You rang m`lord

[Dave Homewood]

Yes, that's the secret to it, they set all their best shows in the past, so they have a historic feel to them even when they were brand new.

Whereas Are You Being Served? which was set in the modern day when made now looks awfully dated, as is the humour. I find it almost an embarrassing show to watch now.

[stephen68]

I think what helps to date shows like Are You Being Served is that department stores like Grace Bros do not exist any more, or if they do they are few and far between.

[Dave Homewood]

Well, yes, but also the Home Guard doesn't exist anymore, nor the Royal Artillery Concert Party or the French Resistance... yet ....

I'm not sure why it is that the contemporary shows date badly while period shows don't.

Mind you, Auf Weidersehn Pet was contemporary 1980's but you can still watch it over again without thinking it's dated. Maybe because it was all filmed on location and has a real feel to it, whereas Are You Being Served has a feel like a stage set. Especially when they go into their silly song and dance routines.

[stephen68]

Did you know that they imported german bricks because they are bigger than British bricks, for authenticity in Auf Wed Pet?.

[mingybluebeard]

Of course many of the stars of this show are now dying out. But they are immortalised somewhat by this show. Especially in Hungary where it was cult viewing at the close of the Cold War, as evidenced by the size of this article hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Csengetett,_Mylord%3F

The critiques of inequality and the rentier class were apparently strong enough to be screened in a communist state.

In many ways I prefer it to Dad's Army. More room for more characters, and the timing and catchphrases are good.

It holds a significance for me, like Dad's Army, and indeed things like Jeeves and Wooster and Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things. They show an (idealised) lost England. (When we outranked, just, even the Americans. Drugs were all legal etc. but yeah, no politics!)

On Angela Scoular, I'd only ever seen her in this. and even when I was a teenager, I thought she was gorgeous as Agatha. She's more gorgeous at that age than she was as a Bond girl. but that's just me getting old I suppose.

I don't think you can make class divide comedies any more, even if they are about the Prime Minister's background!

[Dave Homewood]

Diversity nowadays is not about class, it's all religion and race and lifestyle choices - and the blending of everyone from those differences together into a homogeneous mix where none of them can feel free to speak out about anyone else for fair of the PC brigade clamping down on them for some rights breach or other offence.

Rather than the 'us versus them' of the past when everyone knew their place, people are all about themselves and screw everybody else.

[neilold]

the reason they don't age is because they are already dated when new! i love yrml. I like how Henry gets belted and some of his comments are priceless!!!

[mingwalton]

Looks as if I may be in for a treat....as all the episodes seem to be on Youtube at the moment, will work my way through them. Just viewed the pilot episode and the 50-minutes seemed to fly by and the characters seemed to establish themselves pretty quickly. Thought the guy with the annoying laugh was just that and hope he doesn't appear too often.

Dave...do you know if this was filmed on the same lines as DA, with a studio audience to laugh along? It just seems that the laughter is canned and probably added to suit later on.

[Dave Homewood]

I'd imagine it will have been filmed first on a closed set and on location, then all edited, and then screened to a live audience who's reaction is recorded, and if the reaction is too long and cuts into the next dialogue they then trim it. That is how most modern British comedies work I think. I saw them doing this in a doco on Last of the Summer Wine.

However others may correct me on this about YRML. I'm just not sure how that was done, specifically.

[mingwalton]

Cheers. Although all the episodes are listed as available on Youtube, some have the message about copyright. So I've ordered the box set as it's only about £16. On episode 3 of the Perry and Croft programmes very recently shown, they agree YRML is their finest work together.

[Dave Homewood]

I wish I could find the box set that cheap here.

[mortimer]

Dec 13, 2014 13:44:33 GMT 12 mingwalton said:

...do you know if this was filmed on the same lines as DA, with a studio audience to laugh along? It just seems that the laughter is canned and probably added to suit later on.

It was filmed in front of a live audience, like all P&C shoes were, apart from filmed location inserts which were shown on monitors above the audience.
They were shown in the correct sequence too (ie they halted the studio action).

However, as the set was so large and spreadout, the audience had to view some action on monitors as the rooms were out of sight.
This is good, as it enables rooms to link together and the actors to move around more naturally, the downside for audiences is they don't see it all in front of them.

If you've ever seen Alan Partridge, it was shot the same way.

They never used canned laughter, but had to trim it as it sometimes ran over dialogue, especially in filmed sequences where the actors had to guess the length of the response.

Another However. Laughter could be amended during editing for TV or DVD when removing dialogue etc so giving the impression it was out of place.

[mingwalton]

Thanks Mortimer for the insight on the recording process....by coincidence, I picked up the box set from the post office about an hour ago

[Dave Homewood]

Here's a recent clip from last month

[marie]

Just finished the third series, really loving it....The characters are great, and love the 50min format. Picked it up (the entire 4 series for 12pounds), just bought Hi De Hi the entire series for 15pounds on Amazon...

Cant believe it passed me by, the production values are outstanding, the first 20mins if the first episode are jaw dropping for a sit com.

[jonboy]

Yes, It was very clever of David & Jimmy to set them in the past so even today when they often appear on TV they don't really look dated.

[marie]

I really think David and Jimmy did a great job bringing young actors into the roles (along with the experienced ones), Ian Lavender as Pike, Held his own against much more experienced actors, Su Pollard in Hi De Hi, and Perry Benson in You Rang My Lord (who had so many laugh at loud lines!)...

Its strange how You Rang M'Lord hasn't garnered more popularity and isn't still repeated today, perhaps in parts now it is regarded at the BBC as less Politically correct...but it certainly has to rank as one of the best 'comedies' in terms of production values. I would describe it as more light Drama/Comedy and it was all the better for that.

[Alan Hayes]

Embarrassed to say that I've never seen You Rang M'Lord, so I've given myself a Christmas treat and ordered the complete series boxset from Zoom.co.uk where it's £14.99 and the code SIGNUP10 saved me 10% on top of that. (£13.49 - bargain!)

Looking forward to seeing some 'new' Croft and Perry.

Going back to what's said earlier in this thread about the way that Croft and Perry material holds up better than Croft and Lloyd shows - must say I always felt the Croft and Lloyd shows were never in the same league. More obvious, Carry On-style comedy and nowhere near the wit or sophistication that Jimmy Perry brought to the table.

[Dave Homewood]

Wow, I think you will really enjoy it. It's a real class act and I think it's Jimmy and David's finest work after Dad's Army.

Yes I totally agree on the last point. It does not mean I don't like it. Allo Allo is still fantastic, but it's really comedy that relies on often repeated jokes, a touch of pantomime, a touch of farce, and not much else. Whereas Jimmy brought more realism, more pathos and deeper characterisations to the work.

[Alan Hayes]

In my case, I've never been a fan of Are You Being Served (though I watched it as a kid, so I have a sort of nostalgic fondness for it, but I prefer to leave it as a happy childhood memory), thought Come Back Mrs Noah was just about the worst piece of television comedy I've ever seen (and I thought that when it was shown in the 70s), and I never found Allo Allo remotely funny (my father thinks it's the funniest thing he's ever seen, so who am I to judge?).

I'm really looking forward to seeing You Rang M'Lord. Pleased that your recommendation is so positive.