643 Carrott's Lib

First  viewed  :  22  October 1983

This  actually  started  in  1982  but  I  didn't  see  it  until  the  second  season  in  1983.

Jasper  Carrott  ( aka  Bob  Davies )  had  taken  some  time  to  follow  up  on  the  success  of  his  1975  hit  Funky  Moped   and  spent  the  latter  part  of  the  seventies  in  the  clubs  with  ITV's  attempts  to  launch  him  on TV  meeting  with  limited  success. At  the  start  of  the  eighties  Jasper  saw  which  way  the  wind  was  blowing  and  moved  on  to  observational  comedy  and  political  satire. His  reward  was  this  part-live  comedy  series  late  on  Saturday  nights  on  BBC  One. He  had  a  strong  team  on  the  show  with  Nick  Wilton, Chris  Barrie  and  Jan  Ravens  among  the  supporting  cast.

I  had  a  strange  relationship  to  the  show. Carrott  was  a  known  supporter  of  the  Labour  Party  and  the  left-wing  bias  was  obvious  in  his  material  so  I  was  a  bit  resistant  to  him  on  that  score. On  the  other  hand  some  of  the  sketches  were  really  funny, worthy  of  Not  the  Nine  O  Clock  News  at  their  best.

My  favourite  was  the  brutal  assault  on  Paul  McCartney, timely  in  the  wake  of  the  Late  Late  Breakfast  Show  appearance  detailed  previously. Nick  Wilton  played  McCartney  singing  a  deliberately  inane  lyric  about  black  people  being  the  same  as  white  people  then  he  says  "take  it  away  Linda "  and  Jan  Ravens  as  Mrs  Macca  plays  a  single  note  on  the  piano.  I  was  on  the  floor  at  that  one.

There  was  also  a  sketch  on  Coronation  Street  which  referred  to  recent  scandals  hitting  the  programme  such  as  Peter  Adamson's  kiddie-fondling  charge  ( one  suspects  that  gag  wouldn't  get  through  today )  and   subsequent  acrimonious  departure  and  Anne  Kirkbride's  marijuana  conviction.

Sadly  there  were  only  the  two  seasons. Carrott  would  have  other  vehicles  but  they  weren't  as  good  as  this.