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BBC4: Bob Monkhouse: The Last Stand


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Old 26-12-2016, 23:31
lundavra
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This was on BBC4 earlier and I think it is repeated in a few days time.

Excellent programme, he effectively gave a masterclass to an invited audience of comedians, then talked about various of the great comedians he knew, followed by a chat with Mike Yarwood and ended with a short Q&A.
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Old 26-12-2016, 23:33
2shy2007
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It was great to see Mike Yarwood on telly again. such a shame that he had to retire early. And Bob, well , wasn't he just the most natural man ever to grace a stage?
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Old 27-12-2016, 08:30
JERRY HIPKISS
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I thought it was excellent - only switched it on to pass a few minutes, but found myself hooked.
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Old 27-12-2016, 09:28
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I'll have to find this on the iPlayer - Monkhouse was an awful great comedian, and came across as such as decent guy as well
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Old 27-12-2016, 09:39
Tribec
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I only found this was on about 10 minutes before it started... So I recorded it and have watched it this morning. It was perfectly described as a masterclass, his timing was something to behold and even though some of the gags wouldn't be used today, it was the way he told them that made him so funny.

My dad used to like him, and would tell me when I was much younger and only seen him on game shows that live he could be quite blue, but he adapted to the venues and audiences with ease by the looks of it. Not many of today's comics will at the age Bob was when doing this will be performing and I doubt many would have the amount of tales he had about other great comics he'd worked with.
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Old 27-12-2016, 09:39
lundavra
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I thought it was excellent - only switched it on to pass a few minutes, but found myself hooked.
All the modern comedians expressed their admiration for him, except Mark Steel but he is a miserable ###### anyway. Didn't he work in games shows for years (which he was the Master) then do the Edinburgh Festival and get a new audience or perhaps I am thinking of someone else. Good to see Mike Yarwood, very few modern impressionists can match him.
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Old 28-12-2016, 05:42
finlux
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I missed the original showing, but I've set it to record the repeat showing Sat at 5 past midnight. Love Bob & really looking forward to it
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Old 28-12-2016, 09:43
culttvfan
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I grew up watching Bob Monkhouse on The Golden Shot, then Celebrity Squares, Family Fortunes etc, but I always thought he was smarmy and insincere and rather irritating. I didn't think he was much better on his eighties chat show either. It was only when he returned to standup in the nineties that I realised what a great comedian he was. He would have been well into his sixties/pushing seventy by then but even at that age it was pretty obvious here was one of the greatest standups there's been.

Bob often said the happiest time of his career was after he was sacked from The Golden Shot for product placement and did standup for a number of years. At the peak of his powers, those shows must have been something and I'd be interested to hear from anyone here who may have seen any of them.

I haven't seen this latest show yet apart from a small portion of it shown on a documentary about him quite a few years ago but I'll make sure I catch the repeat on Saturday.
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Old 28-12-2016, 09:44
Andy2
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We watched this yesterday and found it brilliantly funny, fascinating and somewhat moving. His friendship and support of Mike Yarwood was touching.
The 'smarmy and insincere' tag stuck to him for years, but apparently it was as a result of being a perfectionist and over-rehearsing so his lines came out a bit to glibly. He certainly shone in stand up.
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Old 28-12-2016, 09:59
pedrok
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Like others, I knew him more from his game shows and chat show, until his stand up shows in the 90s on BBC1. Of course he was also a cartoonist and TV archivest, with an amazing collection of recorded tv shows and films. There was a very good documentary made by the BBC about him, and shown a few times since his death, including clips of this show.

13 years ago tomorrow he died.
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Old 28-12-2016, 10:32
Nakatomi
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All the modern comedians expressed their admiration for him, except Mark Steel but he is a miserable ###### anyway. Didn't he work in games shows for years (which he was the Master) then do the Edinburgh Festival and get a new audience or perhaps I am thinking of someone else. Good to see Mike Yarwood, very few modern impressionists can match him.
Well A) Mark Steel has never worked in game shows in any capacity
and B) He was actually very, very good friends with Bob Monkhouse. Despite their differences politically, they got on very well and Bob loved Mark's comedy and vice-versa. In Mark's book "What's Going On?" he devotes several pages to their friendship and has lots of lovely things to say about him.
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Old 28-12-2016, 11:35
DUHO
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Great show and LOVELY to see Mike Yarwood. And Mark Steel nailed it re Yarwood- yes maybe one or two of his impressions haven't aged well but in the 70S he WAS the man- a very fair comment
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Old 28-12-2016, 12:33
Blueju
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Prior to his own standing as a comedian/comic actor, Bob had a prolific career as a writer having a long standing partnership with Denis Goodwin when they wrote for the top British comics of the day such as Max Miller and Ted Ray. Tellingly, given how professional his own delivery was and his stage presence, he also wrote (with Goodwin) topical gags for Bob Hope when he toured in England. Bob was a clever comic with a sense for the absurd and with a great imagination that went hand in hand with his talent for drawing...especially cartoons and fun items. Just my opinion, but I think its a pity, in some ways, that he was such an easy fit for all those game shows, as they gave a somewhat distorted reflection of his true talent which at least saw the light in his latter series of topical, quick thinking stand up.
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Old 28-12-2016, 13:35
mike65
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Very enjoyable and a reminder that we only see a bit of the real man or woman when they appear on camera, Someone really should sit down with Barry Cryer for a damned good chat before he dies - like Monkhouse you just know he has so many stories about so many in the showbiz biz.
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Old 28-12-2016, 14:03
digitalspyfan1
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Perhaps not widely known but he was an obsessive collector. He collected hundreds of video tapes of tv shows and old films. A vast library of material. I don't know if his next of kin kept the material or sold it.

The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse tells the “extraordinary story” of comedian Bob Monkhouse’s life and career, recounted for the first time through the “vast private archive” of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.

The 90-minute programme, which airs January 3, 2011, has been made by the BBC with assistance from classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope.

Volunteers spent over a year sifting through the huge collection of film reels, videos, scripts, photographs and audio tapes amassed by the performer during his lifetime and passed on to the group following the death of his widow in 2008.

Chris Perry of Kaleidoscope described the forthcoming BBC Four show as a “real gem”.

He said: “I’ve seen the show and it’s full of brilliant archive material from the Bob stuff we rescued.”
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Old 28-12-2016, 19:11
Vetinari
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Perhaps not widely known but he was an obsessive collector. He collected hundreds of video tapes of tv shows and old films. A vast library of material. I don't know if his next of kin kept the material or sold it.
What was particularly fascinating, as I recollect, was that he kept all the copies of the RT and TVT, even annotating them when transmissions did not match their predications.

A big thank you to the OP as I would have missed this gem, but after being alerted to it, here, I caught it on iPlayer.

So nice to see him clearly enjoying himself so much.

And some excellent examples of his immaculate timing.
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Old 28-12-2016, 19:32
Eddie Badger
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Very enjoyable and a reminder that we only see a bit of the real man or woman when they appear on camera, Someone really should sit down with Barry Cryer for a damned good chat before he dies - like Monkhouse you just know he has so many stories about so many in the showbiz biz.
Barry Cryer is a national treasure (and should be SIR Barry).
Someone I knew when on one of Bob's quiz shows and said he was a really nice person, very intelligent and with a wide range of interests and very quickly put everyone at ease.
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:22
SULLA
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There laughed when he said he wanted to be a comedian.........................
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:32
DUHO
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There laughed when he said he wanted to be a comedian.........................
He used to enjoy sex at 75- that was ok as he lived at number 74
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:36
mike65
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Did he ever get his book of jokes back?
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:49
Michael_Eve
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Another "ta" to the OP as this might well have passed me by. I thought it was a great hour of TV. Like others, I was only really aware of Bob Monkhouse growing up because of Family Fortunes and the like. Think I'd seen him in the first Carry On and a film that might well have been called 'Carry on Dentist' * and he was actually a decent comic actor, but it was his stand up shows in the 90's that made me realise just how talented he was. Really liked them.

He still clearly 'had it' right up until the end, and his generosity of spirit is obvious. I did read his autobiography years ago, which was v honest and self-critical, and he seems to have been a very decent bloke, but aware of his flaws. Nice to see he was admired by the younger comedians. I'd recommend this (and indeed his autobiography!) if anyone hasn't watched it yet. Yarwood being so honest and interesting was a nice bonus too.

eta * 'Dentist on the Job'. It was good! Googling, it says he did 'Dentist In the Chair' too...I've never seen that!
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:15
simongvs70
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Did he ever get his book of jokes back?
Yes he did. From his Wikipedia entry:
Throughout his career Monkhouse had jotted down jokes, odd facts, one-liners, sketches and ideas in a series of leather bound books, which he took with him to every television, radio, stage and nightclub performance he made. In July 1995, two were stolen and Monkhouse offered a £15,000 reward. They were returned after 18 months, but the thief, although arrested, was never charged. On Monkhouse's death, the books were bequeathed to Colin Edmonds.
Even growing up I could tell Bob was a consummate professional on stuff like CS, FF & Bob's Full House. I was so pleased when he made his TV comeback on HIGNFY. Enjoyed the last doco mentioned above, so I am looking forward to watching this on iPlayer.

Fun Fact: In 1966 he had a dual role on Thunderbirds Are Go!, Gerry Anderson's first big screen outing for International Rescue, as the Swinging Star compere and a Zero-X crew member.
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:34
mike65
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Yes he did. From his Wikipedia entry:
Cheers


Fun Fact: In 1966 he had a dual role on Thunderbirds Are Go!, Gerry Anderson's first big screen outing for International Rescue, as the Swinging Star compere and a Zero-X crew member.
I watched that a little while ago on Film4, I nearly fell off my bed when Cliff Richard and the Shadows turned up!
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:35
Prince Monalulu
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<snip>
Fun Fact: In 1966 he had a dual role on Thunderbirds Are Go!, Gerry Anderson's first big screen outing for International Rescue, the Swinging Star compere and a Zero-X crew member.
On this tip there's a good Radio 4 Thunderbirds doc on youtube which Bob does the voiceover for, it's been cut together with all the correct Thunderbird's clips, it's well worth a watch if you're into Bob and Thunderbirds.
Thunderbirds Are Go Sci-Fi On Strings

Secret life of Bob Monkhouse thread., well link to one of the threads anyway.
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Old 29-12-2016, 00:42
JayDee279
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Someone really should sit down with Barry Cryer for a damned good chat before he dies - like Monkhouse you just know he has so many stories about so many in the showbiz biz.
Good idea; and that someone should be Roy Hudd
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