First viewed : Early 1984
This was always likely to be disappointing - Not The Nine O Clock News without the genius of Rowan Atkinson or Pamela Stephenson's sexual charisma. The remaining duo of Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones wrote much of the material themselves but also used some of the NTNOCN team. Former colleague Chris Langham appeared fairly regularly with them.
The show was mainly sketch-based with the main innovation being the Pete and Dud -ish head to head dialogues for which they are best remembered.
I watched it but never religiously . My recollection is that many of the sketches went on a bit too long and for a show that ran for ten seasons ( with name and channel change about half way through ) there aren't too many classic moments that have stayed with me. I remember a laboured sketch about Griff being a former woman who's now an executive rival of ex-husband Mel, a savage attack on their own series for ITV The World According To Smith and Jones and the duo taking flak from a female guest until she accuses them of being worse than Hale and Pace and then taking umbrage but that's about it.
Pete and Dud-ish style head to heads surely? Derek and Clive would just consist of them hurling swearwords at each other.
ReplyDeleteAlways had a soft spot for Smith and Jones myself and they were always quite popular in the playground at the time. But, like a lot of things, it went on for far far too long. I remember the final few series were really hard work and out of date when you consider the likes of Lee and Herring, Baddiel and Skinner, The Fast Show etc were around at the time.
That they later went on to present The Smith and Jones Sketchbook, featuring their favourite sketches in the same format as The Two Ronnies Sketchbook - a duo they so wonderfully lampooned in NTNOCN - speaks volumes.
Corrected as suggested, thanks.
ReplyDeleteYes that was rather ironic. Poacher turned gamekeeper is a real trap for anyone involved in the satire game.