It's all in the best possible taste.

Quite by accident, I found out a few weeks ago that one of my TV channels was broadcasting episodes of The Kenny Everett Video Show. This pleased me greatly. When I had been a young child, my parents would delay my bedtime and allow me to watch it, even though it was definitely intended for an adult audience.

For the benefit of younger members who have most likely never heard of Kenny Everett, The Kenny Everett Video Show was a comedy sketch show, which included performances by the pop stars of the day. There were also dance routines featuring a dance troupe called Hot Gossip, which had been formed by former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips.

As my adult son and I had previously watched a spoof horror film starring Kenny Everett, which he had thoroughly enjoyed, I had asked him if he fancied watching The Kenny Everett Video Show with me. As we share a similar sense of humour, I had felt fairly confident that it would appeal to him, and it did. However, it came as an unexpected and lovely surprise when my son said that he wished there were programs like that still being made now.

Although attitudes were rather different back in the 1970s and 1980s, and the episodes now being broadcast include a message to that effect, I feel the content in those episodes is tame when compared with other comedy programs that date back to that era.

I can recall that there were many heterosexual males that liked to ogle the female members of Hot Gossip. However, I feel sure that the heterosexual female viewers were probably doing the same with the male dancers. Back in those days, if the outfits worn by Hot Gossip weren't enough to set pulses racing, then the choreographed dance routines would. The thing is, the outfits and dance routines seem so very tame when compared with what one sees on TV now.

In the event that anyone reading this has fond memories of the Kenny Everett days, there is some wonderful footage on YouTube of Michael Parkinson interviewing one of Kenny Everett's characters. I daren't risk naming the character, but it was one that I often tried to impersonate... The title of this post is a clue. Wink

Michael Parkinson interviewing K.E. character

Parents
  • Loved Kenny's stuff as a kid, though that DIY guy he used to do was half hilarious half terrifying to me. 

    One thing I used to adore about the BBC of yesteryear (and some of its spirit lives on in things like Children in Need) was the way there was interconnectedness that would pop up at random times - the BBC 'family' walking through each other's sets in a sudden fourth wall break, being taken behind the cameras and off to the canteen by some mildly anarchic (but clearly meticulously planned really) presenter going 'off-script'. And Kenny had that in his soul, finding innovative ways to do things with BBC corridors and whatnot that would  simultaneouly mock-yet-celebrate their deceptive drabness while at the same time hinting at wonderfully left-field stuff going on behind those many doors- and only exaggerating a bit about the strangeness and wonder of the esoteric chaps at the radiophonic workshop, or any number of other little pockets of imaginative flourishings cautiously tolerated/indulged

    by 'the Sixth Floor', the 'DG' and so on.

    I know he started on ITV, but I think there's was something a touch more BBC (or Beeb Beeb Ceeb, as he once made me laugh by saying) about his very DNA, and that was a lovely thing - the mocking but the deep affection in that very act.

  • The DIY character was Reg Prescott. As you say, half hilarious and half terrifying considering how accident-prone the character was.

    The episodes that I have been recording and watching date back to the Thames Television days on ITV. Seeing/hearing the Thames Television ident at the beginning of each episode just adds to the sense of nostalgia.

  • Yes, Reg! Of course, perfect name for that fella. 

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