With the benefit of hindsight, the most true to life student in the show might have been Mike. The older postgrad seminar sex pest is a familiar figure in the HE sector
Surely every NUS meeting has been full of Riks since a heated discussion about the rude things Vandals had been writing in the lavatories at the University of Bologna in 1088.
The nearest successor I can think of is Black Books, though it has an actual woman in it, who is not there for light relief or to discipline the boys. Amazing.
That's a really good point about Black Books. You could probably argue that they've essentially stripped the 'mother' figure out of the traditional sitcom family. It's particularly interesting in that you could see Black Books as an updating of something like Rising Damp, reinvented for a contemporary audience.
The ‘difficult rewatch’ is right. I introduced my son to Monty Python (season 1) and the experience was similar - an incomprehensible satire of social conventions - the bits that made it funny - long gone. Interestingly, Blackadder also failed to find its feet until season 2. It has often been the way with comedy. I just put that down to finding out what the audience finds funny.
Well, what's interesting about that second season of Blackadder is that that's when Ben Elton joined the writing team, bringing the 'Young Ones' scatalogical, anarchic comedy. Then you have Richard Curtis' Footlights history jokes, Elton's knob gags and Atkinson's physical comedy all together: the perfect combination
Yeah, born and bred - I believe he's even named after Gorky. I suppose its technically admirable, but that kind of ideological purism makes me twitchy. But I suspect that's because I'm a privately educated soft leftie myself, so I feel attacked. But also because my two favourite sketch shows of the '80s were 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie' and 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff', and I want everyone to be friends (what did I tell you: soft left).
Stuff was brilliant. I recommend to everyone Sayle’s “Stalin Ate My Homework” on growing up in a CPGB family. Very true, quite funny. Dodgy politics, funny man.
With the benefit of hindsight, the most true to life student in the show might have been Mike. The older postgrad seminar sex pest is a familiar figure in the HE sector
Surely every NUS meeting has been full of Riks since a heated discussion about the rude things Vandals had been writing in the lavatories at the University of Bologna in 1088.
The nearest successor I can think of is Black Books, though it has an actual woman in it, who is not there for light relief or to discipline the boys. Amazing.
That's a really good point about Black Books. You could probably argue that they've essentially stripped the 'mother' figure out of the traditional sitcom family. It's particularly interesting in that you could see Black Books as an updating of something like Rising Damp, reinvented for a contemporary audience.
Hold on, I've just realised - 'Black Books' is 'Open All Hours' with Fran as a more *ahem* fully rounded Nurse Gladys Emmanuel.
Good piece.
The ‘difficult rewatch’ is right. I introduced my son to Monty Python (season 1) and the experience was similar - an incomprehensible satire of social conventions - the bits that made it funny - long gone. Interestingly, Blackadder also failed to find its feet until season 2. It has often been the way with comedy. I just put that down to finding out what the audience finds funny.
Well, what's interesting about that second season of Blackadder is that that's when Ben Elton joined the writing team, bringing the 'Young Ones' scatalogical, anarchic comedy. Then you have Richard Curtis' Footlights history jokes, Elton's knob gags and Atkinson's physical comedy all together: the perfect combination
Alexei Sayle was an actual communist wasn't he, so perhaps that's why he boycotted them?
Yeah, born and bred - I believe he's even named after Gorky. I suppose its technically admirable, but that kind of ideological purism makes me twitchy. But I suspect that's because I'm a privately educated soft leftie myself, so I feel attacked. But also because my two favourite sketch shows of the '80s were 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie' and 'Alexei Sayle's Stuff', and I want everyone to be friends (what did I tell you: soft left).
Stuff was brilliant. I recommend to everyone Sayle’s “Stalin Ate My Homework” on growing up in a CPGB family. Very true, quite funny. Dodgy politics, funny man.
I recently caught a show of his on Radio 4 and he's still funny, too