For Some Older, And Some Younger Ab'ers -

[andy-hughes]

Looking back, and allowing for the fact that what was served, and enjoyed, as entertainment, was very different years ago, how many of you really thought the following were actually any good at all -

Mike And Bernie Winters
The Goodies
Mike Yarwood
On The Buses
Stanley Baxter

I can honestly say that collectively and individually, I have never so much as raised a smile at any of them, ever.

Any thoughts?

[Peter Pedant]

// I had the unenviable task of explaining to my mother//
its a bad word
( works well and even for foreign languages - works better for that atually)

[woofgang]

and yet some shows are still funny.....Kenneth Horne, The Navy Lark, the Yes Minister series, The Good Life, Dinner Ladies. I agree about the pathos thing.

[barry1010]

Steptoe and Son can still make me laugh one minute and cry the next. Some episodes are excellent, others not so much, but when it is good it is very good.

Far better than the likes of Fresh Fields, Oh Brother, My Wife Next Door and the awful Please Sir.

Am I the only one that remembers Dream Stuffing?

[royfromaus]

puzzled54
Liked the goodies. What strikes me about on the buses, Is how old Stan and jack were to be chasing after girls all the time
____________________________________
I'm puzzled how Jack was cast as a canny magnet. Is that really what women liked in days of yore?

[barry1010]

No, roy, but the writers knew their audience. The middle aged men watching the show with their beer bellies, unshaved jaws and grubby Y-fronts liked to think they were babe magnets and young, attractive ladies would jump at the chance to have a romp with them.
Such were the times, reinforced by the likes of Benny Hill who had young, attractive ladies chasing him in his shows.

[rowanwitch]

Used to like the Goodies, but I was pretty young at the time

[Ken4155]

I always regarded The Goodies as The Monkees - minus the music.

[puzzled54]

Thanks for that explanation Barry1010, that does make sense

[Mozz71]

//Hancock. The Blood Donor. “ A Pint!! “//

"Coughs and sneezes spread diseases, trap your germs in a handkerchief!"

Slightly prophetic in the current climate.

[Mozz71]

Woofgang, Round the Horne and Navy Lark. Add The Goon Show and The News Huddlines and you have many a happy hour in front of the radio in my younger days.

[jennyjoan]

for andyhughes
///// just acting out the claustrophobia. ////

yep cos they couldn't get away quick enough from each other as they did not like each other at all.

[Bobbisox1]

And Archie Andrew , a ventriloquist dummy on the radio ? Well we were naive I suppose

[New Judge]

//NJ- my favourite bus has to be the old London Transport RT-that was a proper bus!!//

Indeed richtee. As driven by Cliff Richard in “Summer Holiday” (though some modern reviews of the film incorrectly mention it was a Routemaster). Also appeared in “Live and Let Die” driven under a low bridge by Roger Moore, where the entire top neck was neatly taken off in one piece.

https://jamesbond.fandom.com/wiki/AEC_Regent_III

To move back to the OP briefly (!) Charlie Drake used to work for an organisation that Mrs NJ worked in. He was sacked for poor timekeeping. Harry Worth was appalling – I don’t know why, but there it is! There were some comedies which seemed good at the time but haven’t worn very well – Reggie Perrin, The Likely Lads. One of my favourites, but probably not to everybody’s taste was “I didn’t know you cared” – the tales of a morose family living in the North somewhere. It was amusing that many of the characters had names of towns and cities in the north of England, often Cheshire. These included "The Three Great Aunts from Glossop” and Uncle Staveley.

[mushroom25]

// probably not to everybody’s taste was “I didn’t know you cared” //

I 'eard that! (pardon....)

[Zacs-Master]

Another comedy in the same vein as 'I didn't know you cared' was Brass (with a few of the same characters, I think).

[New Judge]

Ah! I'd forgotten "Brass". With the ruthless Bradley Hardacre (Timothy West): "I can't waste time standing here - I've got men to sack!", and the poor, downtrodden Fairchild family.

[Mozz71]

Bobbs, Archie Andrews was always better on the radio. They did television appearances, and it turned out that Peter Brough was a rotten ventriloquist.

[Bobbisox1]

Haha, so he was working under false pretences then Mozz:0)))

[Bobbisox1]

The genius that was Spike Milligan never failed to make me laugh, even his appearances on Parky were pure gold , likewise Freddie Starr ,you had to expect the unexpected

[Karolina82]

"On the Buses" is positively nasty the way poor Olive is treated.