ben elton
Now here’s one for the geeks. As part of BBC2’s 50th birthday celebrations the channel dusted off its archive to reveal some rarely seen – or in some cases never publicly seen at all – comedy gems. This has got to be good I thought. And in some cases it was. In a lot of cases though I thought I’d accidentally tuned in to an episode of Before They Were Famous that was never aired because it wasn’t interesting enough.
It has been interesting to see Michael Gove's attack on Blackadder for perpetuating the myth about World War 1 being a "misbegotten shambles". Judging by the Education Secretary's comments one might think that one of the greatest British sitcoms ever made was actually a commie plot to bring down the establishment. Gove even went as far as accusing Richard Curtis and Ben Elton's portrayal of idiotic officers as being "designed to belittle Britain and its leaders".
I heard a story the other night about a critic who had gone to review immersive multi-media circus/burlesque show Silencio at the London Wonderground and had not quite got what they bargained for. The show involves donning headphones when you enter so that you hear the commentary individually while you enjoy being bombarded by spoof adverts onscreen and real acts onstage.
So the good news is that The Wright Way will not be coming back. Shane Allen, the BBC's Comedy head honcho has confirmed that there will be no second series of Ben Elton's risible, dated Health & Safety so-called sitcom.
Let's get one thing straight. I'm certainly not backtracking on my opinion of Ben Elton's pitiful sitcom. But at the same time I've found some of the objections to The Wright Way particularly interesting.
David Haig is one of our great comic actors both onstage and onscreen. Unfortunately his latest project, The Wright Way, is not so great. Here is a frank, funny interview with Haig from December 2008 when he was starring in the revival of Joe Orton's black comedy Loot onstage. At the time I speculated that Haig does his best work when he is sporting his trademark moustache.
Ricky Gervais has got a lot to answer for. Watching a preview of Ben Elton's new BBC sitcom The Wright Way it appears that he has taken his inspiration from When The Whistle Blows, the fictional workplace comedy featured in Extras. The gags might fly thick and fast, but they are peppered with farcical misunderstandings and cheap innuendo about knobs and knickers.
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