Monday, December 4

Scratching around for something to watch, I came across the first three series of The Two Ronnies.  Remembering how much I enjoyed it the first time around, I thought it might be worth another look. What were we thinking?  I watched episode 1 of series 1 and couldn't believe how trite and unfunny it was, even though the writers included Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, who went on to be involved in Monty Python.  The Two Ronnies depended on sketches with elaborate costumes, funny voices and predictable dialogue.  Pretty girls provided opportunities for smutty innuendo and double entendres.

Early on, a pattern was established to have a monologue from Ronnie Corbett sitting in a chair, and the show always finished with the line, "It's Goodnight from me'" "And, it's Goodnight from him."  I think the British find catchphrases reassuring; they don't have to exert any real effort to understand what's going on, and it's handy to have a signal when it's time to laugh.

The 'guests' were another feature of the show.  I remember in a later series, one of the regular guests was Barbara Dickson who was outstanding, but the first series features Tina Charles, a 16-year who moves awkwardly and believes that belting out a song is an improvement on singing.  New World was a group of anodyne young men with guitars and suede jackets who sang folky ballads, but the highlight for me was a strange fellow called Alberto whose act consisted of making funny faces, running around in circles with a glass of water on his head, and shooting ping pong balls out of his mouth, bouncing them off a lectern and catching them again in his mouth: takes years of practice but clear evidence of a misspent youth.

I can't wait until episode 2.