At Last the 1948 Show
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At Last the 1948 Show was a satirical TV show made by David Frost's Paradine Productions in association with Rediffusion London for Britain's ITV network during 1967, bringing Cambridge Footlights type-humour to a broader audience. It starred John Cleese, Graham Chapman (in their pre-Python days), Tim Brooke-Taylor (later one of The Goodies), Marty Feldman (in his first screen appearance), and Aimi MacDonald.
David Frost personally approached John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor, to star in a new television sketch series, and they suggested to him that Marty Feldman, who had been known only as a television writer up to then, be included in the cast.From Fringe to Flying Circus - 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960-1980' - Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980, ISBN 0413469506.
The series represented an important stage between the radio cult series of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and the television cult series Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Goodies, as well as leading to Marty Feldman's television comedy sketch series Marty (which included Tim Brooke-Taylor in the cast), when the conventional light entertainment format in which wacky comedy scenes were interspersed with unchallenging popular songs was finally abandoned. The shows had no relationship to the year 1948; the title simply referred to the BBC's annoying habit of letting new shows sit on the shelves for months at a time before broadcasting them. The cast also recorded an LP of sketches from the show.
Several of the show's sketches were later revived by the Monty Python team for their two German TV specials (Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus) and for their stage shows, including the "Four Yorkshiremen sketch", which was performed on the stage show Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
The show was made shortly before the introduction of colour on ITV. There were two short series totalling 13 25-minute episodes (six episodes in the first series, seven in the second). Some time later David Frost's Paradine Productions wiped the series and 11 episodes were destroyed. Much of the missing material still exists in the form of audio recordings from the series or from the LP version, and the surviving video footage has reportedly been restored by the British Film Institute.
Many, though not all, of the surviving sketches from "At Last the 1948 Show" have been released on DVD, including the "Four Yorkshiremen sketch" with the original cast of John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman. The compilation DVDs were issued by Pinnacle Vision in the UK (Region 2) and by Tango Entertainment in the US (Region 1).
Some other important pre-Python / pre-Goodies shows that fared no better in terms of archival preservation were Do Not Adjust Your Set, Twice a Fortnight and Broaden Your Mind.
Reference
External links
- [At Last the 1948 Show] - BBC Guide to Comedy
- [At Last the 1948 Show] - Nostalgia Central
- [At Last the 1948 Show] TV.com
| At Last the 1948 Show |
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| Tim Brooke-Taylor — Graham Chapman — John Cleese — Marty Feldman — Aimi MacDonald |
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