the country

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trying to find what the different salesmen wanted.

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And they said, "We want George Formby pictures."

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He said, "Who's George Formby?" He said, "Look through that window."

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And he saw a queue wrapped right round the theatre,

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looking at "Boots! Boots!"

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So he got them to bring me down to Ealing Studios, I signed

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a seven-year contract, and that was the start of me making 22 films.

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And strange as it may seem, every one was a success.

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George Formby's film persona

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was the lovably, innocent cheeky chappie -

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territory also mined with great success

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by the wonderful Norman Wisdom.

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But tickling a different funny bone entirely were Britain's most

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critically successful films of the period -

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the Ealing Comedies.

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Full of dark, satirical humour, they won awards,

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were hugely influential, and showcased some wonderful actors,

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including, of course,

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the incredibly versatile Alec Guinness.

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Perhaps the richest vein of your film career,

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although you might not agree, was the Ealing comedies.

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Well, I was very lucky over that.

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Sir Michael Balcon sent me with Robert Hamer, with whom

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I became great friends, sent me the script

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of Kind Hearts And Coronets,

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just as I was going away on holiday, asking me

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if I would play four parts in it.

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And I read it on a beach in France, and I collapsed with laughter on the

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first page, and didn't even bother to get to the end of the script.

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I went straight back to the hotel, sent a telegram, saying,

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"Why four parts, why not eight?"

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The SPCK have provided us with a large number of copies

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of the good book, translated into Matabele.

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But as none of the natives can read even their own language...

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You speak Matabele yourself?

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Not as a native.

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It would be most interesting to hear a sample of the language.

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I'm afraid my Matabele is a little rusty.

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Oh, come, my Lord.

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Daniel cast into the lions' den, for example.

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HE SPEAKS GIBBERISH

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..Daniel...

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This is a colloquial rendering, of course.

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Most interesting.

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Another Ealing Comedy - greatly underestimated, I think -

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was Man In The White Suit.

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Well, I thought that was a marvellous film.

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I thought Sandy Mackendrick did a wonderful job on that.

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I remember being very angry at a notice coming out

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saying it was an ignoble film, because the suit

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disintegrated at the end and people jeered and laughed.

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I thought they totally missed the point of the whole thing.

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That was...

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I thought it was very original and amusing to look at,

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and a kind of classic of its time.

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This was about a man who'd invented an indestructible...

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Material, yes, cloth that wouldn't ever wear out.

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THEY ALL LAUGH

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Look! It's coming to pieces!

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We're saved!

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Look! Look!

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Sir John, look! Sir John!

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LAUGHTER FADES INTO DISTANCE

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Look! Look! Look!

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Of course, the other Ealing Comedy that everybody remembers is

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The Ladykillers. How do you think that one stands out? 1955.

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I don't know, I haven't seen that film.

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That was Sandy Mackendrick again.

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I would have thought all right. I don't know!

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Let's have a look at a bit of it anyway.

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Mrs Wilberforce? Yes? I understand you have rooms to let.

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Oh, the rooms, yes. Won't you come in, please?

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Thank you. My name's Marcus.

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How do you do, Mr Marcus? Professor Marcus. How do you do, Professor?

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Yes, I have two, right up...

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Oh, yes, would you excuse me a moment

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while I put this away, please?

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SINISTER MUSIC PLAYS

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I'm afraid it's quite impossible to make it hang evenly,

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Professor Marcus. Because of the subsidence. Subsidence?

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From the bombing. None of the pictures will.

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You have no other lodgers?

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No, the other floors are no longer structurally sound.

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But the two rooms at the rear are quite all right.

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Then, you live here all alone? Yes.

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I think I should tell you,

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Professor, I am unable to provide breakfast or early morning tea.

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This is the sitting room, and the bedroom is just down here.

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These rooms do need an airing, don't they?

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I'm afraid there is no proper service, and the view is, well...

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TRAIN WHISTLES AND SCREECHES

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Most exhilarating.

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One year before The Ladykillers, British cinema audiences had

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been queuing in their hundreds to see a comedy film that was

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so successful it would spawn six sequels and a long-running TV series.

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It turned Dirk Bogarde,

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a relatively unknown actor with serious aspirations,

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into one of the biggest stars of the 1950s.

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You moved to a very successful series of films,

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which were the Doctor films.

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When you were working in what many people might consider

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unremarkable cinema,

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were you striving to do your best within those circumstances,

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or were you not all that conscious that it was unremarkable cinema?

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Look here, let's get one thing absolutely straight.

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All I've ever been in the cinema or in the theatre or in my books

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is an entertainer.

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Nothing more and nothing less. That's all I am.

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And anything I do, I do to the depths of my gut.

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I would never, as I said, cheat anyone.

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I never considered those films

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as crappy or stupid or whatever they were.

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They were there to pleasure people,

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they were there to pleasure people who came to see us.

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You don't betray that faith. You don't betray people who

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have staggered miles in a snowstorm to get to the movie to see you.

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You do everything you can.

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And people met and married in movies that I made.

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They dated.

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I have four generations of people that I am directly responsible to.

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I couldn't possibly say that I did anything more

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than do the best thing I COULD do to the highest point of my ability,

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and never once looked down on it. I never. I couldn't do.

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And I loved the cinema too much anyway, that was another thing.

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It was growing and growing and growing.

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When I found that a crew was working, and that was working,

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and how it worked, and this was working, the boom,

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all these wonderful things came in, and I was being taken in again,

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into a force, like I had been in the Army,

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and producing something at the end of it.

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But I was very, very proud of those films.

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I mean, some of them were rubbish, I admit,

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but people like rubbish, you know.

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People don't want always to be educated, illuminating...

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DOG WHIMPERS

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Hurry along, there.

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Come on, hurry along. Hold tight, please.

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BELL RINGS

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TYRES SCREECH

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WOMAN SCREAMS

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But in the Doctor films I said, "Whatever I do

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"I've got to be a doctor,"

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because the one thing you must never do, coming back to it again -

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cut it out if you don't want it -

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don't cheat an audience, and I never did.

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And I was never funny in the Doctor films. They THINK I was funny.

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Audiences THINK I was funny, but the people around me were funny,

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but I was always real, so that when I had to deliver a baby

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or take out a tooth or whatever it was, you believed in it.

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It was the hard core of the movie... was Simon Sparrow.

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Morning, Sister. Morning, Sir Lancelot. Everything ready?

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All ready, Sir. Splendid.

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Now, you just lie still, old fellow.

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I've just got to discuss your case with these young doctors here.

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Take his pyjamas off, Sister. You, examine his abdomen.

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Take that grubby fist away!

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The first rule of diagnosis, gentlemen -

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eyes first and most, hands next and least, and tongue not at all.

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Look!

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Have you looked? Yes, sir. See anything? No, sir. Very good.

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Carry on.

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Gently, man! Gently! You're not making bread.

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Don't forget, to be a successful surgeon, you need

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the eye of a hawk, the heart of a lion and the hands of a lady.

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You found it?

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Yes, sir. Well, what is it? A lump. Well? What do you make of it?

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Is it kidney? Is it spleen? Is it liver?

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Is it dangerous? Don't worry, my good man.

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You won't understand our medical talk... Um, you.

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What are we going to do about it? Erm...

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Cut it out, man, cut it out! Where shall we make the incision?

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Nothing like large enough. Keyhole surgery, damnable.

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Couldn't see anything. Like this.

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Now, don't worry, this is nothing whatever to do with you. Now, you.

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When we cut through the skin, what's the first substance we shall find?

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Subcutaneous fat, Sir. Quite right.

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Then we come across the surgeon's worst enemy, which is what?

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Speak up, man!

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Blood, you numbskull!

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You cut a patient,

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he bleeds until the processes of nature form a clot and stop it.

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This interval is known scientifically as the bleeding time.

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You, what's the bleeding time?

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Ten past ten, Sir.

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A classic line! And James Robertson Justice proved to be so popular

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playing the demanding surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt,

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he ended up appearing in all seven of the Doctor film series.

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Now, it has been said of you you're an actor who doesn't need to...

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play a part, because the parts you're cast for

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you very often resemble, um, physically

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and that in fact you play along with your own personality.

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Now, how much is that true? Well...

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I would like to suggest that...

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the answer is that if one behaves absolutely

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as one does in private life in front of the screen,

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it would come over...far too vague, in other words,

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there must be a conscious effort to UNDERPLAY a part.

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Even if you are more or less doing it as you would,

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er, do it yourself.

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It still must be brought down a bit, otherwise it would be a firing.

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So that you're really underplaying your own personality?

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I hope so.

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Even if a character like Sir Lancelot Pratt,

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the doctor of the doctor series...

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Sir Lancelot Spratt, if you don't mind. Spratt. Er...

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Well, yes, he was of course founded on somebody that I knew very well.

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Er, who was also a great ornithologist

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and a great surgeon

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and used to...

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he had a wonderful team

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in the operating theatre

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at the hospital...

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of which he was a very senior surgeon.

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And they were all quite used to him, but he had a nervous habit

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of using the most terrible language all the time he was operating.

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Everybody was quite used to this, and knew that it meant nothing, it was just a nervous thing.

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And, er...

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I know a lot of people will remember him

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if I say, use the word 'snorker'.

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INTERVIEWER LAUGHS And I won't mention his real name,

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but that will bring back memories to a great number of people.

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Of course, nurses, doctors, and matrons

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were also exploited to comic effect

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in Britain's most enduring comedy series....

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the Carry On films.

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With a popular cast

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delivering more than double the normal share of double entendres,

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their saucy postcard humour lasted for a total of 31 films.

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And in 1970,

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the BBC turned up on the set of number 19,

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Carry On Up The Jungle.

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Well, our films really started, as you say, by accident.

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We had a script given to us of an army comedy

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which nobody else seemed to want

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and Peter Rogers and myself decided it would make a funny picture.

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So, we knocked it into shape

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and the distributors liked the picture, but didn't like the title,

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so they changed it, in confidence, to Carry On Sergeant.

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All right, turn around.

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Now, breathe deeply.

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In, out. HE EXHALES DEEPLY

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Say 99. Ninety...nine. HE COUGHS

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Overheat.

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Something's wrong, eh?

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Congratulations, you have a perfect heart and lungs. Wha...

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No, Doctor. My heart hangs by a thread.

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By a rope, my boy.

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Rope? What do you mean?

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He doesn't understand, my heart... Lie down.

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Ooh!

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HE STRAINS

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Good. How's that?

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HE STRAINS

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Remarkable. Stand up.

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Uh... Stand still.

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HE GIGGLES Cough.

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HE COUGHS

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A-ha. A-ha. You see?

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Fantastic.

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What is? Stomach's a model.

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You've got a digestive system like an incinerator.

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I went and saw Carry On Camping in Blackpool one afternoon,

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I was up there for a summer season. I've never heard anything like it.

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First of all, you couldn't get into the cinema.

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You just couldn't.

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I just happened to know the manager and I went and stood at the back.

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I'd never heard such laughter.

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Are you the owner of this site? Nah.

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Where is he? Gone for a P. Oh.

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Here he comes now.

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BIRDS TWEET

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Well, we've basically tried to make...broad,

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bawdy, if you like, even vulgar humour,

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which has a family appeal and which at the same time

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never actually takes the mickey out of the institution,

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but only the people in it.

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We don't want to make people frightened of hospitals, policeman and fireman.

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But we don't mind taking the fun out of the actual policeman themselves.

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The lovely thing, really, is that in the Carry Ons

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you get a chance to sort of...

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play all sorts of roles, you know, which is...great fun.

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I played a hell of a lot of different roles,

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but they're all me...

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with different hats on.

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SID LAUGHS

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These pictures are so successful. I'm a big hit in Japan.

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And they had to queue up in Los Angeles and...

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and in India, believe it or not.

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The lovely thing with the Carry Ons of course it's like

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coming back to school after the holidays, cos...

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you know the people that you're working with.

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And as you get to know them, of course,

0:20:270:20:30

your timing becomes that much tighter...

0:20:300:20:32

and there's just a very happy atmosphere.

0:20:340:20:37

I always feel sorry for a newcomer because he feels strange,

0:20:370:20:40

cos it is really like coming into somebody's family.

0:20:400:20:43

But, er, we've never ever had any trouble with newcomers,

0:20:440:20:48

really, cos we just belt 'em.

0:20:480:20:49

You know, Thomas, our director,

0:20:490:20:51

is as responsible as anybody for the success with the films,

0:20:510:20:54

he's directed them all,

0:20:540:20:56

he keeps us in order,

0:20:560:20:58

quite rightly, we have to do what we're told

0:20:580:21:01

and we discuss everything together as friends would

0:21:010:21:06

and, um...he's got firm hand over the controls.

0:21:060:21:10

The competition is murder. You have got to look after yourself.

0:21:100:21:13

I just make a habit of playing against the others.

0:21:130:21:15

And that... Because I'm not strictly a comic. I'm not a comic at all.

0:21:160:21:19

These other blokes are comedians, I'm more of a sort of re-actor.

0:21:190:21:24

So I let them do it and then I throw a couple of counterpunches.

0:21:240:21:27

It's all I can do.

0:21:270:21:29

Our scriptwriter, Talbot Rothwell, has an enormous fund of gags.

0:21:290:21:32

I think he has a Victorian gag book at home.

0:21:320:21:35

And, you know, basically,

0:21:350:21:37

our pictures are of the same format, with the same people.

0:21:370:21:41

Different locales and different incidents that happen

0:21:410:21:44

but basically it is a formula which the public expect.

0:21:440:21:47

Word-play and period costume also featured heavily in the films

0:21:510:21:55

of another comedy gang who entered the world of cinema in the 1970s.

0:21:550:22:00

But where the Carry On films were dismissed by most critics,

0:22:000:22:04

the Monty Python films received rave reviews -

0:22:040:22:08

give or take the odd religious controversy.

0:22:080:22:12

Their first foray into cinema was The Holy Grail starring Graham Chapman

0:22:120:22:18

as King Arthur and co-directed by the Python's two Terrys -

0:22:180:22:22

Gilliam and Jones.

0:22:220:22:24

DRAMATIC MUSIC

0:22:260:22:28

How do two people who have never directed

0:22:390:22:41

a film before in their lives, direct a film?

0:22:410:22:44

Well... HE LAUGHS

0:22:440:22:46

We are learning as we do it. That's what's nice,

0:22:460:22:48

we've been given a film to learn how to make films on.

0:22:480:22:51

They're pretty good.

0:22:510:22:52

They're pretty good. They're both very visually orientated.

0:22:520:22:55

Very aware of picture compositions.

0:22:550:22:58

Ingmar Bergman is going to be really jealous of this one!

0:22:580:23:02

There's a slight joke about us that we make about them, that the jokes

0:23:020:23:07

tend to be a bit secondary to whether it looks good, you know.

0:23:070:23:10

So we keep sort of...

0:23:100:23:12

When they say, "more smoke", "more smoke"

0:23:120:23:14

and this kind of thing, because we have hardly had

0:23:140:23:16

a shot yet that we haven't had smoke or some such arty visual effect.

0:23:160:23:21

We tend to ask them how many laughs there are in smoke, you know,

0:23:210:23:25

just to keep them, as it were, thinking of that.

0:23:250:23:27

But that's the only criticism.

0:23:270:23:28

Up with the cow, as high as you can to start with.

0:23:280:23:32

You've got your questions ready.

0:23:320:23:34

I know I've got my questions ready.

0:23:340:23:37

Which of these questions would you most not like to answer?

0:23:370:23:41

The first couple of days, we just sort of leapt into it,

0:23:410:23:43

and immediately...

0:23:430:23:44

First of all, we had chosen an impossible location,

0:23:440:23:47

about a half mile up Glencoe.

0:23:470:23:48

So everything have to be humped by Sherpas up the mountain.

0:23:480:23:51

We got up there, the very first shot of the film,

0:23:510:23:53

the big moment the camera turns, and it jammed!

0:23:530:23:56

So we didn't have a sound camera.

0:23:560:23:58

And all our great plans were suddenly up in the air.

0:23:580:24:01

We panicked and we just had to try to get a film made.

0:24:010:24:03

In this incredible location, no camera and no experience,

0:24:030:24:08

that's the worst of it.

0:24:080:24:09

Where is the other Terry now? He's directing.

0:24:090:24:12

He's directing the film.

0:24:120:24:13

Charlie, you come to this mark there, to where he is.

0:24:130:24:16

We do tag team directing.

0:24:160:24:19

Can you give me a brief synopsis of the film,

0:24:190:24:22

is that possible in the space of half an hour or so?

0:24:220:24:24

Well, I don't think it is, really. I don't think it is.

0:24:240:24:27

Try in 30 seconds. Right...

0:24:270:24:30

It's about a search for the Holy Grail,

0:24:300:24:33

which is a large sort of creature, a bit like a dodo.

0:24:330:24:37

With a big beak.

0:24:370:24:40

And people are trying to find this Grail.

0:24:400:24:42

Do they?

0:24:480:24:49

No. No. Isn't that rather a letdown? Don't you feel that the audience...?

0:24:500:24:53

It's a big letdown. The whole film is a great anti-climax.

0:24:530:24:56

John, apart from being interviewed by Film Night,

0:24:560:24:59

what are the real horrors of film-making on location?

0:24:590:25:03

Apart from the interviews, well, there is the sheer discomfort.

0:25:030:25:07

The sheer... Am I too heavy? No. No, that's fine. No.

0:25:070:25:12

Move up a little bit. That's better.

0:25:120:25:14

How do you prevent boredom from creeping in?

0:25:140:25:16

Well, I don't, really. Boredom creeps in daily.

0:25:160:25:20

We sit in our rent-a-van and think what we could be doing

0:25:200:25:24

if we weren't making films.

0:25:240:25:27

DRAMATIC MUSIC

0:25:270:25:34

INAUDIBLE

0:25:450:25:48

HE BLOWS A RASPBERRY

0:25:490:25:51

After the last of the Python films, John Cleese scored

0:25:530:25:57

a huge international hit with his 1988 comedy A Fish Called Wanda.

0:25:570:26:03

Also featuring Michael Palin.

0:26:030:26:06

Its director was the then 78-year-old Charles Crichton,

0:26:060:26:10

who Cleese chose specifically because decades before he had directed

0:26:100:26:15

Ealing Comedies The Man in the White Suit

0:26:150:26:18

and The Titfield Thunderbolt.

0:26:180:26:20

That's the tradition that I come from. The Ealing Comedies.

0:26:200:26:23

Those are the ones I loved when I was a kid.

0:26:230:26:26

And to make one in that vein, but with that slightly black edge,

0:26:260:26:30

which I really personally prefer in comedy.

0:26:300:26:33

I call it wickedness.

0:26:330:26:35

It is... Please don't take it seriously, it's all pretend.

0:26:350:26:40

But I love that real edge to the comedy.

0:26:400:26:43

A Fish Called Wanda turned out to be Britain's

0:26:440:26:47

biggest international comedy film for years until 1994, when the world fell

0:26:470:26:53

head over heels in love with a floppy-haired posh boy

0:26:530:26:57

and his amorous misadventures.

0:26:570:26:59

I assumed we had completely fouled it up and certainly...

0:27:020:27:05

I mean, I never watched any rushes until the last day

0:27:050:27:09

when Mike Newell came up to me at lunchtime

0:27:090:27:12

and said, "Come along." We are showing some rough assembly.

0:27:120:27:15

"You've got nothing to lose now,

0:27:150:27:17

"it's only one afternoon's work left."

0:27:170:27:19

So I went along and I sat there with about 50, no,

0:27:190:27:22

about 100 cast and crew watching this thing

0:27:220:27:26

and there wasn't a laugh in it!

0:27:260:27:28

You know, in the months that followed,

0:27:310:27:34

I really thought I was going to have to emigrate.

0:27:340:27:36

Making a film is less than half of the process.

0:27:360:27:39

It's the way that you distribute it that is going to make or break it.

0:27:390:27:42

And I was very keen that the film open in America first.

0:27:420:27:45

And I thought if it could come into the UK with some good

0:27:450:27:49

views from the States, people would sit up and take note.

0:27:490:27:51

When we all flew over to America to first screen the movie,

0:27:510:27:56

we had absolutely zero expectation that we would get one laugh at all

0:27:560:28:02

in the audience.

0:28:020:28:04

Good luck.

0:28:040:28:06

They were very worried, on both sides of the Atlantic,

0:28:060:28:09

that I was their top of the bill. Totally unknown, really.

0:28:090:28:13

Hi, we've got 30 seconds to make this commercial

0:28:130:28:15

for a new comedy called Four Weddings And A Funeral

0:28:150:28:17

starring the absolutely fabulous Andie McDowell. Hi.

0:28:170:28:19

We've only got 30 seconds as we spent absolutely every last penny

0:28:190:28:22

on making the film as excellent and funny as possible.

0:28:220:28:25

I think it is pretty funny, what do you think, Andie? Yes.

0:28:250:28:27

So, this is the last 30 seconds of film we have in the camera.

0:28:270:28:30

So I'll stop rabbiting on cos I'm just some git with stupid hair who

0:28:300:28:32

you've never heard of and Andie's a fabulous goddess, every time she opens her mouth it's heaven,

0:28:320:28:36

so I'll shut up - over to Andie to tell you everything

0:28:360:28:39

you need to know about Four Weddings And A Funeral.

0:28:390:28:41

It's a really funny film. I think. But don't take my word for it.

0:28:410:28:43

Take Andie's. Well, it's like...

0:28:430:28:45

Well, after Four Weddings, I was in despair

0:28:470:28:53

and unemployed for a few months

0:28:530:28:55

and suddenly then the film started to do incredibly well in America.

0:28:550:28:58

There are British things which export particularly well

0:28:580:29:01

and I think humour is one

0:29:010:29:03

and I think what they call heritage is another.

0:29:030:29:07

Not that this is a period film, but I think they like the flowers

0:29:070:29:11

and the quintessential Englishness of it,

0:29:110:29:13

that, for some reason, Americans seem to find that very droll.

0:29:130:29:17

I've discovered that in my travels in America.

0:29:170:29:19

You have only really got to say, "gosh" or "by jiminy" -

0:29:190:29:24

to get a huge laugh.

0:29:240:29:25

Oh, no. Another wedding invitation...

0:29:250:29:28

'I've gone from being semi-failure actor to'

0:29:280:29:31

lots and lots of jobs. To the point of absurdity, where now,

0:29:310:29:36

even totally unsuitable scripts about 70-year-old Irish nuns.

0:29:360:29:41

People say, Hugh Grant could play that.

0:29:410:29:43

It's bloody frightening, because you just feel huge pressure.

0:29:430:29:47

And I miss very much the old days

0:29:470:29:49

when one was just doing a kind of a supporting part and if you

0:29:490:29:52

were good it was a bonus and if you weren't, it didn't really matter.

0:29:520:29:55

Equally, if the film was a success that was a bonus,

0:29:550:29:58

but if it wasn't, it was art, so it didn't matter.

0:29:580:30:01

Four Weddings, Bridget Jones, the Full Monty...

0:30:030:30:07

these are some of the biggest British hits of recent cinema history -

0:30:070:30:11

but we're going back to the '60s for our final film funnyman.

0:30:110:30:17

To some, Peter Sellers is the greatest comedian

0:30:170:30:21

Britain has ever produced.

0:30:210:30:23

He broke new ground in radio with The Goons,

0:30:230:30:26

appeared with Alec Guinness in The Ladykillers

0:30:260:30:29

and starred in comedy classics like Dr Strangelove

0:30:290:30:33

and I'm All Right Jack -

0:30:330:30:35

and then, of course, there were the hugely successful

0:30:350:30:38

Pink Panther series - and possibly his greatest creation,

0:30:380:30:43

Inspector Jacques Clouseau.

0:30:430:30:46

Peter, where does the character of Clouseau come from?

0:30:460:30:49

Is it observation, or are you digging about inside yourself

0:30:490:30:52

to find aspects of him?

0:30:520:30:53

No, um...it's difficult to say, Barry, now,

0:30:530:30:56

because, you know, I've been doing it so long... Um...

0:30:560:30:59

"Come from"...

0:31:010:31:03

I think, you know, when I first did The Pink Panther in Rome, years ago,

0:31:030:31:07

he was just a straightforward French detective.

0:31:070:31:10

As a matter of fact, Peter Ustinov was playing the role at that time -

0:31:100:31:14

and I was going to go into Topkapi with Jules Dassin.

0:31:140:31:17

I successfully talked my way out that in an interview

0:31:170:31:20

at the Dorchester, and Peter left the film

0:31:200:31:23

because of some problems - we crossed over,

0:31:230:31:25

he went into Topkapi as the taxi driver, and I went into this.

0:31:250:31:28

And it worked out great for us both.

0:31:280:31:30

But getting back to that, let's think, now -

0:31:300:31:33

I don't know, we just decided to make him

0:31:330:31:37

one of those very serious...

0:31:370:31:40

I mean, the size of his moustache is to give him, in his own mind,

0:31:400:31:45

some masculinity, you know?

0:31:450:31:47

And very serious, but completely hopeless at his job -

0:31:470:31:51

very serious detective, but completely bad at it -

0:31:510:31:55

useless at it, you know?

0:31:550:31:56

But he's kind of vaguely etched in, isn't he?

0:31:560:31:58

We don't know very much about him, except that he's a detective

0:31:580:32:01

and he lives with this Japanese whom he keeps fighting.

0:32:010:32:04

Yes. But presumably you know more about him than that,

0:32:040:32:07

in order to portray him.

0:32:070:32:09

Well, I know that he goes to this lunatic, um...disguisologist,

0:32:090:32:12

who sells him these terrible disguises.

0:32:120:32:15

He's a very romantic man - he tries very hard with the women,

0:32:150:32:19

but he obviously doesn't make it with them, er...too much.

0:32:190:32:22

Although he probably will in the next one.

0:32:220:32:25

Um... He's... He believes sincerely, as I was just saying,

0:32:250:32:29

that he's probably one of the greatest

0:32:290:32:32

living detectives in the world -

0:32:320:32:34

and also, on top of it,

0:32:340:32:36

the sad thing is that he knows deep down that he isn't.

0:32:360:32:41

But he doesn't want anybody else to know, you know?

0:32:410:32:44

I believe everything...

0:32:440:32:45

..and I believe nothing.

0:32:460:32:48

I suspect everyone...

0:32:480:32:51

and I suspect no-one.

0:32:510:32:53

I gather the facts...

0:32:550:32:57

examine the clues...

0:32:570:32:59

and before you know it...

0:32:590:33:01

the case is solved. Hm!

0:33:010:33:02

Oh, yes, there is much here that does not meet the eye.

0:33:040:33:07

Mm, that is quite obvious.

0:33:070:33:09

Oh...

0:33:090:33:10

Ahem... What was that you said?

0:33:120:33:14

Nothing, Monsieur. Hm, all right.

0:33:140:33:17

You can go now.

0:33:180:33:20

Yes, Monsieur.

0:33:200:33:22

But do not try to leave.

0:33:220:33:25

Everyone in this household is under suspicion.

0:33:250:33:28

Yes, Monsieur.

0:33:280:33:29

The humour in the Pink Panther films

0:33:310:33:34

is rather similar, isn't it, to The Goon Show's zany humour?

0:33:340:33:37

Well, it... I think all humour has something in common, but...

0:33:370:33:41

MAN SPEAKS IN FRENCH

0:33:410:33:42

HE MIMICS FRENCH

0:33:420:33:45

I see what you mean!

0:33:490:33:51

HE IMITATES ECCLES

0:33:510:33:53

HE SINGS "Camptown Races" AS ECCLES

0:33:530:33:57

So, how similar is the brand of zany comedy in The Pink Panther?

0:33:570:34:00

Er...well, it's pretty wild, you know?

0:34:000:34:03

We're doing some mad things in this,

0:34:030:34:05

we're telling taxi drivers to follow that car,

0:34:050:34:07

and they get out and run after -

0:34:070:34:08

things like that, and all kind of other mad things.

0:34:080:34:12

Um, I don't think it has a direct affinity with Goon humour, no, um...

0:34:120:34:18

but it's pretty wild.

0:34:180:34:20

That Clouseau is timeless, because he represents

0:34:220:34:25

something in all of us that doesn't change, essentially.

0:34:250:34:30

Certain customs may change,

0:34:300:34:32

but the essential man doesn't change - Clouseau doesn't.

0:34:320:34:37

The fallible, bumbling screw-up, if you will, he...

0:34:370:34:42

..he's essential in all of us,

0:34:450:34:47

and he provides us with the ability to laugh at ourselves.

0:34:470:34:51

Right, here we go. Right, action, Peter.

0:34:510:34:54

Talking about Blake Edwards and yourselves,

0:34:540:34:56

you seem to have some sort of rapport.

0:34:560:34:58

What is it that exists between you?

0:34:580:35:00

We're rather like Laurel and Hardy that way.

0:35:000:35:02

We seem to...well, we know, you know,

0:35:020:35:06

his sense of humour is very much like mine,

0:35:060:35:08

he finds the same sort of things as I do funny.

0:35:080:35:11

Little dogs and cats and birds... HE SQUAWKS

0:35:110:35:15

..and things like that, you know?

0:35:150:35:17

Animals from the rear, all kinds of things like that,

0:35:170:35:20

situations - he spots them very quickly.

0:35:200:35:23

We both see the funny - and he's also a great giggler,

0:35:230:35:26

it's great working with him.

0:35:260:35:27

What do you think this special rapport is,

0:35:270:35:29

that you and Peter Sellers seem to have?

0:35:290:35:31

We're both crazy. HE CHUCKLES

0:35:310:35:33

Peter Sellers' influence is still clear today,

0:35:360:35:38

with stars like Steve Coogan and Sacha Baron Cohen

0:35:380:35:42

describing him as a major influence -

0:35:420:35:45

and as for Sellers himself -

0:35:450:35:47

well, one of his biggest influences was the man we started off with -

0:35:470:35:53

George Formby,

0:35:530:35:55

proving that good comedy is handed down through the generations.

0:35:550:35:59

AS GEORGE FORMBY: Heh, heh - turned out nice again, hasn't it?

0:35:590:36:03

One, two, three...heh-four!

0:36:030:36:04

MUSIC: When I'm Cleaning Windows by George Formby

0:36:040:36:08

# Now I go cleanin' windows to earn an honest bob

0:36:130:36:17

# For a nosy parker it's an interestin' job

0:36:170:36:21

# Now it's a job that just suits me

0:36:210:36:24

# A window cleaner you would be

0:36:240:36:27

# If you could see what I can see

0:36:270:36:29

# When I'm cleanin' windows

0:36:290:36:31

# Honeymooning couples too

0:36:310:36:34

# You should see them bill 'n' coo

0:36:340:36:36

# You'd be surprised the things they do

0:36:360:36:38

# When I'm cleanin' windows

0:36:380:36:40

# In my profession I'll work hard

0:36:400:36:43

# But I'll never stop... #

0:36:430:36:45

BOTH: # I'll climb this blinkin' ladder

0:36:450:36:48

# Till I get right to the top

0:36:480:36:50

# The blushin' bride she looks divine

0:36:500:36:53

# The bridegroom, he is doin' fine

0:36:530:36:55

# I'd rather have his job than mine

0:36:550:36:57

# When I'm cleanin' windows. #

0:36:570:36:59

227 Lears and I cannot remember the first line.

0:37:160:37:18

Will he be ready on time?

0:37:180:37:20

Will he be well enough? Yes.

0:37:200:37:22

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