The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse (BBC2)

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 20:21

One of the people I never could stand. The more sincere he tried to look, the more insincere he looked imo. He always seemed far too rehearsed for my liking. Now watching his last performance on The Golden Shot after being sacked, I see how unprofessional he was too - what silly childish jibes - I'm surprised he ever worked on TV again after that.

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 20:22

Must add, I never found him in the least funny either.

1fab · 05/02/11 - 20:29

Is this a repeat? I seem to have seen this prog in the schedules for years.

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 20:31

Dunno, it's on at the minute.

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 20:36

The fascinating thing about the programme "The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse" is the incredible archive he kept ,which no-one else did, of British TV shows. Obsessive about it, he was. He kept stuff on film and later video that BBC/ITV channels destroyed and that archive has to be preserved. So, whether you liked him or not - I found his screen persona rather insincere also - we should be grateful for his compulsion to tape and record everything that he saw on TV. Invaluable.

2shy2007 · 05/02/11 - 20:37

I am loving this, all of his collection should be in a museum so we can all enjoy them, and the deleted programmes should be shown on telly.

What a fascinating man he was.

Elanor · 05/02/11 - 20:55

I'm finding this really interesting. I always forget that he was very funny - he was slimy and unlikeable on the quiz shows where I knew him in the 80s, but when he did stand up late night on telly, he was often very very funny indeed.

richard cranium · 05/02/11 - 20:58

I thought he was treated badly by ITV, and he should've told them where to stuff The Golden Shot when ITV begged him to come back to host the show after the disastrous spells in charge of Norman Vaughn and Charlie Williams.

But Bob was nothing if not vain, and he returned in triumph.

His compulsive hoarding, extensive and precise note-taking and his gag collecting and filing systems revealed Bob to be a bit anal and maybe even having mild OCD.

A fascinating man, and unlike his peers M&W, Frankie Howard, Tommy Cooper, Dickie Henderson, Dick Emery, Tony Hancock, Bob was a great writer of gags as well as a great teller of gags.

Gulftastic · 05/02/11 - 21:27

It's a fascinating look at a man who always seemed to be waiting for that tap on the shoulder to let him know he'd been found out. His insecurity fed his ego and his drive to be succesful.

I found it incredibly touching when he was talking about his son who had cerebal palsy. I'd love to see more of his comic collection.

Drew_M · 05/02/11 - 21:35

1fab wrote: »

Is this a repeat? I seem to have seen this prog in the schedules for years.

It was first shown on Monday 3 January this year on BBC4. Fascinating programme, particularly with regard to Bob's archive.

For many more comments see:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1418828

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 21:52

IMO, most fascinating documentary of 2011 to date !!!!

I remember Golden Shot (just) and had no idea it ended it controversy, astonishingly bitter and twisted performance from Monkhouse in his final show!!!:eek::eek:

cultureman · 05/02/11 - 22:15

Harrowing. wrote: »

IMO, most fascinating documentary of 2011 to date !!!!

I remember Golden Shot (just) and had no idea it ended it controversy, astonishingly bitter and twisted performance from Monkhouse in his final show!!!:eek::eek:

Poor guy can't win. If he'd been bland and smiling about his arbitrary sacking everybody would be saying that that's exactly what they've always hated about Bob Monkhouse. He acted bitter because he was bitter, and it seems he had good cause to be.

People who are the greats in their field are seldom easy or "reasonable". They're invariably flawed human beings. However I'd take greatness over "niceness" any day of the week.

puchica · 05/02/11 - 23:01

Harrowing. wrote: »

IMO, most fascinating documentary of 2011 to date !!!!

I remember Golden Shot (just) and had no idea it ended it controversy, astonishingly bitter and twisted performance from Monkhouse in his final show!!!:eek::eek:

But it wasn't his last show.
ATV came begging a couple of years later and he presented it again

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 23:12

cultureman wrote: »

Poor guy can't win. If he'd been bland and smiling about his arbitrary sacking everybody would be saying that that's exactly what they've always hated about Bob Monkhouse. He acted bitter because he was bitter, and it seems he had good cause to be.

People who are the greats in their field are seldom easy or "reasonable". They're invariably flawed human beings. However I'd take greatness over "niceness" any day of the week.

I did not mean that I blamed him, just that it is astonishing to see such raw honesty in tv presentation!

Mind you, if he had been taking bungs, suppose ITV acted fairly?

puchica · 05/02/11 - 23:15

It was a great documentary with attention to detail and content thats rare to see outside dvd extras.

Anyone interested in the content of Bobs archive should be aware of Bobs Full House .
which is a book that details it all

[Deleted User] · 05/02/11 - 23:26

Have just finished watching this on the iPlayer and thought it was brilliant. I'd always found Monkhouse a funny man, but to find out so much about his personal and professional life before and during his most famous years was fascinating. I think a lot of his act was just that, an act, and as stated in the documentary he was not at all insincere off stage, it was his stage act. He even joked about it at one point himself during a speech, saying that sincerity was the most important thing in the business, and once you'd learnt to fake that you could do anything.

Brilliant man, sadly missed.

kpmfan · 06/02/11 - 00:30

Great doc, just caught this on the off chance. Gave a nice insight into what drove him as a performer which was very interesting, and I'm a bit obsessive compulsive myself so I could definitely relate to that bit.

His performances always seemed like a cold technical exercise when compared to other comics of the era like Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, who as soon as they walked on stage you started laughing before they'd even said anything. Funny yes, clever, smooth slick and profesional, but ultimatley kind of empty. One of those performerss I could happily watch and even laugh at but still couldn't particularly like if that makes sense.

Watching this though it's hard to dislike him as a man as he comes across as just the über student of comedy, a comedic nerd, to a seemingly almost pathalogical extent, even to the detriment of family and personal life. A comic scientist trying to figure out how it all works, trying to find out what the ultimate formula is, so I think I do have a new found respect. And anyone who saved all those amazing shows deserves our eternal thanks.

[Deleted User] · 06/02/11 - 01:58

Jequila wrote: »

One of the people I never could stand. The more sincere he tried to look, the more insincere he looked imo. He always seemed far too rehearsed for my liking. Now watching his last performance on The Golden Shot after being sacked, I see how unprofessional he was too - what silly childish jibes - I'm surprised he ever worked on TV again after that.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, but thank you for posting this thread as I looked it up on iplayer and I agree with Harrowing, the best thing I've seen on TV for a long time:)

Harrowing. wrote: »

IMO, most fascinating documentary of 2011 to date !!!!

I remember Golden Shot (just) and had no idea it ended it controversy, astonishingly bitter and twisted performance from Monkhouse in his final show!!!:eek::eek:

My favourite programme as a little kid was 'Bob Says Opportunity Knocks' and I followed everything he did on TV from then on.

Seeing the footage of his last performance was so moving, and I had no idea he was such a devoted archivist. I was so fascinated by the programme I would watch it again if it wasn't so late. What a gem:)

Midnight Runner · 06/02/11 - 04:02

Jequila wrote: »

One of the people I never could stand. The more sincere he tried to look, the more insincere he looked imo. He always seemed far too rehearsed for my liking. Now watching his last performance on The Golden Shot after being sacked, I see how unprofessional he was too - what silly childish jibes - I'm surprised he ever worked on TV again after that.

I agree with you really. Saw this a few weeks ago at a friends house and although I get the impression he was a nice man offstage who suffered a lot of sadness in his life, I still found something a bit creepy about him. Never liked watching him even as a kid.

Think his own description of himself as 'marmite' was very true. Credit to him for having such a long career though.

Radiomaniac · 06/02/11 - 07:47

I enjoyed it.

I'd forgotten what other amazing talents Bob had besides the obvious ones - he could also have had excellent careers as a cartoonist and film expert.

He supposedly had 800,000 films!

ftv · 06/02/11 - 07:54

I enjoyed it but after the big build-up at the beginning thought we were going to see rather more of all the clips and allegedly rare recordings.Most turned out to be in sound only and ITV must have recordings of some of his game shows, similarly the BBC shows.

[Deleted User] · 06/02/11 - 08:46

It was a good Saturday night prog, and I enjoyed the stuff about him being an obsessive collector and archivist (Spike Milligan on Celebrity Squares, he he) and his beginnings as a cartoonist was a revelation.

But then he went and mucked it all up by being a Thatcher supporter.

ftv · 06/02/11 - 08:58

puchica wrote: »

But it wasn't his last show.
ATV came begging a couple of years later and he presented it again

Bob returned to Golden Shot on condition he also had Celebrity S

ftv · 06/02/11 - 08:59

puchica wrote: »

But it wasn't his last show.
ATV came begging a couple of years later and he presented it again

Bob returned to Golden Shot on condition he also had Celebrity Squares for ATV and Francis Essex, ATV's controller of programmes who sacked him originally, had to make a grovelling apology, much to Bob's delight of course.

[Deleted User] · 06/02/11 - 09:33

ftv wrote: »

I enjoyed it but after the big build-up at the beginning thought we were going to see rather more of all the clips and allegedly rare recordings.Most turned out to be in sound only and ITV must have recordings of some of his game shows, similarly the BBC shows.

I was shocked when they said ITV ditched every episode of celeb squares....not Bob though !:D

Prince Monalulu · 06/02/11 - 10:23

Pie wrote: »

It was a good Saturday night prog, and I enjoyed the stuff about him being an obsessive collector and archivist (Spike Milligan on Celebrity Squares, he he) and his beginnings as a cartoonist was a revelation.

But then he went and mucked it all up by being a Thatcher supporter.

From what I can remember from the first time this was shown, he wasn't much of a Thatcher supporter.
He could see which way the wind was blowing and wanted to be associated with the winning side.

Hey there!

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The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse (BBC2)

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