The chemistry between the leads and general
air of jollity makes this a one-off that glows with obvious potential for a
future series [All Gas & Gaiters]. This initial playlet is rather stronger on silly situations than
ecclesiastical politics, with much fun found out of a stipulation in a legacy
that requires the Bishop to re-enact a medieval church ritual (handing out
forty pairs of stockings to maidens of the parish on May Day) without deviating
from Middle Ages custom, costume or transport. This doesn't score highly for plausibility,
but it inspires some arresting comic images, especially in the filmed inserts -
Derek Nimmo looking shifty outside a ladies' hosiers! William Mervyn, in a
monk's habit, sat on a white horse!
When dressed as monks and knocking on doors, the Bishop and the Chaplin get mistaken for reps from 'Monks Butter', with housewives presenting them with packaging and repeating a memorised slogan. This is something that comes into a number of sixties things, and which I have a dim remembered sense was still going on when I was an infant in the seventies. Its another one of those precise period details, like Green Shield Stamps or Hire Purchase being a new thing, which you start to pick up an out-of-time understanding of when you watch a lot of old British television.
When dressed as monks and knocking on doors, the Bishop and the Chaplin get mistaken for reps from 'Monks Butter', with housewives presenting them with packaging and repeating a memorised slogan. This is something that comes into a number of sixties things, and which I have a dim remembered sense was still going on when I was an infant in the seventies. Its another one of those precise period details, like Green Shield Stamps or Hire Purchase being a new thing, which you start to pick up an out-of-time understanding of when you watch a lot of old British television.
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