Victor Maddern

According to my Mum, one of Victor Maddern’s daughters attended the same junior school as me. I cannot remember her at all but her Dad I certainly do. He was one of those reliable character actor’s whose talent made the big stars job all that much easier.
He was born in nineteen twenty eight in Ilford, Essex of working class parents and joined the Navy in nineteen forty three, at the age of fifteen, where he served until nineteen forty six. After being discharged from the Navy he joined RADA and got his first acting role in the film “Seven Days to Noon in 1950, playing a reluctant soldier obliged to shoot a psychotic scientist.
Although he often appeared in films, a great many too, it is as a TV actor that I best remember him where he plied his trade so admirably supporting those stars we all loved. One of his best for me has to be in The Dick Emery Show where he played the part of old Lampwick's son.
Ironically (for me that is) Victor Maddern owned a printers. I say ironically as my father too was a printer.
Victor Maddern died in nineteen ninety three of a brain tumor and at the relatively young age of sixty eight. He was a fine actor.

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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Eric Sykes

Incomparable is probably the easiest way to describe this quiet man who has the ability to make me laugh with just an adjustment of a facial muscle.

Born in 1923, or possibly built in a Lancashire munitions factory using spare parts from broken Spitfires, he has appeared on radio, TV and film for more than sixty years.

His film, alongside the immortal Tommy Cooper, The Plank, was, is and always will be the thing of genius. I mean, where would the Chuckle Brothers be without it?

Also worth mentioning is the lovely sitcom he did with the wonderful Hattie Jacques, Sykes. So very British and still so very funny.

In more recent years he has appeared in Harry Potter, where he gets eaten by a large snake (not Derek Guyler!), The Others with Nicole Kidman and lately in Son of Rambow where he didn't play the lead.

An extraordinarily talented man and one of Britain’s greats.

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The Telegoons

Too young to remember the original Radio Goon show, this for me, was my first introduction to the genius of the Goons. Far darker perhaps than the audio version but still a must see in its day.

The TelegoonsScript Editor: Maurice WiltshireProducer: Tony YoungSeries 1 Broadcast: 05 October 1963 to 20 December 1963Series 2 Broadcast: 28 March 1964 to 01 August 1964
Three years after the last Goon Show series ended, the BBC broadcast 'The Telegoons'. Television scriptwriter Maurice Wiltshire shortened and re-worked 26 original Goon Show scripts to 2 series of 15 minute puppet films.
Wiltshire had co-written some of original Goon Shows and was well placed to adapt the scripts. He edited the scripts and added a good amount of visual humour to suit the TV medium.
The Goon characters to were brought to life by string and rod puppets, which combined with traditional cartoon animation and library footage gave the programmes a unique look. The puppets' visual characteristics were based on Spike Milligan's doodled impressions of how they might look, creating a somewhat grotesque but worthwhile visual interpretation.
The sound tracks were freshly recorded by The Goons, which brought them back together again for the first time in several years.
The Telegoons was not particularly successful with its adult audience. However, it was popular with the younger television viewing generation which led to regular Telegoon comic strips in 'TV Comic'.
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DaDs Army

Without a shadow of doubt, this is my all time favourite TV comedy, sorry, SITCOM. Oh, there have been comedy programmes that I have enjoyed over the years that have been nearly as good but nearly isn't good enough, is it?

The characters of course are what made this terrific series. Aged, Grumpy, soft around the edges, curmudgeonly and wonderfully idiosyncratic. All of them, apart from Ian Lavender, were of course actors near the ends of their careers and this seemed to give a relaxed and natural performance to the show. The scripts were delightfully silly and yet, one suspects, far nearer the truth than anyone would like to admit.

The overly pompous Captain Mainwairing and his ever brow beaten number two, Sargeant Wilson. Corporal Jones whose memory of previous wars and battles burnt ever bright. The Scottish undertaker who always had a rum tale to tell. Each character uniquely different to the other. So very British and so very funny.

They don't like it up 'em and they don't write 'em like this anymore.
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