Just two long sketches in this Easter-themed
edition. Indeed, as both halves feature the unfortunate Reverend Parsons, you
could almost watch this as a sitcom (with an interval performance from Kenny
Ball & His Jazzmen). Original viewers would also have been able to watch
Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson (cut from the retained ITC print), whom I would
have preferred to the Jazzmen.
Johnny Speight went on to use the problematic new technology of the telephone several times in Till Death Us Do Part. In an ambitious sequence here, we see Arthur at home with Patricia Hayes, the Reverend Parsons in bed and down the stairs to his telephone table and a Doctor at home linked by a sequence of telephone calls. As you might expect in this set-up, Haynes keeps on getting the Vicar out of bed, enraging him and maddening him by repeatedly hanging up just when he gets to the phone... Its impressive in a way, and interesting to follow how the situation escalates, but not having Haynes and Parsons face to face in the same room means that it never really generates that much laughter. The most interesting aspect is Patricia Hayes' period qualms about using the intrusive device ("I don't like to answer that thing"), a mistrust that - uniquely among my peers - I've always shared.
The second half, in which the tramp and Irish cadging a medicinal drink of whiskey out of the Vicar at the 1964 St Stephens Easter Bazaar, is more straightforwardly enjoyable. Odd features include the combination of whiskey and Eastertime making Irish maudlin and start to sing 1916 rebel songs, and a climax of Rita Webb warbling 'The Sunshine of Your Smile'.
Johnny Speight went on to use the problematic new technology of the telephone several times in Till Death Us Do Part. In an ambitious sequence here, we see Arthur at home with Patricia Hayes, the Reverend Parsons in bed and down the stairs to his telephone table and a Doctor at home linked by a sequence of telephone calls. As you might expect in this set-up, Haynes keeps on getting the Vicar out of bed, enraging him and maddening him by repeatedly hanging up just when he gets to the phone... Its impressive in a way, and interesting to follow how the situation escalates, but not having Haynes and Parsons face to face in the same room means that it never really generates that much laughter. The most interesting aspect is Patricia Hayes' period qualms about using the intrusive device ("I don't like to answer that thing"), a mistrust that - uniquely among my peers - I've always shared.
The second half, in which the tramp and Irish cadging a medicinal drink of whiskey out of the Vicar at the 1964 St Stephens Easter Bazaar, is more straightforwardly enjoyable. Odd features include the combination of whiskey and Eastertime making Irish maudlin and start to sing 1916 rebel songs, and a climax of Rita Webb warbling 'The Sunshine of Your Smile'.
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