1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:06,600 I'm so pleased that the BBC have decided to institute 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:11,040 an annual lecture on the art of comedy, 3 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:14,640 and I think it's very fitting that they have decided 4 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:17,920 to name it in honour of my old friend and mentor, 5 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,680 the lovely, clever Ronnie Barker. 6 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:24,240 Not only was he a great comedy actor and performer, 7 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:26,720 but he was also a very skilful writer. 8 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,680 He would be absolutely pleased and delighted to know 9 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,920 that this lecture is being hosted 10 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:37,280 by a favourite of his and a favourite of mine - 11 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:38,880 Ben Elton. 12 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:41,040 APPLAUSE 13 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:43,360 WHOOPING 14 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:52,520 Thank you. 15 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:55,240 Thank you very much. 16 00:00:55,240 --> 00:01:00,760 Ladies, gentlemen, fellow turns, welcome to... 17 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:03,840 ..BBC Broadcasting House - 18 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:08,440 the epicentre of British popular culture since 1932. 19 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,560 And I'd like to make a very special welcome to Charlie Barker, 20 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:14,160 Ronnie's daughter, who's here with us tonight representing 21 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:15,840 Ronnie's family. And also, 22 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:19,520 I'm so pleased to say that there are quite a few members of 23 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,840 Ronnie Corbett's family here with us tonight as well, which is lovely. 24 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:26,640 So it's good evening to you and it's good evening to you. 25 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,720 It is obviously a huge honour to have been asked to give 26 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:32,520 this inaugural Ronnie Barker BBC comedy lecture 27 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:35,400 and tonight I'm going to use the opportunity 28 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:39,360 to offer some reflections on specific aspects of the sitcom, 29 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:41,360 a subject I'm certain would have been 30 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:43,680 of great interest to the great man himself. 31 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:46,160 I was lucky enough to get to know Ronnie quite well 32 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:47,880 towards the end of his life, 33 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,360 we became quite friendly, but I will admit 34 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,880 that our first meeting wasn't quite such a happy occasion. 35 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,840 I was at my favourite event of the whole year - 36 00:01:56,840 --> 00:02:01,160 the BBC Light Entertainment Christmas party. 37 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:02,840 You can imagine how I felt. 38 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:07,000 I was young, it was Christmas and I was at the BBC, 39 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,600 and not just any part of the BBC, but the bit that WAS Christmas. 40 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:12,160 It was a black tie event. 41 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,760 Oh, yes, they did things properly in BBC Comedy in those days. 42 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:17,360 They insisted on dinner jackets, 43 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:19,520 even though the party was held in an office - 44 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:24,520 the famed sixth-floor Entertainment Suite at BBC Television Centre, 45 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,960 which was the same as all the other offices at Television Centre, 46 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:30,520 but with the partition walls taken out. 47 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:35,520 Same nylon carpet tiles, same low-flying ceiling, 48 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:39,760 same strip fluoro-lighting at a Christmas party. 49 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,360 It even made Bob Monkhouse look pasty. 50 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:48,640 There was no DJs, no chill-out room, 51 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:50,160 no scatter cushions, 52 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,360 no musk-scented indoor yurt. 53 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:57,000 Just a Woolies cassette of Christmas carols 54 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:59,800 and a sofa for the cast of Last Of The Summer Wine. 55 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,440 Some of my generation revolted against the black tie. 56 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,520 They didn't like it. They weren't going to wear dinner jackets to order. 57 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:13,040 They weren't going to kowtow to a hierarchical, autocratic BBC, 58 00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:14,680 but I loved it. I loved it. 59 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,200 I thought it looked great. I was proud to wear it. 60 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:21,640 Probably where I started to get my reputation for political hypocrisy. 61 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:26,320 "Votes Labour, but prepared to wear a bow tie to a Christmas party. 62 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:27,800 "What a sell-out!" 63 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:30,760 But the Rons were there, 64 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:33,320 undisputedly the biggest stars in the room. 65 00:03:33,320 --> 00:03:35,760 Everybody wanted to talk to the Ronnies. 66 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:37,840 It was marvellous, people used to cluster round. 67 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:39,520 There'd kind of be two Ronnie circles. 68 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:40,960 They didn't entertain together. 69 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:43,640 I mean, they were friends, but they weren't joined at the hip. 70 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,080 There'd be a Ronnie C circle and a Ronnie B circle. 71 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,640 Ronnie C's circle was very friendly, 72 00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:51,160 very inclusive, he was always laughing. 73 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:52,920 I can remember him still stood there. 74 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:56,800 He always wore a velvet dinner jacket and tartan trews. 75 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,160 Never saw him in those any other time of the year. 76 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:03,520 He was a Scottish Nationalist once a year, and only from the waist down. 77 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:07,120 Ronnie B's circle - little bit more formal. 78 00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:08,800 He sort of held court a little bit. 79 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:12,080 They used to call him The Governor and I think he liked that. 80 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:14,000 And always, you know, the sort of, 81 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,120 what they call the suits these days would gravitate towards Ronnie B. 82 00:04:17,120 --> 00:04:20,560 The channel controllers would be listening earnestly to what Ronnie B 83 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,200 had to say and of course I was gravitating towards him, too, 84 00:04:23,200 --> 00:04:26,560 because this was Ronnie Barker and he wasn't on the telly, 85 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,680 he was actually there. And I was with Stephen Fry and Rowan Atkinson. 86 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:34,240 We were all young back then and we were sort of hovering on the edge 87 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,280 of Ronnie Barker's little group and he must've sensed we were there. 88 00:04:37,280 --> 00:04:39,800 He didn't see us, but we were kind of at his shoulder, 89 00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:43,000 and eventually he turned round and he looks us up and down 90 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:45,960 and finally he points at Rowan and he says, 91 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:47,880 "I like you." 92 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:53,080 And he points at Stephen and he says, "I quite like you." 93 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:56,000 Then he points at me... 94 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:58,040 "But I don't like you." 95 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,240 And then he turned, turned his back. 96 00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:06,360 It was quite a moment. 97 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:08,480 Stephen tried to take him on a little bit, 98 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:11,000 but, I mean, it was very chilly. I felt ridiculous. 99 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,120 I was a fan and stood there in me rented tuxedo, but... 100 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,960 Now, I only tell this story because it's kind of relevant to the theme 101 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,320 of this evening. Something about me had made Ronnie angry. 102 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:24,240 Angry enough to be quite rude to me, 103 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:26,600 and I think that's true about comedy, isn't it? 104 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:28,560 It seems to make people angry. 105 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:31,360 If people don't like comedy, they get annoyed by it. 106 00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,080 I mean, much more annoyed than you would get if you don't like 107 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,080 a picture or a poem or a nice serious play. 108 00:05:37,080 --> 00:05:39,920 Comedy tends to wind people up. 109 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:43,800 And, look, I know we live in an age of anger where the internet has made 110 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:49,680 splenetic fury the new tolerance, but even in our age of outrage, 111 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:53,200 I'd say comedy is reserved for a special type of bile 112 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,080 and there's a certain type of comedy, interestingly, 113 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:58,760 which provokes the greatest level of fury of all. 114 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:02,920 The real venom is generally reserved for a certain style of comedy 115 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:06,160 which seems to make quite a large proportion of comedy critics 116 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,880 and commentators and some consumers very angry indeed. 117 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:12,960 I'm talking about the studio-based sitcom 118 00:06:12,960 --> 00:06:16,040 recorded in front of a live audience. 119 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,280 Here's a clip from the BBC's 120 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:22,120 currently far-and-away most popular sitcom. 121 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,440 Oh, Winnie, I remember one night me and Reg were walking along the beach 122 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:27,000 in Portmarnock. 123 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:30,320 He started chasing me into the sand dunes, so I was there, you know, 124 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:35,280 pretending to run and he caught me and he threw me in the sand. 125 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:38,440 So I was lying there, I said, "What do you want?" 126 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:43,000 And he said, "I want your knickers round your ankles." 127 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:45,280 Oh, Jesus! 128 00:06:45,280 --> 00:06:48,280 I had to get them out of me fecking handbag and put them on. 129 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:55,200 That's Mrs Brown's Boys, a huge hit. 130 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:57,840 It regularly gets 11 million viewers 131 00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:00,760 in an age when three or four is considered a triumph. 132 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:04,400 It was recently voted by the Radio Times readers, no less, 133 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,160 favourite sitcom of the 21st century. 134 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:10,400 And here is a little selection of the sort of criticism 135 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:12,760 that is regularly thrown at it. 136 00:07:44,320 --> 00:07:47,240 Now, I don't know what you think of Mrs Brown's Boys, 137 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:50,120 but I hope you'd agree that by commissioning it, 138 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,280 the BBC is doing its job. 139 00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:55,920 Recognising that the whole country pays the licence fee 140 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,800 and quality comedy comes in many guises 141 00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:02,040 because Mrs Brown's Boys is quality comedy. 142 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:05,600 It's not to everybody's taste, but then what work of art of any value 143 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:07,960 could possibly be to everybody's taste? 144 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:13,200 Mrs Brown's Boys is self-evidently an exuberant, superbly executed 145 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:16,200 celebration of what, for want of a better word, 146 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:18,560 we might call "big" comedy. 147 00:08:18,560 --> 00:08:22,280 The comedy of the perfect theatrical double-take. 148 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:24,160 I have a huge penis. 149 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:25,680 RAUCOUS LAUGHTER 150 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:41,720 The shameless pratfall. 151 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:44,520 Cathy, for God's sake. 152 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:45,560 Hello? 153 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:52,960 I'm fine, I'm fine. 154 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:54,600 Really, I'm OK. 155 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:56,320 # You can't touch this... # 156 00:08:57,480 --> 00:09:00,800 And, of course, the outrageous double-entendre. 157 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:02,480 What's the name of that count? 158 00:09:05,680 --> 00:09:06,920 Count Basie. 159 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:12,520 A highly talented cast led by an inspired comic star, 160 00:09:12,520 --> 00:09:15,800 giving an adoring audience a weekly object lesson 161 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:18,920 in big, broad, farcical nonsense. 162 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:20,800 What's not to respect? 163 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:25,040 And yet, as we have seen, it's afforded very, very little. 164 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,520 Studio sitcom rarely is. 165 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:31,760 So here's a couple of clips now from two other current or very recent 166 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,320 hugely-loved BBC comedy sitcoms. 167 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:37,160 No. I'm stuck. 168 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:38,880 My necklace... 169 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:40,400 Stinky's on the floor. 170 00:09:40,400 --> 00:09:42,680 My necklace! I'm stuck! 171 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:45,160 Actually, sorry. Sorry. 172 00:09:46,880 --> 00:09:48,600 Just undo it at the back. 173 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:50,080 I can't! 174 00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:54,200 If you must know, yes, I have been for a quick work-out. 175 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:58,240 Nothing major today. Just a few ab-dabs, resits, diddly squats, 176 00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:00,800 some bi-curious and a triceratops. 177 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:04,080 I wish the ground could've swallowed me up. 178 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:11,040 That was, of course, the marvellous Miranda and the endlessly likeable, 179 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:14,480 wonderful Lee Mack in Not Going Out. 180 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:19,080 Here's again a fair representation of what was said about Miranda. 181 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,760 That was Miranda. Let's take a look at the sort of criticism 182 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:33,000 Not Going Out gets. 183 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:49,320 Nothing seems to wind a certain type of commentator up 184 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:51,320 like a studio sitcom, 185 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:52,960 and before we go any further, 186 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:56,520 I have to put my hand up and say I've been guilty of it myself. 187 00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:58,400 Here's a clip from The Young Ones. 188 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,520 No, no, no, no! 189 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:10,920 We're not watching the bloody Good Life. 190 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:13,840 Bloody, bloody, bloody! 191 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:15,000 I hate it! 192 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:17,360 It's so bloody nice! 193 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:19,720 Felicity "Treacle" Kendal 194 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,200 and Richard "Sugar-flavoured Snob" Briers. 195 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:24,800 What do they do now? 196 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:27,760 Chocolate bloody button ads, that's what. 197 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:31,160 They're nothing but a couple of reactionary stereotypes 198 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,680 confirming the myth that everyone in Britain is a lovable, 199 00:11:34,680 --> 00:11:38,400 middle-class eccentric and I hate them! 200 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:44,680 To be fair, I did hedge my bets on this one. 201 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:46,400 Well, you can just shut up, Vyvyan. 202 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:48,440 You can just about blooming well shut up 203 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:50,800 because if you've got anything horrid to say 204 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:53,000 about Felicity Kendal... 205 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:57,000 you can just about blooming well say it to me first, all right! 206 00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,400 Rick, Rick, I just did. 207 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:02,560 Oh. Oh, you did, did you? 208 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:05,760 Well, I've got a good mind to give you a ruddy good punch on the bottom 209 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:10,280 for what you just said! You're talking about the woman I love! 210 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:15,680 If I'm honest, looking back on that, I sort of regret that riff. 211 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:18,000 I didn't hate The Good Life, I quite liked it, 212 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:19,680 but I suppose we were young, you know, 213 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:22,040 we were a bit punky and The Good Life was head and shoulders 214 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,000 the most successful sitcom of its day. 215 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:25,640 But as you get older, 216 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:30,000 you begin to realise that casual dismissal and sometimes anger 217 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,120 can be quite harmful, damage a lot of good work 218 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:37,040 and also very hurtful to the people whose work you're having a go at. 219 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:40,080 So at this point I have to declare a personal interest. 220 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,800 I'm not an independent witness. 221 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:44,920 This is a subjective talk. 222 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:46,760 It is not object, it is subject. 223 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:50,400 It is as subjective as a Donald Trump press conference 224 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:51,760 because I... 225 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:53,960 It may surprise you to know, I, too, 226 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,440 have had one or two bad reviews in my time. 227 00:12:58,680 --> 00:13:01,200 Here's a clip from a sitcom I did three years ago, 228 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:05,200 starring the incomparable David Haig as a hapless, 229 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,160 overzealous local council health and safety officer. 230 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:15,080 Ours is a proud record. 231 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:20,440 This is the department that introduced the static seesaw. 232 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:25,600 The horizontal slide. 233 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:33,040 Babies must wear helmets when breast-feeding near the swings... 234 00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:36,480 ..because of us. 235 00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:37,720 That was The Wright Way, 236 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:41,760 and here is a very small selection of the universal phalanx 237 00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:44,720 of furious abuse that hit it immediately after 238 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:47,480 and indeed during its first broadcast. 239 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:53,400 Believe me, that was one of the better ones. 240 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:56,920 I'm not kidding you, it was furious and it was nasty. 241 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,520 Well, you know, maybe it was deserved, 242 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:03,160 but just to show you that a massive slagging doesn't necessarily mean 243 00:14:03,160 --> 00:14:05,000 a show has no popular appeal, 244 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:08,160 I'd like to show you a clip from another show I did with David Haig 245 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:10,680 from the '90s. That one did very well indeed 246 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:14,640 and still shows on Gold to this day and even won a few awards. 247 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:16,080 The Thin Blue Line. 248 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:18,880 I'll have you know, Grim, that we in the uniform division 249 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,840 are also at the cutting edge of modern policing. 250 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:23,600 Oh, dear. 251 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:27,400 Well, have you tried putting a saucer of milk at the bottom of the tree? 252 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:38,240 I haven't got time, Raymond, I am involved in serious police work. 253 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,040 If you get in the way, I'm responsible. 254 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:43,120 Your cock-up, my arse. 255 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,120 And here is a small, but I promise you, 256 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:54,240 representative selection of the absolutely universal slagging 257 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:56,200 it got the following morning. 258 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:20,640 I've got to say, if you do only write one line in a sitcom, 259 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,200 "My cock-up, your arse" isn't a bad one! 260 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,160 I'm really not complaining. We're all in the business, 261 00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:32,720 you put your head up, you know you're going to get a kicking. 262 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:34,040 Everybody gets bad reviews. 263 00:15:34,040 --> 00:15:37,320 Shakespeare got bad reviews. Well, the only... 264 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,800 only contemporary review of Shakespeare that comes down to us 265 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:43,600 from his own day was an absolute kicking. 266 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:48,760 They called him a plagiarist, they called him an "upstart crow". 267 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:52,640 Here's me imagining how he felt the morning he got that. 268 00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:56,040 And getting a bad review is much worse than getting the plague, 269 00:15:56,040 --> 00:16:00,040 because at least with the plague, the person that gave it to you died. 270 00:16:02,680 --> 00:16:03,800 So... 271 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:05,160 APPLAUSE 272 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:10,400 Obviously I am a subjective witness, 273 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:12,880 but I'm making an objective point, 274 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:14,880 a point that I feel very strongly about, 275 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:18,520 because I contend that through a kind of lazy contempt, 276 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:22,280 we're in danger of losing something of real value in our culture, 277 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:27,600 and once the studio infrastructure and the talent base that supports it 278 00:16:27,600 --> 00:16:30,080 are gone, they won't come again. 279 00:16:30,080 --> 00:16:34,360 So what is it that defines this thing I'm so anxious to defend? 280 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:37,480 What is it that connects The Goodies to Terry And June, 281 00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:39,600 The Young Ones to On The Buses? 282 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:43,960 Well, as I say, they're all recorded live in front of a studio audience, 283 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:48,560 an exercise in which laughter is clearly the desired aim. 284 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:53,840 Real vocalised laughter, recorded and broadcast along with the show. 285 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:56,840 So is that the problem? 286 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,760 Is it the laughter which offends in comedy? 287 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,560 Strangely, I think it is, 288 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:08,080 because laughter is evidence of making an effort. 289 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,200 The terrible British sin of going for laughs, 290 00:17:11,200 --> 00:17:14,200 laughs which, incidentally, are routinely dismissed 291 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:16,400 as cheap and easy. 292 00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:20,600 Laughs which are clear evidence of the greatest comic crime of all - 293 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:22,760 trying to be funny. 294 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:26,640 Can you imagine a more withering sneer or put-down to throw at a comedian? 295 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,200 "Oh, he was trying to be funny." 296 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:32,680 But is that really such a terrible crime? 297 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,640 Trying and failing, that's a shame, 298 00:17:35,640 --> 00:17:38,720 but trying at all, is that so terrible? 299 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:42,320 Surely not, because without people trying to be funny, 300 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,640 we'd have had to get along without memories like these. 301 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:47,200 Who's this then? 302 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:49,480 HE SHOUTS IN GERMAN 303 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:52,680 I'll do the funny walk. 304 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,400 You see those flasks over there? I want you to fill one for me. 305 00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:03,720 What, from 'ere? 306 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:24,000 Brace yourself, Rodney. 307 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,920 Even now, across the years, you can feel the joy, 308 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:42,680 the immediacy of those live studio comedies - 309 00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:45,840 a single performance, one of a kind, captured in time. 310 00:18:45,840 --> 00:18:48,920 And consider the extraordinary complexities involved 311 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:50,400 in producing those shows, 312 00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:54,920 and the awe-inspiring collection of craft and skills that it required. 313 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:58,320 Each episode is recorded over the course of a single evening, 314 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:00,880 two and half hours in front of a large audience. 315 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,480 Five or six cameras all moving and recording simultaneously 316 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:09,680 capture the flow, the feel, the timing of a theatrical comedy event. 317 00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:11,400 While, in a darkened vision suite, 318 00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:14,920 all those six camera feeds are projected onto television screens 319 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,400 and the show is cut and mixed and edited live - in real time - 320 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,240 as the show is being performed. 321 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,200 And hovering above every scurrying actor is a microphone, 322 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:28,400 whizzing through the air, as players move about the set, 323 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:30,760 deftly controlled by boom operators, 324 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,960 sitting high above the throng on wheeled chariots, 325 00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:37,840 extending and contracting their four metre-long booms, 326 00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:42,200 like dinosaurs going fishing for gags, using microphones for bait. 327 00:19:42,200 --> 00:19:45,760 And meanwhile, their colleagues also are hidden in a darkened room, 328 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,960 mixing the sound, balancing the four or five dialogue feeds, 329 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,080 the audience laughter, which could swell and dip at any moment, 330 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:56,440 and also, of course, they have to mix in the comedy sound effects, 331 00:19:56,440 --> 00:19:59,280 which have to be dropped in with precision timing. 332 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:02,440 What?! 333 00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,480 And while the cameras prowl and the camera assistants wrangle, 334 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:22,840 the great rubber spaghetti of hundreds of metres of cable 335 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:25,880 which covers the floor and can't be allowed for an instant 336 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,680 to impede the movement of a camera or a boom platform, 337 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:31,320 a techie spaghetti constantly in danger 338 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:33,720 of overwhelming the gag bolognese. 339 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,640 The art department dress the set and place the props, and all live, 340 00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:40,680 as the lighting department tweak and the costume departments 341 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,920 dab and dip and stitch, and in the midst of it all, 342 00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:48,240 the actors struggle to maintain their characters' timing and commitment, 343 00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:51,320 deprived of the glorious freedom of the stage, 344 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,640 but required nonetheless to conform to its disciplines - 345 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:58,760 live dialogue, live effects, live and collaborative timing. 346 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:01,800 And whatever is captured in those few short hours 347 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:03,360 is what gets broadcast, 348 00:21:03,360 --> 00:21:06,760 which produces an atmosphere very different from the type of feel 349 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,160 produced when comedy is created filmically using a single camera. 350 00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:12,600 Most people tend to think that the difference between 351 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,720 a single-camera sitcom and a multi-camera one 352 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:16,680 is just the absence of the audience. 353 00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:18,880 But I would suggest that of equal importance 354 00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:21,760 is that, in a single-camera shoot, 355 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:24,800 the dialogue, the scene, is recorded in pieces - 356 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,120 one character, then another. 357 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:30,960 The characters in a multi-camera shoot are all recorded at once. 358 00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:32,880 Now I'm not making a value judgment here - 359 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,200 I love single-camera comedy, but there is a difference, 360 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:39,360 because when you see a multi-camera shoot sitcom, 361 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:42,560 what you're watching is the actors' real timing. 362 00:21:42,560 --> 00:21:44,680 When you watch a single-camera shoot, 363 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:46,960 often on location but with single camera, 364 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:51,320 what you're seeing is the editor's interpretation of that timing. 365 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:55,120 It's just different, and it produces a different atmosphere. 366 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:59,760 And, oh, what a vast array of craft and skill and talent is required 367 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:01,800 to capture those fleeting moments. 368 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:04,640 Edgy and obscure can be done on-the-fly. 369 00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:08,280 Ironic minimalism and wry mockumentary can be recorded 370 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:10,360 on an iPhone with a single person, 371 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:13,080 but it takes a village for Rik to destroy 372 00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,880 The Young Ones staircase using his bollocks as a battering ram. 373 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:21,800 And, of course, all that makes these shows very expensive, 374 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:24,400 an expense that frankly is easier to duck 375 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,480 if you're just going to get slagged off for doing it anyway. 376 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:31,960 And so a great and original television art form is dying, 377 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:33,160 it really is. 378 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:34,840 And while there's nothing we can do 379 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:37,640 about shrinking budgets, fractured audiences 380 00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,440 and TV companies turning their fabulous studio facilities 381 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:43,280 into prime real estate, 382 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,320 empty flats to be rented out as investment blocks, 383 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:50,120 it might help if commentator, critic and columnist alike 384 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,160 stop treating studio sitcom with such thoughtless contempt, 385 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,880 as if the only comic art of any real value 386 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,600 is the comedy that pretends it isn't trying to be funny. 387 00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,840 Now, I think we all know the sea change occurred in the mid '90s. 388 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,200 That was when it suddenly became fashionable 389 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,240 to record sitcoms without an audience, 390 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,440 and some fantastic work was done and has been done ever since. 391 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:14,640 It sort of began with the sublime The Royle Family, 392 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:15,920 which was kind of a hybrid. 393 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:18,400 It was a crossover, because they still recorded that 394 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,720 in a studio on multi-camera, but they didn't have an audience. 395 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:24,680 The real watershed moment occurred with the wonderful, 396 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,680 ground-breaking The Office, 397 00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:30,080 a brilliant piece of work, and that and many, many, many shows 398 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,000 in similar styles that have followed deserved every plaudit 399 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,600 they ever got. But, strangely, 400 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:39,360 what began as a fantastic and innovative and refreshing style, 401 00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:42,480 quickly became a kind of comic orthodoxy, 402 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:46,040 and the inexplicable side-effect was that the studio sitcom 403 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:49,000 became overnight a byword for critical contempt, 404 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,560 and it was the laughter that was hugely irritating. 405 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:54,760 Apparently, people don't need canned laughter, 406 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:56,920 telling them if something's funny. 407 00:23:56,920 --> 00:24:02,320 Well, I am here to lance the boil of probably the most corrosive myth 408 00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:07,280 in television comedy, because that laughter is not blooming canned, 409 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:09,760 it's just recorded - live. 410 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:12,080 Studio nights are not cynical - 411 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,840 they're fun, they're exciting community events. 412 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,560 Is it a coincidence that they fell from grace 413 00:24:18,560 --> 00:24:20,680 in the aftermath of the 1980s, 414 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:25,320 the decade in which the individual so firmly replaced the community 415 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:28,600 as the social and political focus of the nation? 416 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,000 Yes, I'm blaming Thatch. 417 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:32,800 LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE 418 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,520 I'm mainly joking, but I am... 419 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,240 I am making the point that audiences' laughter is 420 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:48,640 a group activity, a collective act. 421 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:53,240 The shared joy that occurs in the recording of a live comedy is real, 422 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,800 and that joy somehow manages to make its way across the airwaves 423 00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:58,600 and into people's living rooms. 424 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:00,680 The country's biggest popular hits 425 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:03,240 have always been accompanied by laughter. 426 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,160 They form an abiding and affectionate collective memory. 427 00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:10,520 The part of what it means to be British, and yet, as I've shown, 428 00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,640 the form is routinely dismissed and often despised. 429 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,240 It's a sort of snobbery, it really is, and I say that reluctantly, 430 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:22,400 fully aware that such a charge is unlikely to make me any friends 431 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,720 amongst media commentators. But I make the charge nonetheless, 432 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,040 because I think what we are discussing here is nothing less than 433 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:31,680 a prejudice against joy. 434 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:35,160 Corrosive, destructive and coloured, I'm afraid, 435 00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:39,040 by that ancient British cultural cancer - class. 436 00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:46,600 I look down on him because I am upper-class. 437 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,280 I looked up to him because he is upper-class, 438 00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:55,120 but I look down on him because he is lower-class. 439 00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:56,640 I am middle-class. 440 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:58,560 I know my place. 441 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:04,720 The British establishment has always been suspicious of popular success, 442 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:07,360 particularly success that comes from below, 443 00:26:07,360 --> 00:26:10,800 through conspicuous effort and obvious ambition. 444 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:12,760 This prejudice has deep roots. 445 00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:16,560 The founding fathers of the American economy created their wealth. 446 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:19,080 The original elite in Britain inherited theirs 447 00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,800 and deeply resented those who tried to share in it, 448 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,480 establishing an underlying cultural resentment of hard-earned success 449 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,720 that, astonishingly, still seems to play its part 450 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,600 in shaping our national character today. 451 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:36,200 Because what is a laugh if it's not evidence of success? 452 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,800 If you go for a laugh, and you get it, you've succeeded. 453 00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:41,640 In the US and most places in the world, 454 00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:43,320 that's something to celebrate. 455 00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:45,880 In America, if you do an interview on a chat show 456 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:49,560 and they ask you what you're up to, you tell them and people applaud. 457 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:53,000 In Britain, you have to pretend you don't want to say, you have to go, 458 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:54,920 "Ooh, shameless plug, sorry. 459 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,680 "I've written a book, but it's probably awful, don't buy it, please!" 460 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:05,440 It simply is not the done thing to be seen to want to succeed, 461 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:10,280 and studio sitcom cannot hide that ambition - it's needy. 462 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:15,040 It's saying, "Please like me!" And, as such, it must be despised. 463 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:18,120 Perhaps you think all I'm suggesting 464 00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:21,920 is that simpler, less complex, less cerebral forms of comedy 465 00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:24,600 deserve to be given a little more respect. 466 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:29,000 Well, it would be nice, but actually I'm also saying the opposite, 467 00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:32,000 because, in fact, I suggest there's nothing simple 468 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,960 or lacking in complexity about the shows I'm discussing at all. 469 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:40,080 In fact, I humbly suggest that behind all that mindless laughter 470 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:43,720 often lies human truths as real and revelatory 471 00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:47,000 as those explored in any acclaimed drama. 472 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,200 That's why they're so funny. 473 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:53,240 Consider the strange and unexplained fictional home life 474 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,440 of Eric and Ernie, which was a sort of mini-sitcom 475 00:27:56,440 --> 00:27:58,680 set within their variety shows. 476 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:02,040 Here are Eric and Ernie passing the time together, 477 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,440 measuring out their lives not in TS Eliot's coffee spoons, 478 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:07,520 but in mugs of cocoa, 479 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:11,480 and wistful reflections on the hopes and dreams of lost youth. 480 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:13,360 For me, their circular efforts 481 00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:15,840 to pass the time and to get along together 482 00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,960 were every bit as inconsequentially bleak and deeply absurd 483 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:23,200 as Vladimir and Estragon's famous inertia in Waiting For Godot. 484 00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:26,200 I honestly don't think that that wonderful writer Eddie Braben, 485 00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:30,040 who wrote all the Morecambe and Wise scripts throughout the golden age 486 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,000 of the 1970s will ever be the subject of an A-level text. 487 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:38,720 My point is that big, apparently silly comedy does not preclude 488 00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:42,000 big ideas or philosophical revelation - 489 00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,520 you just don't notice them, which is why they can be funny. 490 00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:50,360 Consider the forensic clarity of Johnny Speight's character 491 00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,800 Alf Garnett, a searingly illuminating comic exploration 492 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:59,200 of the mind of the confused, ignorant, ill-informed bigot. 493 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:02,160 They've got nothing of their own, they ain't, them Labourites. 494 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:06,440 They ain't got no private fortunes, not like us Tories have. 495 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,360 Oooh! 496 00:29:08,360 --> 00:29:10,360 'Ere, I've never seen any of it. 497 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,760 If Galton and Simpson's sublime Steptoe And Son hadn't been 498 00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:17,440 such high comedy, it would have been recognised as high tragedy, 499 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:21,800 for was there ever a more perfect evocation of a mutually destructive, 500 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:23,600 emotional interdependency, 501 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,640 than the relationship between Harold and Albert Steptoe? 502 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:41,520 Ugh, you dirty old man! 503 00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,840 What are you doing?! 504 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,840 Richie and Eddie, in Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall's '90s sitcom Bottom, 505 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,880 negotiate the pointless nihilism of life with every bit as much 506 00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:56,120 seedy detail and dark purpose as the characters in any Pinter play. 507 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:57,560 But with laughs. 508 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,280 Let's do it properly or not at all. 509 00:30:00,280 --> 00:30:02,560 All right, then! Not at all! 510 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:06,480 God, I hate crosswords. 511 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:10,760 We can't go on like this. 512 00:30:10,760 --> 00:30:13,720 Why did they take the telly away? 513 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:18,840 And consider the depth of perception that Jennifer Saunders brought 514 00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,720 to the generational battles in which baby boomers struggle to hang on 515 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,320 to an eternal adolescence while their children, 516 00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:30,480 born into much less generous times, fear for their future as adults. 517 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,200 This isn't a rave, it's a happening! 518 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:38,040 Don't force me to take it, Pat. I promised Saffy I wouldn't die. 519 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,040 But she'll never find out. Anyway, she doesn't scare me. 520 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:45,520 Mum! 521 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:49,200 Keep the noise down! 522 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:57,680 In real comedy, proper funny comedy, of any style, truth is a given. 523 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:00,520 You don't notice it, which is why it's funny. 524 00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:04,520 The depth of human understanding lies behind and within the comedy. 525 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,680 The intellectual value of the work is rightly and properly masked 526 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,280 by the primal, organic, gut-driven instinct to laugh. 527 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:14,640 Yet, as we've established, 528 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,640 it's laughter which so offends those who seek to analyse comedy, 529 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:19,240 be they amateur or professional. 530 00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,840 Because laughter leaves the critic out of the loop. 531 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:24,600 Laughter defies argument. 532 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,000 The conclusion has already been drawn, the horse bolted. 533 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,040 You may hate Mrs Brown's Boys, 534 00:31:30,040 --> 00:31:33,560 but the presence of genuine spontaneous laughter means 535 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,720 your hatred is not an objective truth, 536 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:39,480 something which we all secretly believe 537 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,320 our own personal prejudices to be. 538 00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:46,120 No, it's a subjective opinion. 539 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:49,840 And what critic, be they professional or amateur, 540 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:51,680 wants to acknowledge that? 541 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:56,400 And so, they dismiss laughter as cheap and easy. 542 00:31:56,400 --> 00:32:00,880 What madness. If art is about exposing and exploring our souls, 543 00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:06,400 the essential pettiness, vanity, snobbery, desperation, selfishness, 544 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:11,000 generosity, occasional greatness and quiet heroism, 545 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,280 inherent in every human heart, 546 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,760 then we may find it brilliantly and sympathetically betrayed 547 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,160 in a single look from Captain Mainwaring. 548 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:23,720 You stupid boy. 549 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,400 A long morning with Victor Meldrew. 550 00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,360 I don't believe it! 551 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:35,280 And as for quiet heroism, 552 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,280 pretty much any moment spent in the company of 553 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:40,800 the sublime Frank and Betty Spencer. 554 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:43,520 Oh! It's rocking! 555 00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,000 Oh! Right! Oh! 556 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:48,600 It's all right, Frank. 557 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:50,080 Careful! 558 00:32:53,080 --> 00:32:54,560 Frank! 559 00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,280 Frank! 560 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:03,400 Oh, what did I do?! 561 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:05,280 Betty! Yes? 562 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:07,640 The car... 563 00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:10,200 I... 564 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:11,240 I... 565 00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:15,640 Oh, where are you? 566 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,600 It's all right, Betty! 567 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:19,120 Frank! 568 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:21,360 I might need a bit of help though! 569 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:27,360 So what conclusions can be drawn as I come to the end 570 00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:30,160 of this first BBC Ronnie Barker Lecture? 571 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,680 Well, I certainly... I'd like to make the plea 572 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:36,360 that when we write about comedy, be it in a newspaper or in a tweet, 573 00:33:36,360 --> 00:33:38,200 we shouldn't leap to judgment. 574 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:41,000 I don't think any comedy should be judged on its first outing, 575 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,480 particularly a sitcom which, by its very nature, 576 00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:48,040 needs to establish its credentials and then bed in for the long haul. 577 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,600 I honestly don't think The Young Ones would survive 578 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,280 in today's critical environment. It was big and it was brash, 579 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:57,160 and confrontative and very rough around the edges with, 580 00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,680 I have to tell you, as many or more misses than hits in its gag count. 581 00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:04,680 Had Rick, Vyvyan, Neil and Mike arrived in a world 582 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,240 of instant opinions, formed and tweeted 583 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:09,320 while a show is still on air, 584 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,120 I don't think they'd have been given the grace to grow 585 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,200 as they were back in the day. 586 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:17,560 Imagine if they'd had Twitter on the first night of Hamlet. 587 00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:21,040 Act one, scene one, "bored already". 588 00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,320 "Get over yourself, you grumpy Danish bastard." 589 00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,280 "Oh, there's a ghost! Marlowe did ghosts in The Jew Of Malta. 590 00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:30,040 "Get your own ideas, Shakespeare!" 591 00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:35,720 So let's not be so hard on people trying to be funny. 592 00:34:35,720 --> 00:34:37,600 Even if we think they've failed. 593 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:39,400 Because if nobody's allowed to fail, 594 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,520 then no-one will think it's worth trying, 595 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,840 and the BBC and other companies won't feel it's worth commissioning. 596 00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:49,440 And without people trying to be funny, really, really trying, 597 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,480 we would never have had this. 598 00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:53,400 I've just taken a sample to test. 599 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,560 A sample? How much do you want then? 600 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:58,640 Well, a pint of course. A pint?! Have you gone raving mad? 601 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:00,280 That's very nearly an armful. 602 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,160 I think we're on a winner here, Trig. 603 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:06,760 All right? Play it nice and cool, son. 604 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:08,720 Nice and cool, you know what I mean? 605 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:13,760 Your name will also go on the list! 606 00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:17,000 What is it? Don't tell him, Pike! 607 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:18,160 Pike, thank you. 608 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:29,440 I have a cunning plan, sir. 609 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,040 PHONE RINGS 610 00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:34,480 4291? 611 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:37,200 Oh, it looks great! 612 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:45,040 Funny has nothing to do with fashion. 613 00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:47,200 Funny is just funny. 614 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:51,120 Self-conscious minimalism and underplayed naturalism can be hilarious, 615 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:55,040 and I love so much of what is going on in modern comedy. 616 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,160 But it's not the only way to be funny, 617 00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,240 and no comedy practitioner would ever claim it was. 618 00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:03,680 And that's why, tonight, I'm doing a big shout out 619 00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:07,360 for live, studio-based, laughter-filled sitcom. 620 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:10,080 I certainly think Ronnie Barker would have approved 621 00:36:10,080 --> 00:36:12,760 that the first lecture in his name makes that point. 622 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:15,880 Because it's not a tired and cheesy format at all. 623 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,440 It's a great, popular art form. 624 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:21,080 An original television art form. 625 00:36:21,080 --> 00:36:25,560 A form which I suggest has created a community of audience, 626 00:36:25,560 --> 00:36:29,920 a collective affection and a store of shared memories, 627 00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:32,240 which is unparalleled in our culture. 628 00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:36,240 Well, that's my piece and I've said it. 629 00:36:36,240 --> 00:36:39,240 The Ronnie B story I started with, it's got a happy ending. 630 00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:41,560 As I say, I got to know him quite well towards the end, 631 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:42,880 and we were quite friendly. 632 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:46,320 My wife and I got to know Ronnie and Anne Corbett quite well 633 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:49,040 when Ronnie amazingly agreed to revive 634 00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:53,760 his wonderful chair monologues for a stand-up show I did in the '90s. 635 00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,360 Then, I guess, Ronnie C must have told Ronnie B that I was all right, 636 00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:02,200 because Ronnie B and his wonderful wife Joy started inviting me 637 00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,960 to their annual parties at the Mill. 638 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:08,560 They were wonderful, wonderful occasions - magical summer events, 639 00:37:08,560 --> 00:37:10,680 held at the Barkers' country millhouse, 640 00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:12,200 with lots of food and wine, 641 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:14,880 an old-style jazz band that was always there 642 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,960 with striped waistcoats and straw boater hats. 643 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,680 Proper old showbiz parties. 644 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,080 I got to talk to David Jason all afternoon, 645 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:25,080 so you could imagine how thrilled I was. 646 00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,480 And I got to know Ronnie and we talked quite a bit. 647 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,120 And, you know, he did mention our first meeting, 648 00:37:31,120 --> 00:37:33,360 and he laughed about it and I laughed about it. 649 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,600 I didn't care, I was just basking in the company of the great man. 650 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:37,880 Still a fan. 651 00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,480 Well, Ronnie B's gone now, as has Joy. 652 00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,240 So there's going to be no more parties at the Mill. 653 00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:46,560 But I'll leave you with a moment 654 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:51,720 from one of Ronnie B's own studio sitcoms, recorded over 40 years ago. 655 00:37:51,720 --> 00:37:54,680 So, most of the people you'll hear laughing are, 656 00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:57,000 like Ronnie B, long gone. 657 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:02,520 But the genuine happy laughter that they gave us is caught in time, 658 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:06,480 and it still rings down to us, across the years. 659 00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:11,000 So here's Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' incomparable Porridge. 660 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:15,160 What became of the soil that was excavated from the tunnel? 661 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,480 Christmas present. Christmas present? 662 00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:23,480 You want to know how they disposed of the soil? 663 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:26,480 Simple as that. I'll tell you. I thought you might. 664 00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:29,520 They dug another tunnel and put the earth down there. 665 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:39,400 Thank you, Ronnie Barker, 666 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:41,800 and thank you to the BBC. 667 00:38:41,800 --> 00:38:43,880 My name's Ben Elton. Goodnight. 668 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,040 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE