Not the Nine O'Clock News
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Not the Nine O'Clock News was a comedy television programme shown on the BBC, broadcast from 1979 to 1982.
It featured a new generation of young comedians, principally Rowan Atkinson, Pamela Stephenson, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, and helped to bring alternative comedy to the mainstream. Rather than being written by a single team of writers, it gave virtually anyone involved in UK comedy scriptwriting a chance to demonstrate their talents, creaming the best of the contributions. It was the first mainstream show to include short sketches lasting from a few seconds to several minutes, creating a format that has lasted until the present (and gave its name to a more recent BBC comedy sketch show — The Fast Show).
History
Not the Nine O'Clock News was produced by John Lloyd, a mainstay in much of British comedy as well as the BBC Light Entertainment department. Lloyd pitched the idea of a sketch show to the heads of BBC Comedy and Light Entertainment, and was given a six-show series, on condition that he collaborate with Sean Hardie, who had worked previously in current affairs at the BBC.
Their original cast list was Rowan Atkinson, Christopher Godwin, John Gorman, Chris Langham, Willoughby Goddard and Jonathan Hyde, and the show was planned to premiere on 2 April 1979. The first episode was supposed to have been one of the first cross-over episodes in television history. Originally scheduled to air after Fawlty Towers, John Cleese was to have introduced the first episode in a sketch referring to the then-current technicians' strike, explaining (in character as Basil Fawlty) that there was no show ready that week, so a "tatty revue" would be broadcast instead. Fortunately for some fans, who consider the episode to be rather unfunny, the 1979 general election intervened, and the show was pulled as being too political. (The sketch with Cleese was eventually broadcast later that year, when by a stroke of luck the final episode of Fawlty Towers went out during broadcast run of the first series of Not the Nine O'Clock News, though the original significance of the sketch was lost.)
-->Lloyd and Hardie regrouped, and decided to partly recast the show, retaining Langham and Atkinson. They wanted to bring in a woman: Victoria Wood turned down the opportunity, but Lloyd met Pamela Stephenson at a party and shortly afterwards she agreed to join. Atkinson, Langham and Stephenson were joined by Mel Smith. The first series was sufficiently popular to merit a second. However, Langham was then replaced by Griff Rhys Jones, who had already appeared in minor roles. The second series was an instant major success, winning the Silver Rose at the Montreux Festival , and Atkinson, Stephenson, Smith and Rhys Jones quickly became stars.
The show ran for a total of twenty-eight episodes, of thirty minutes each:
- October 17 1979–November 20 1979: six episodes
- March 31 1980–May 12 1980: seven episodes
- October 27 1980–December 15 1980: eight episodes
- February 1 1982–March 12 1982: seven episodes
Not the Nine O'Clock News became a stage show in Oxford and London in 1982, but the main performers decided to end the project while it was a success and left for pastures new: Stephenson began a Hollywood film career, Atkinson recorded the first series of Blackadder in 1983, and Smith and Jones became a double act in Alas Smith and Jones. A successful American adaptation, Not Necessarily the News ran for 6 years, from 1983–89 on the Home Box Office cable television channel.
Name and format
The show's name derived from its broadcast schedule — it was transmitted on BBC Two at the same time as the main Nine O'Clock News went out on BBC One, leading to the opportunity for some amusing continuity announcements.Starring a new generation of young comedians, it helped bring alternative comedy to the mainstream. It presented a series of individual sketches that were often topical or generally satirical. Unlike other sketch shows up until then, which were based on simple stereotypes or idyllic views of Britain, the show was modern and aggressive — its comedy came from the likes of punk rockers, bodily functions, and kebabs, rather than men in tweed jackets and gentle country pubs.
The series made heavy use of the revolution in video editing and recording which was taking place at the time, and its fast pace was enhanced by the device of jump-cutting archive news footage, usually of politicians, royalty or celebrities. For example, this could make it appear that Margaret Thatcher was crashing a car. (She would later complain about this unfair manipulation of actual events.) The programmes were usually shot on film for exteriors and video for studio performances, and innovative video effects, provided by the then all-new Quantel Paintbox video effects unit, were often a key element of the musical numbers in the show.
Memorable sketches
Memorable sketches include:
- Perhaps the most famous sketch was "Gerald the Intelligent Gorilla": an interview with a professor (Smith) and his highly-trained primate (Atkinson). The former states, "When I caught Gerald, he was completely wild." Gerald replies, "Wild? I was absolutely livid!" This sketch has lead to the adoption of two new uses for words in the English language, namely whoop and flange as collective nouns for gorillas[AskOxford.com: Collective nouns — G] and baboons[AskOxford.com: Collective nouns — B] respectively.
- A darts parody featuring the "sportsmen" being scored on units of alcohol instead of the darts
- A hi-fi shop with disdainful staff, making fun of a customer's ignorance — "A gramophone?"
- Rowan Atkinson addressing the Conservative party conference, interspersed with footage of applauding government ministers. Railing against non-white immigration, he remarks that they cannot help it if they are from India, adding, "..And I like curry. But now that we've got the recipe, is there any reason for them to stay?"
- The "General Synod's Life of Christ": a parody of the controversy surrounding the film Monty Python's Life of Brian
- "Constable Savage": a barbed attack on alleged police treatment of ethnic minorities ["Constable Savage" (transcript)]
- Rowan Atkinson as a vicar, embarrassingly trying to express his support for homosexuals within the Church — "Are you a gay Christian?"
- "Come Home to a Real Fire (Buy a Cottage in Wales)": a reference to a spate of arson attacks by Welsh nationalists against English people's second homes, and a parody of the contemporary coal marketing campaign. The Welsh were frequent targets of attack, as was the UK Liberal Party.
- Pamela Stephenson doing a couple of send-ups of Janet Street-Porter, exaggerated almost to the point of incomprehensibility.
- Film of Roy Jenkins, the then-leader of the UK Social Democratic Party, standing behind a lectern, played to the sound of a man urinating into a bucket.
- A spoof of the BBC Two channel closedown announcement in which the clock moves to the right to reveal a yawning Atkinson, in his pyjamas, running a moistened finger around a champagne glass to produce the closed-channel tone.
- A spoof of religious affairs programmes chaired by Stephenson in which Atkinson complains to an Anglican Priest, "Where was God when I cut my finger?" to which Stephenson replies, "I think the point is God can't be expected to be in two places at once," to which the Priest snaps, "He can, he can, he's omnipresent for Christ's sake."
- Two men in the stands at a women's football (soccer) game, commenting on the utter poorness of the game. The conversation ends up to the point where the men are about to stop going to such matches, when the game finally ends, and the players exchange their shirts, revealing that the women are not wearing bras or other undergarments. The entire crowd cheer the exhibition.
- Atkinson, walking down a street, spots the camera filming him, smiles, waves, and, not looking where he is going, walks into a tree. The same format was used in other sketches with different results.
- Atkinson as a vicar introducing a broadcast of Songs of Praise from his church, lambasting the suspiciously devout congregation: "...And didn't the hat shop do well this week!", before introducing the first hymn, "All Christian men rejoice, the 'Beeb' is back in town".
- Trade union representatives issuing demands to corporate bosses in order to avoid a strike — these included the chance to sleep with the boss's wife. They were also offered use of the boss's swivel chair and an automatic bottle opener.
- A meeting of trade unionists, where the chair announces a refreshment break asking "tea or coffee?". The resulting show of hands is counted in terms of the unions' block votes.
- Two men in outer space in a spacecraft, only to find, knocking at the window, a Salvation Army member outside with a collection box and copies of The War Cry magazine.
- The space-shuttle Columbia takeoff, with the sound effect of an old car trying to start up, revving its engine, and changing gears as it pulls away.
- A US Presidential press conference where the aide (Atkinson) repeatedly steps in to prevent any coherent sentence being uttered by the President, for fear that he may appear intellectually challenged. He eventually (and reluctantly) prompts the President's every word, replacing meaningful policy with the likes of "cup cakes" and "crumbly candy bars". (This was broadcast shortly after Ronald Reagan was elected.)
- A National Health Service "auction" where (in an era of health expenditure cuts) a hospital bed is awarded to the most deserving case, i.e., to the patient who can "bid" the most life-threatening illness.
- Griff Rhys Jones as John McEnroe at the breakfast table with his parents, throwing an almighty tantrum because his mother has accused him of slurping his orange juice.
- Langham performing as "stunt pope".
- Langham in a spoof of a DIY programme injuring himself more and more seriously in fruitless attempts to open a band aid.
- Stephenson as a French surgeon giving a lecture on the practical details of an operation. The English translation (provided by Atkinson) leaves a lot to be desired.
- Atkinson playing a print union shop steward with a Geordie accent. He was protesting at the dismissal of an employee on the grounds that he was dead. The corpse had apparently been secured to a heating radiator on safety grounds: to prevent anyone "slippin' in the ooze that was emanatin' from my member!"
- Two politicians on a debate show slinging accusations and insults at each other with ever increasing fury — until one has a fatal heart attack. This prompts the other to launch into a eulogy praising his deceased opponent as "a great parliamentarian of our time, and a good friend."
- A parody of The Two Ronnies, entitled "The Two Ninnies", in which Ronnie Corbett's (Griff Rhys Jones) greeting of "It's lovely to be with you again, isn't it, Ronnie?" is met with a reply of "No, it's a bleedin' pain in the arse, quite frankly" from Ronnie Barker (Mel Smith).
- Cut Off Their Goolies - A parody of a televised debate where Pam Stephenson plays a social worker and Mel Smith a right-wing politician. Smith suggests that the solution to football hooliganism to "cut off their goolies". Anderson's character, surprisingly, agrees...
Musical sketches
The show usually ended with a musical parody or pastiche (later adapted by the Australian sketch comedy The Late Show, using celebrities and prominent politicians to perform cover versions of songs by artists of similar names. Spitting Image also ended with musical numbers in its later years), normally either from the writing team of Curtis & Goodall, or penned by the show's musical director, Philip Pope. Titles included "I Like Truckin'" (infamous for its squashed hedgehog), "Nice Video (Shame About the Song)", "Sooper Dooper" (an ABBA send-up), "Gob on You" (unusually, written by Chris Judge Smith), the "Ayatollah Song" (featuring Pamela Stephenson singing "Ayatollah, Khomeini closer...") and, for the final episode, "The Memory Kinda Lingers" (a verbal pun on the oral sexual act performed on a woman).Commercial releases
Video and DVD
Two highly-edited videos of the show, entitled Nice Video, Shame about the Hedgehog and The Gorilla Kinda Lingers were released in the mid-1990s.
More recently, in August 2003 these videos were released on DVD under the title of The Best of Not the Nine O'Clock News — Volume One and The Best of Not the Nine O'Clock News — Volume Two a year later.
The complete series episodes have never been released.
Audio
Three albums were released at the time the series was screening, entitled Not the Nine O'Clock News, Hedgehog Sandwich and The Memory Kinda Lingers respectively. These albums were very successful, with the first two both reaching the top ten of the UK albums chart, a rare feat for a spoken-word LP.
The original version of The Memory Kinda Lingers was a double-LP. The second disc is titled Not in Front of the Audience and is a live recording of the cast's stage show. Hedgehog Sandwich and the first disc of The Memory Kinda Lingers were later combined on a BBC double-length cassette.
The Ayatollah Song b/w Gob on You was also released as a single.
Books and miscellaneous
Three books were released to tie in with the series; Not! the Nine O'Clock News, whose cover was a spoof of the short-lived "Now!" magazine, Not the Royal Wedding (the royal wedding in question being the marriage of Charles and Diana), and Not the General Election, a tie in with the 1983 General Election.
Finally, two 'page-a-day' tear-off calendars, edited by John Lloyd were released in the early 1980s; Not 1982 and Not 1983.
References
External links
- [BBC Comedy's guide to the programme]
- [Museum of Broadcast Communications: biographical information]
- [TV.com episode guide]
- [Encyclopedia of Television]
- [BFI Screenonline]
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