Big Train
Encyclopedia : B : BI : BIG : Big Train
- For the Washington Senators pitcher nicknamed "Big Train", see Walter Johnson.
Big Train was a surreal British television comedy sketch show created by Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan, writers of the more successful sitcom Father Ted. It was first broadcast in 1998 with a second series, in which Linehan was not involved, shown in 2002.
Overview
Following in the tradition of Monty Python, the comedy of Big Train is based on the subversion of ordinary situations by the surreal or macabre. For example, one scene features a bad-mannered man casually stabbed to death by his embarrassed wife at a dinner party. The series is probably most famous for a recurring sketch from the first series, a stare-out competition accompanied by commentary from BBC football commentator Barry Davies and Phil Cornwell. The stare-out competition was based on a comic book by Paul Hatcher and was animated by Chris Shepherd.Despite running for two series, Big Train attracted only a limited audience. Even so, the first series was voted "Best Broken Comedy Show" at the prestigious British Comedy Awards in 1999. Both series were released on DVD on 25 October 2004.
Its stars included Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap, Simon Pegg in both series one and two, with Julia Davis, and Amelia Bullmore in the first series, and Rebecca Front, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Catherine Tate in the second series. All its lead actors have starred in a variety of other comedy shows including I'm Alan Partridge, Look Around You, Spaced, Smack the Pony and Brass Eye. Catherine Tate went on to get her own show on the BBC, The Catherine Tate Show. The first series was directed by Graham Linehan and other series contributors included David Mitchell.
The pilot episode was directed by Chris Morris but was never broadcast in full. Some sketches from the pilot are scattered through the series.
Although a sketch about a train being pushed by a giant apreared in the first series, the actual title of the show is derived from the song run during the credits, of which the writers were fond enough to name the show after it. The song "Big Train" was recorded by Max Greger and his Orchestra.
All sketches were shot in film and shown in front of a studio audience.
Memorable Sketches
- A behind-the-scenes look at the life of Ming the Merciless, as he spends his morning watching TV, hoovering his house and listening to his answering machine. At one point, one of his minions comes to the door informing him that a rebel prince has just been captured. Ming tells him to "throw him into the pit of ice" before carrying on with his hoovering.
- Two monks dupe another monk into thinking one of them has been killed. When the duped monk is theorizing in full flow ("Death stalks these relics...etc") the "dead" monk in the background and the other monk burst out laughing, revealing their practical joke. The duped monk reacts with surprise, embarrassment and very mild annoyance. This was repeated in the second series, when two scientists dupe a co-worker into thinking they haven't found a cure for a lethal virus. Just as he starts to go into full-blown melodramatics ("May God have mercy on our souls, we have created a bastard chimera...") one of the joking scientists says "It has worked, really!" Again, the duped man is amused but embarrassed, but this time visibly relieved.
- Jesus is the manager of an office who has a heated argument with Satan, one of his workers, over his irresponsibility, his constant practical joking and bad attitude. Jesus eventually decides that he'll have to give Satan the sack, but insists he will "write him a reference, but obviously it isn't going to be a glowing report."
- In order to save their company from a buyout, one of the employees tries to distract a manager by dressing up in a paper bra and panties and doing a dance.
- A group of showjumpers express a childlike fascination with the work of the fire brigade, attempting to mount their own rescue operation for people trapped in a burning building, constantly getting in the way and causing annoyance to the firemen who are trying to do their jobs.
- The Beatles' producer George Martin, despite getting kidnapped by extremists, imprisoned and held hostage, never stops waxing lyrical about working with the Beatles. This eventually drives his fellow prisoner to try and throttle him.
- In a bizarre parody of European cinema (possibly Kieslowski's Three Colours trilogy), a woman announces to her lover that she has fallen in love with "something else," which turns out to be a set of portable traffic lights. Eventually she decides to go back to the man, only to find that he has fallen in love with a garden hose. The sketch is delivered in French.
- An English tourist in France asks a local for directions in English. In perfect English, the local replies that he can't actually speak English. Another man comes along and, also in perfect English, confesses to not being able to speak a word of the language. She tries to speak to them in German, only for them to confess, in perfect German, to being unable to speak German.
- In a bizarre spin on non-smoking offices, an office manager comes into an office and informs the outraged staff that "wanking" is to be banned from the office.
- A recurring series of sketches places musical icons from the 1970's and 1980's in bizarre situations. For example, the Bee Gees are killed by Chaka Khan in a Western style shoot-out; Chairman Mao on his death-bed suddenly comes to life, turns into Bryan Ferry and sings "Virginia Plain" with the rest of Roxy Music; A mad scientist creates Kevin Rowland from Dexy's Midnight Runners as Frankenstein's monster, and then joins him in singing 'Let's Make This Precious'; And an ancient Roman gladiator is persuaded to join the rebellion against the corrupt dictatorship - as long as his co-conspirators can provide enough donkeys for the keyboard collection of his fellow slave Keith Emerson, of [[Emerson, Lake and Palmer] The Artist Formerly Known as Prince stalks a herd of horseracing jockeys in the African wildnerness eventually killing one and feeding on its carcass.
Transmission details
Big Train originally aired on BBC2 on Monday nights during the following periods:
- Series one (6 episodes): 9 Nov-14 Dec 1998
- Series two (6 episodes): 7 Jan-11 Feb 2002
See also
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.