50 Impressions in Two Minutes and
Classic Movie Lines (neither of which are precisely what you think), followed by acting master classes with
Kevin Spacey,
Ralph Fiennes,
Michael Caine,
Al Pacino,
Robert DeNiro, and, last but certainly not least,
Marlon Brando. All by
Peter Serafinowicz, who you may know as
Spaced's Duane Benzie or
Shaun of the Dead's Pete.
(Thanks, iridic!)
posted by WCityMike
on Jun 17, 2010 -
26 comments
The Goon Show was a highly popular and immensely influential radio show on the BBC in the 1950s featuring Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. They would sometimes do live readings of episodes, here's a video recording of The Whistling Spy Enigma (parts
1,
2,
3) and a much later recording of Tales of Men's Shirts (parts
1,
2,
3). The first features Ray Ellington, musical director of the Goon Show, and the second John Cleese, who, like his fellow Pythons, was a huge fan of The Goon Show growing up. In the 50s BBC turned The Goon Show into a TV show with puppets, called Telegoons. A number of shows exist online: The Lurgi Strikes Britain (
1,
2), The Nadger Plague (
1,
2), Captain Seagoon RN (
1,
2), Tales of Montmartre (
1,
2), The First Albert Memorial to the Moon (
1,
2), The Hastings Flyer (
1,
2), The Affair of the Lone Banana (
1,
2), The Africa Ship Canal (
1,
2), The Booted Gorilla (
1,
2), The Ascent of Mount Everest (
1,
2), The Dreaded Batter Pudding Hurler of Bexhill on Sea (
1,
2), Fort Knight (
1,
2), The Terrible Revenge of Fred Fu Manchu (
1,
2), The Lost Colony (
1,
2) and, finally, back where we first began, the Telegoons version of The Whistling Spy Enigma (
1,
2).
posted by Kattullus
on Mar 8, 2010 -
43 comments
Listen Up! It's a 'Synthesizor' masterclass.
And after this, if you still think you know about music, then take the pop quiz and be amazed.
posted by Chunky
on Feb 3, 2005 -
18 comments
The recent post that revived the rude ‘
Rainbow’ kids show sketch reminded me of the our (that is, British) obsession with comic
double entendre - the ability to accept the filthiest things as long as there is a parallel innocuous interpretation. I think it is something to do our love for wordplay and subtext, our innate hypocrisy and the belief that sex is, in fact, rather naughty. Perhaps the prime example are the
Julian and Sandy sketches that ran on the BBC Radio show
‘Beyond Our Ken’ from 1964-69. Over Sunday lunch, millions (there was ONLY the BBC in those days) listened to two very camp characters saying outrageous things in
Polari (underground gay slang). A much earlier prime example is the
great dirty joke (it’s the one in blue at the bottom of the page) that got comedian Max Miller (died in 1963) banned from the BBC for 5 years. A more recent case of innuendo is, of course,
Mrs. Slocombe’s pussy. Of course the
double entendre can also be
unintentional.
posted by rolo
on Feb 27, 2004 -
8 comments
The BBC is asking visitors of its news site to
vote from a shortlist of the ten most embarrassing political moments. Visitors can watch a
short film [real media] which shows all ten nominated moments (forgive the home-video moments style background muzak). There's some variety here: Tony Blair and Neil Kinnock in moments exhibiting a baffling degree of misguidedness, George W Bush and Kenneth Clarke in tight spots (figuratively and literally), while Charles Kennedy and John Prescott probably coming out of their situations looking better than they did beforehand. For me the most cringe-inducing clip is that of John Redwood, the then newly appointed Secretary of State for Wales, attempting to mime the Welsh national anthem. Genuinely difficult to watch.
posted by nthdegx
on Dec 5, 2003 -
31 comments
