Thought this programme was generally excellent, but really should have been shown,,just a bit later than 5.10pm....the blackberry sketch a total classic..comparable with any vintage BBC comedy of the 70s, Beautiful.beautiful comedy.And yes,,,would nt a whole series of this be superb!!
8.10 BBC1 Saturday nights please,in March/April..so it doesnt get buried by the XFactor,,,or was that Eggs Factor lol.Ronnie, Harry, brilliant guys.
Poor writing, mostly poor direction leading to poor performances.
The highlights were the monologues. Ronnie C can still deviler a good line well.
On Christmas day, I don't think an audience of 8 million proves anything. We were 5, and we watched the whole show, but none of us would watch it again if a series was made.
There was nothing else on TV to compete, and most households would have had the TV on as background noise.
Happy Birthday Ronnie, but to quote another one of your great shows, "Sorry"
It was better than I expected it to be, but that's not necessarily praise. I thought it would be absolutely dire.
I watched it all and I can't even remember seeing James Corden in it, so perhaps my brain now filters him out of everything (although his voice was good in The Gruffalo).
The sketches were too short and most petered out into nothing. The optician restaurant (which others seem to have liked) was awful. It only had two or three jokes in it. Compare that to the original optician sketch with the two Ronnies, where the optician is practically blind. Now *that's* proper comedy.
The best sketch was the Blackberry punfest, but even that was ruined by the crudity around the "dongle" joke. It could have been phrased better so that the "size" issue was still there, but not so blatant.
Ronnie Corbett is still pretty good, and was always a good actor, but this show proves above anything else that Barker was the genius.
Gotta love DS forums, how does it so quickly descend into personal insults, calling each other moronic etc, just because someone choses to have their tv on in the background, and not pay full attention to it!
I think plenty of non moronic people have the telly on without necessarily watching it properly. Hardly moronic behaviour.
People often drift out from what's showing on tv especially when it's not great, and this prog was quite patchy.
Just waiting now for someone to reply now with, "well, don't watch then!" because usually an ACTUAL moron does come on these threads to say that. The same people will say "why didn't you stick with it and give it a chance?" if you didn't leave it on. You can't win.
It was perhaps not as funny as I was hoping it might be but it was somewhat redeemed by the fact that at no stage was it ruined by the presence of the unfunniest person on television.
It was mostly bad, though a few sketches (the Harry Enfield one, the Miranda one) did evoke The Two Ronnie's quite well. Though, as Ronnie said at the end, it's just a bit of fun for old time's sake. No-one was expecting it to be life-changing!
It was perhaps not as funny as I was hoping it might be but it was somewhat redeemed by the fact that at no stage was it ruined by the presence of the unfunniest person on television.
people were watching it. That's why they're commenting on it in this thread. It just didn't have their full attention.
I wasn't talking specifically about this programme. I was commenting on the suggestion that some people would have the TV on in the background if no-one was watching it.
I feel sorry for you sitting in silence watching the program
I appreciate your concern. However, I watched it later on iPlayer after spending Christmas with family. The TV was on at times there, but my family has enough intelligence to turn it off when doing other things.
I had very low expectations before watching this - and that Xbox joke would have been far funnier if the punchline hadn't been widely trailed beforehand - but there were a few good moments including that quiz show sketch which I thought was excellent.
I wasn't talking specifically about this programme. I was commenting on the suggestion that some people would have the TV on in the background if no-one was watching it.
I appreciate your concern. However, I watched it later on iPlayer after spending Christmas with family. The TV was on at times there, but my family has enough intelligence to turn it off when doing other things.
So you have one view of keeping the tv on in the background where people can watch when not doing other things or you can have the tv constantly being turned on and off depending if people are actually giving their full attention to it.
In my example, and probably many others, I was with family in a room where people were snacking, drinking, playing games, chatting and during that time one or several were also watching tv intermittently. Made sense to leave it on.
Don't have any problem with that (why should I? ). I think what I was getting at is that some people apparently have to have the TV on all the time regardless of what's on, or whether anyone is actually watching it. Seems a bit pointless to me.
Then there's people who argue that DOGs are necessary so they know what channel they are watching.
Don't have any problem with that (why should I? ). I think what I was getting at is that some people apparently have to have the TV on all the time regardless of what's on, or whether anyone is actually watching it. Seems a bit pointless to me.
Then there's people who argue that DOGs are necessary so they know what channel they are watching.
Anyway this is all totally off-topic
I always have either TV or radio on whether or not I'm paying my full attention to it. The reason is I hate silence. I don't think it's pointless at all.
Back on topic, the show was alright, I am a fan of most of the comedians involved, but I have to admit I was dozing throughout so it didnt have my full attention. I will prob go back and watch on You Tube or IPlayer.
I finally got a chance to watch this today; I'd recorded it on Christmas Day as we had people over (so you can see what side I'm on in this great "background noise" debate that bizarrely ignited on this thread )
I liked it, but not as much as I thought I might have. Some of the sketches were good - the one in the greengrocers was a really terrific script, and the one with Richard Wilson sounded exactly like what the Two Ronnies used to do. Others worked less well; Catherine Tate didn't seem to have Ronnie Barker's timing in the interruption sketch.
I seem to be the opposite of most people on this thread. I liked it a lot, and I found it was better than I had expected. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how closely it followed the format of the Two Ronnies - with wordplay, authority characters, a monologue, a singer, and a song at the end.
If people thought it was bad or with poor scripts, then perhaps at one level it was meant to be - low-level jokes (like christmas crackers) so that everybody gets them.
Has anyone got any idea where this is being shown again? I've missed on I-Player and in the midst of hoping to find it somewhere on the net.
I've come across a couple of sketches here on the BBC site so far. These sketches were brilliant!:D
Edit: Found it! it's in different parts - this is Part 1; the other parts are listed on the right hand side if anyone else's interested.
I loved the greengrocer sketch. For some reason, watching actors/comedians struggle to keep straight faces makes it even funnier
The rest was absolutely dire, though.
Me too, as with the Greengrocer sketch, Harry Enfield's face when the line about dongle came up!!
The whole show wasn't that bad, it didn't need James Cordon in it at all and Catherine Tate wasn't that brilliant but barely passable. Laughed most at the Greengrocer, What? and the Hymns sketches as well as the monologues. If there was a second programme, I'd be looking out for it.
Comments
8.10 BBC1 Saturday nights please,in March/April..so it doesnt get buried by the XFactor,,,or was that Eggs Factor lol.Ronnie, Harry, brilliant guys.
The highlights were the monologues. Ronnie C can still deviler a good line well.
On Christmas day, I don't think an audience of 8 million proves anything. We were 5, and we watched the whole show, but none of us would watch it again if a series was made.
There was nothing else on TV to compete, and most households would have had the TV on as background noise.
Happy Birthday Ronnie, but to quote another one of your great shows, "Sorry"
Why would anyone have the TV on if they're not watching it?
How quaint
I think I already answered that in my original post: "background noise".
Don't you ever have TV or radio on without it taking 100% of your attention?
It must be really boring in your house if all conversation stops as soon as anyone turns on any form of electronic entertainment.
I watched it all and I can't even remember seeing James Corden in it, so perhaps my brain now filters him out of everything (although his voice was good in The Gruffalo).
The sketches were too short and most petered out into nothing. The optician restaurant (which others seem to have liked) was awful. It only had two or three jokes in it. Compare that to the original optician sketch with the two Ronnies, where the optician is practically blind. Now *that's* proper comedy.
The best sketch was the Blackberry punfest, but even that was ruined by the crudity around the "dongle" joke. It could have been phrased better so that the "size" issue was still there, but not so blatant.
Ronnie Corbett is still pretty good, and was always a good actor, but this show proves above anything else that Barker was the genius.
Many households would have had family around, eating, drinking, chatting, playing games, watching tv.
I feel sorry for you sitting in silence watching the program.
I think plenty of non moronic people have the telly on without necessarily watching it properly. Hardly moronic behaviour.
People often drift out from what's showing on tv especially when it's not great, and this prog was quite patchy.
Just waiting now for someone to reply now with, "well, don't watch then!" because usually an ACTUAL moron does come on these threads to say that. The same people will say "why didn't you stick with it and give it a chance?" if you didn't leave it on. You can't win.
Merry Christmas.
Yes, Frankie Boyle - I'm looking at you!! :cool:
I appreciate your concern. However, I watched it later on iPlayer after spending Christmas with family. The TV was on at times there, but my family has enough intelligence to turn it off when doing other things.
That's Numberwang.
In my example, and probably many others, I was with family in a room where people were snacking, drinking, playing games, chatting and during that time one or several were also watching tv intermittently. Made sense to leave it on.
Then there's people who argue that DOGs are necessary so they know what channel they are watching.
Anyway this is all totally off-topic
I always have either TV or radio on whether or not I'm paying my full attention to it. The reason is I hate silence. I don't think it's pointless at all.
Back on topic, the show was alright, I am a fan of most of the comedians involved, but I have to admit I was dozing throughout so it didnt have my full attention. I will prob go back and watch on You Tube or IPlayer.
I liked it, but not as much as I thought I might have. Some of the sketches were good - the one in the greengrocers was a really terrific script, and the one with Richard Wilson sounded exactly like what the Two Ronnies used to do. Others worked less well; Catherine Tate didn't seem to have Ronnie Barker's timing in the interruption sketch.
If people thought it was bad or with poor scripts, then perhaps at one level it was meant to be - low-level jokes (like christmas crackers) so that everybody gets them.
I've come across a couple of sketches here on the BBC site so far. These sketches were brilliant!:D
Edit: Found it! it's in different parts - this is Part 1; the other parts are listed on the right hand side if anyone else's interested.
Me too, as with the Greengrocer sketch, Harry Enfield's face when the line about dongle came up!!
The whole show wasn't that bad, it didn't need James Cordon in it at all and Catherine Tate wasn't that brilliant but barely passable. Laughed most at the Greengrocer, What? and the Hymns sketches as well as the monologues. If there was a second programme, I'd be looking out for it.