A Kick Up The Archive
Louise Gold
appeared in excerpts from Laugh???
I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee in this compilation of sketches from A
Kick Up The Eighties, Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee, and, Naked
Video. First broadcast at 9:30pm on BBC2 on 31 December 1998
Featuring Sketches With:
Rik Mayall aka Kevin Turvey - in A Kick Up The Eighties
Robbie Coltrane - in A Kick Up The Eighties, and, Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee
Tracey Ullman - in A Kick Up The Eighties
Gregor Fisher - in Naked Video
John Sessions - in Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My License Fee
Louise Gold - in Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My License Fee
Miriam Margolyes - in A Kick Up The Eighties
Jonathon Watson - in Naked Video
Elaine C Smith - in possibly Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee and Naked Video
Tony Roper - in Naked Video
Helen Lederer - in Naked Video
Roger Sloman - in A Kick Up The Eighties
Andy Gray - in Naked Video
Ron Bain - in A Kick Up The Eighties, and, Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee and possibly Naked Video
Production Team
Produced by - BBC Scotland
Producer – Mike Bolland
The excerpt
which Louise Gold appeared in was from the programme Laugh??? I Nearly Paid My Licence
Fee
Myra
McFadyen went on to play the
third Dynamo role of Rosie in Mamma Mia Cast 4.
John
Sessions did voices on Spitting Image and can be heard on the album Spit In Your Ear.
Rick Mayall took part in Comic Relif 1986. His
recording credits include Utterly
Utterly Live Comic Relief.
Louise Gold, Andy Watson, Jonathan Gray, and Elaine C Smith also appeared in City Lights directed by Ron Bain, which was originally produced
for BBC Scotland, but also shown on BBC2.
Robbie Coltrane’s Tv film credits include Alice In
Wonderland.
Helen Lederer may have taken part in Thing A Thon.
Elaine C.
Smith went on to take part in Shopping With The Stars 2009.
Summary/Review
by Emma Shane
This is
not going to be a comprehensive review of this comedy compilation show. The sketches
went by very quickly for one thing, and for another I am not terribly familiar
with the original shows they came from, and had some difficulty in identifying
a number of the actors. As with any compilation the difficulty is always going
to be what to leave out, and there are some notable items (I have heard about
but not seen) which were not included, which of course I felt was a shame. I
was also disappointed by the fact that Laugh...??? I Nearly Paid My
Licence Fee’sLouise Gold seemed a little underused, I only
spotted her in one skit, as a Scottish wife called Morag. Whereas A Kick
Up The Eighties’s Tracy Ullman popped up on numerous occasions,
and Naked Video’s Helen Leaderer appeared three times.
That said
there were many enjoyable sketches, the ones which stick in my mind include: Robbie
Coltrane as an Irish Protestant clergyman preaching to his flock a story
about playing cards, Tracy Ullman as A Singing Telegram, A bar
scene (Coltrane was the barman serving the customers, with Ullman as his assistant)
in which a nun comes in for a packet of peanuts (which are covering the private
parts of a picture of a scantily clad woman), Ullman as a secretary explaining
to a colleague that “It’s the four minute warning”, Helen Leaderer
as the wife of a couple who’s dog causes another walker to fall off a cliff (“He’s just being friendly” says
Leaderer), Rick Mayall as Kevin Turvy giving a talk on: Shark Fishing
cum Sex cum holding up a bank,
Leaderer as a School Teacher taking part in a TV chat show explaining
how she likes to treat the deprived kids quite informally, a man in the
casualty department with an axe in his head who apparently keeps doing things
like that, and an actor (doing a very convincing Sean Connery
impression) dressed as James Bond
trying to seduce his girl played by Leaderer who clearly doesn’t want to be
seduced.
And of course
there is the only sketch I could actually spot Louise Gold in. The
sketch finds Robbie Coltrane, as the husband lying in bed. His wife
(played by Gold), already dressed is busying herself about the room,
complaining that he got himself beaten up last night. It is fascinating to see
Gold with her usually tousled curly chestnut mane for once looking remarkably
neat and tidy (flattened down almost to the point of straightness on the top,
and gripped neatly in place at the sides). It is also very interesting to hear
her speaking with a Scottish accent, I didn’t even know she could (although it
is perhaps not very surprising to find that someone as good at accents as she
obviously can do that well). She has quite a go at him, and then with perfect
comic timing ends the speech with “and by
the way a happy birthday”. He practically demands to know whether she has
got him a present, of course she has, two, he can tell what they are without
unwrapping them. She then hands him a card from his daughter, of Snoopy; which
he ends up insisting “looks like the
Pope!”. Altogether a curious sketch, one which might be annoying, but
actually isn’t, because Gold and Coltrane do such a good job of acting it with
conviction and good timing, that in the end one enjoys it enough to be left
wishing there was more of Gold’s Laugh...??? I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee
sketches in this compilation.
Links about A Kick Up The Archive
A Kick Up
The Eighties, BBC Comedy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/k/kickuptheeightie_7773980.shtml
Laugh...???
I Nearly Paid My Licence Fee, BBC
Comedy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/l/laughinearlypaid_7774100.shtml
Naked Video, BBC Comedy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/n/nakedvideo_7774790.shtml
British Film Institute entry for the programme: http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/610605
BBC Programme Guide’s entry for the programme: http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/NGWH209T
Agency Licensing Campaign (article in The Stage): http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/31022/theatre-stars-back-campaign-for-talent-agency,
and Online Petition (which anyone who
supports it can sign): http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41085.html , seeing as Miriam Margolyes is among the stars
backing this worthy campaign.
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