Introduce yourself!

[Clarity Jane]

Brandon,

I must admit I prefer the older comedies as they’re the ones I grew up with so yes, Fawlty Towers, Black Adder etc and also Dad’s Army, Last of the Summer Wine, Steptoe&Son, Porridge, Open All Hours, Only Fools And Horses, One Foot in the Grave, Hi-De-Hi…loads!

I’m stunned (and delighted) that any American would enjoy Are You Being Served? as it is so utterly British with lots of naughty double-entendre. You must know about Mrs Slocombe’s pet(!) and Mr Humphries’ exciting life that we never see, but hear an awful lot about!

If you like old BBC radio comedy you might know about Julian and Sandy…? I have a CD of those two. “Oh, Mr Horne! How dolly to varda your eek again – don’t be strange, troll in!”

What about dramas? I recently bought the BBC series ‘Survivors’. (the 70s version). It’s perfect for preppers. It’s about the struggle to survive after a pandemic has wiped out most of the population. I was absolutely terrified by it as a child – I can still remember that man foaming with rabies! Yikes.

[Brandon]

I really like the British sense of humor. I love all the characters from Are You Being Served? That was a really, really good show. Clarity, are you free?

I HAVE heard some Julian and Sandy! They’re funny, but the episodes I heard were really, really short. Did they ever have any longer shows? Someone should start a website called Bona Preppers. 🙂

One of my favorite BBC radio shows is I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Do you like that one? Really funny. And I love Graeme Garden. (Though I’m not too big of a fan of The Goodies.)

I’m not really into dramas. I know Downton Abbey is really popular over here, but not being into dramas (or period dramas), I haven’t ever watched it. I probably should give it a try. I walked into a pizza place about six months ago– this is in Texas, mind you– and the guy in front of me was telling someone about it, and how good it was.

Survivors sounds interesting, though, and I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled for it.

Oh, and you mentioned Only Fools and Horses. Over the years, a number of people have told me that show is REALLY funny, but I’ve never had the chance to watch it. I ought to see if I can find a few episodes.

[Clarity Jane]

Yes, Captain Brandon, I’m free!

Bona Preppers! There’s got to be some preppers in the gay community and that would be a fantabulosa name for their website. The Julian and Sandy sketches were part of the radio shows Round the Horne and Beyond Our Ken. Kenneth Horne was the main host and he’s the slighty baffled man who always bumps into J&S in the show. The slang they use is ‘Polari’ (there are various spellings) and was a secret language used by gay people to protect themselves before homosexuality was decriminalised in the late 60s.

Yes I sometimes listen to I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue but I still have no idea what Mornington Cresent is all about..

I LOVE The Goodies. They were HUGE here in the 70s and were all from the same stable as Monty Python. A man actually died of laughter watching them! His widow sent them a letter thanking them for making her late husband’s last moments joyous ones. I’m not kidding – look it up!!

I’ve never seen Downton Abbey either. Upstairs Downstairs is the only one for me.

Only Fools and Horses is very good and if you’re in tune with British humour – and probably know a lot of our culture through it – then I think you’ll like it. It’s also capable of deeply emotional moments too, but not in a schmaltzy way. David Beckham appeared in a little spin off sketch for the BBC’s Sport Relief telethon recently and that was fun.

Have you heard of the Carry On films?

Perhaps you can sample some clips of Suvivors (70s) online.

Here’s a question for all: are fictional versions of TEOTWAWKI (The Road, The Walking Dead, The Day of the Triffids etc) at all useful to preppers or is it just entertainment?

Ta’ra : )

[Brandon]

Hahaha! 🙂

A while back I had downloaded a whole bunch of the Julian and Sandy sketches, and they were all about two to five minutes long. If they were part of a longer show, then I guess someone just cut them out. I have enough trouble with Cockney rhyming slang; Polari is beyond me. 🙂

I love Mornington Crescent! Easy to play, but hard to master. Especially with all the different variants there are. I would suggest we get a game of Mornington Crescent going on here, but there probably isn’t anyone else who knows how to play. I hear the 1948 Nottingham Twist version, where all diagonals and double backs put you in nip, is really fun for two people, but we would probably bore everyone else here.

I tried to get into The Goodies, because I really like Graeme Garden (and Tim Brooke-Taylor isn’t bad), but I only got maybe halfway or so into the first season. It wasn’t horrible, but it just didn’t click with me. I should probably watch a bit more. Sometimes shows take a bit to get into. And, heck, if a man died of laughter from watching it, then I definitely should watch some more!

A recent British comedy that I watched, and loved, was Toast of London. I really like Matt Berry, so I look for anything with him in it. That one might not be your cup of tea, though.

No, I’ve never heard of the Carry On films. Are they good?

[J]

Russell Howard’s Good News! I love that show, as well as Mock the Week. I also am a big fan of Shameless, the original UK version. I know Shameless iksnt for everyone, but it still cracks me up.

[Brandon]

Another person that’s into British comedies! Great!

I’ve never heard of those shows, J, but I Googled them, and they sound good! I’ll try to get my hands on some of them.

[J]

Russell Howard is great, along with good comedy, he always ends his show with a positive news story. You would think more sows would do this.

[Clarity Jane]

Brandon:

I’ve just looked up Mornington Crescent on Wikipedia and I THINK I get it at last. I’ll give it a go…
WHITECHAPEL.( clue- that’s on the Green Line).

If you ever give The Goodies another try I would suggest the episode ‘Kitten Kong’ It’s about a giant, fluffy white kitten that destroys London… I told you it was Pythonesque.

The Carry On films are very much in the same vein as Are You Being Served? but the quality varies greatly. The first in the series was an army-based comedy called ‘Carry On, Sergeant’ (1958) and the last was ‘Carry On Emmanuelle’ (1979) and was as tacky and awful as it sounds. The best are ‘Carry On Cleo’ (a Roman epic spoof) and ‘Carry On Up The Khyber’ (a British Raj spoof). My personal favourite is’ Carry On Camping’. By the way Kenneth Williams (Sandy) is in every one.

J:

My niece recently went to see Russell Howard live but I’m afraid I just can’t really warm to most modern stand-ups except for Peter Kay. He tells jokes about growing up in the 70s/80s and contemporary working class life and that’s me covered! The late Irish comedian Dave Allen made me laugh so hard I would have to turn the sound off sometimes because I would be in such fits it began to hurt!

I hope PJ doesn’t get too narked about us not talking about prepping so don’t forget my question about the fictional portrayals of TEOTWAWKI…

[Echo5Charlie]

-Clarity

We are talking about Hollywood, the same people who can’t get a military uniform correct, let alone customs and courtesy. I have found those shows to be good conversation starters and that’s about it. Use scenarios they had in the show, but talk about real application etc. The one thing I did learn from walking dead is to cut off the zombies arms and rip off their lower jaw, and use them for pack mules and to keep other zombies away. Ok maybe two things, knives don’t need reloading.

Just my opinion though. Maybe there are some shows I haven’t seen, I gave up cable awhile back.

[Brandon]

Clarity, are you sure you haven’t played Mornington Crescent before? Because that’s a really good first move. Obviously in the normal version of the game, I would go with Elephant & Castle, on the black line. That’s pretty much been the standard response to the Whitechapel opening for the last 50 years. However, since we’re playing the 1948 Nottingham Twist version, that would put me in nip, and I really don’t want to be in nip, particularly this early in the game. I get the feeling you’re trying to force me into Leyton, on the red line, which is a good strategy, because if you then played North Wembley, I’d be stuck with only weak moves. Hmmmm.

This could come back to bite me, but I’ll go with West Kensington, also on the green line.

Haha, yes, they reference the kitten destroying London, fairly frequently, on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. I’ll have to look for that one.

I’ll also see if I can find some Carry On movies. Thanks for the heads up on those!

I agree, I hope we’re not annoying anyone by gong on about British comedies. It’s just that it’s really nice to be able to talk to someone about them! There’s really no one that I can talk to about them, except for one friend to whom I can make The Mighty Boosh references. But that’s it.

Echo5:

I agree with you, Hollywood cares about what looks good, not what is real. But they can definitely get you thinking about what you would do if you were presented with different scenarios.

[PJ]

I like to watch Top Gear sometimes, such a good show.

[Brandon]

Yes, Top Gear is a good show! I haven’t watched it in a while, though.

James May, from Top Gear, has some other interesting shows, as well, like James May’s Toy Stories.

[Clarity Jane]

Brandon:

I KNEW you’d fall for it if I kept my nerve. West Kensington is crossed by the over ground line, the very same one that goes to North Wembley. After that there are very few places to go to BUT Leyton,
(ah- ha) ultimately taking you on to Barking. This will inevitably lead you back to Mornington Crescent. If you don’t believe me please forward all your enquiries to the Royal Geographical Society. And THAT Sir, is how Mornington Crescent is played. I am now retiring from my career whilst still at the top of my game and I expect to be mentioned in the 2015 New Years Honours list and to become a national treasure – second only to Dame Judi Dench. Thank you.

Echo5Charlie:

I remember those zombie-pets! Ingenious. One theme does seem to be recurring in most of these stories and it’s nothing to do with stockpiling provisions or weapons etc. It is this – If things were to permanently take away our 21st century life, one HAS to find/create a community of democratic, sensible people. No hot heads, no cult leaders, no ‘survival-of-the-fittest’ extremists.

Nearly 40 years ago the BBC did a brilliant ‘reality show’ called Living In The Past where a small group of people, some with young children, lived FOR A YEAR as Iron Age (or was it Bronze Age?) Ancient Britons. They built, sowed, reaped and crafted everything from scratch, with instruction from expert historians of course. The only nod to the present was the upkeep of the children’s’ basic education and more serious medical needs.

Everyone stayed the whole year with the exception of one family who left early. They worked together, resolved disputes with no bloodshed and not only lived well but, by the end of the year had began to find their feet and prosper. Only once, in the beginning, did they run so low on stores that they went to the nearby village ‘chippy’ for some fish and chips. Other than that they learned to live successfully and harmoniously just like our ancestors did. Our history books may be full of famous people and their power struggles but most humans through the ages just got on with the simple life – none of us would be here today if earlier generations hadn’t worked together and supported one another, especially in extreme hardship.

If TEOTWAWKI happened I hope people would come to realise this very quickly.

[Clarity Jane]

PS
I just looked it up on YouTube. It was The Iron Age.

Put ‘Living In The Past BBC 1978’ in the box and you’ll see a follow -up documentary made a few years ago with clips from the original programme.

[Brandon]

Argh, I should have known you’ve played Mornington Crescent, Charity! But, I believed you when you said you didn’t really know much about it, and so I went with a move that left me with a vulnerability that only an expert at the game would have seen. Well done, but now that I know you’re a very high caliber player, you won’t catch me off guard, if we ever play again.

I just finished watching Carry On Camping. Not bad! My kind of goofy humor. 🙂

As far as that TV show you mentioned, it’s amazing that they had a show like that, that long ago. That sounds like something they would do now-a-days, but people would say they’re going too far.

I think if TEOTWAWKI happened, people would eventually get back to a state similar to that of the 1800’s, but it would take a few years. Things would be very chaotic up until then, though I think there would be small groups of people that worked together, like you talked about. All speculation, of course.

[Author]

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