Dear Tim Brooke-Taylor!
What a wonderful chap, witty, self-effacing, kindly funny, and now up there with many more Prunes!
It's easy to remember when he bounded onto the screen in 'At Last the 1948 Show', with the others. It was one of the first proper adult comedy TV programmes I ever watched, as 'That was the week that was' had been deemed 'unsuitable' for a budding Scrobs, but when Tim B-T, Marty Feldman, John Cleese and the rest started up, I was hooked, and away we went!
It's also easy to remember seeing him later on, laughing all the time, and when I could, ISIRTA was the funniest show to listen to, even though Saturdays were meant for other pursuits...
So, moving on, our new family avidly watched 'The Goodies', and when 'I'm sorry I haven't a clue' got going, it really was fabulous fun all round.
So, Tim - better known as Lady Constance, 'someone has just called', and we'll miss you so much...
Ah - ISIRTA brings back fond memories. I always listened to it on the radio and still remember Tim Brooke-Taylor in a space exploration sketch claiming a newly discovered planet on behalf of Buxton where he was born. If I remember rightly a military chap called Major Disaster was running the space exploration.
ReplyDeleteYears ago we saw him playing Professor Marcus in The Ladykillers at Buxton Opera House. The role suited him down to the ground. Happy days.
There is still a Brooke-Taylor Solicitors in Buxton.
He and his buddies provided many much needed laughs back in the grim 70's, RIP.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Mr H, he loved his 'Major' characters! We still say 'Major Jump', when such requirements present themselves!
ReplyDeleteDid you know 'The White Hart' pub in Buxton? BIL's parents' place for years...
The Ladykillers still sits in pride of place here - Mrs Wilberforcccccee...
They sure did, Thud!
ReplyDeleteJust think though, on their way back from rehearsals, they may well have had John Peel on the wireless...:0)
Just caught a five-minute ISIRTA bit on R4Extra this morning, with an incredibly funny courtroom scene...
ReplyDeleteIt didn't last long, as, like most of newish BBC 'humour', the rest of the half-hour was utter rubbish with unknowns being incredibly unfunny!!
I actually saw one of The Goodies episodes being made at Shephard's Bush.
ReplyDeleteTheye were so funny back then, Elecs...
ReplyDeleteOur girls used to hoot all the time, and then so did we!
Tim B-T was such a special bloke on TV. I really 'grew up' with his sort of fun when I left school, and to think that such a talent, such a lovely man, died because some bloody Asian eats bats is just awful.
I loved The Goodies at the time. I'm not so sure it would stand up now so won't watch it just incase.
ReplyDeleteThey system that made people eat bats and which gave them a taste for it... the same system that lied about the disease in its midst and locked up the people who tried to tell the world about it. The system that revolutionaries in our country say is the one that offers the solution is the same one that got people eating bats in the first place. They use the NHS as their Trojan horse.
That pretty well sums up what we feel, Elecs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a rotten world they live in over there, I hope they bloody well stay there too.