Share the Love

No coincidence, I feel, that “Peter Kay’s Car Share” and “Our Friend Victoria” shared the peak viewing 9 till 10 slot on Tuesdays. Arguably, Kay has already attained the ‘National Treasure’ and ‘Comedy Legend’ epithets already applied to Ms Wood and, though he would, presumably, wish to delay the addition of ‘fondly remembered’ for a few years yet he is, I’m sure, aware of the similarities people draw between these two comedy writers. Although, it’s true, a direct line can be drawn connecting both artists to the Godfather of gentle northern humour, Alan Bennett, this should not detract from their talent to extract absurdity from everyday phrases or situations. Yes, they use the mould cast by Bennett to construct outwardly unremarkable characters who create humour by virtue of being unaware that they are doing or saying anything remotely funny, but they take the art-form to new levels.

Not for Kay is the distant sound of a brass band playing the ‘Hovis’ advert, it’s the ‘Forever FM Drivetime Show’ and his ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ CD with a mixture of school disco hits and adverts for a local Dry Cleaners.  It is in the very ‘ordinariness’ of the characters that Kay extracts the most humour. His character, John Redmond, lives alone, dines alone and sleeps alone. His work, as a middle manager in a supermarket chain, forces him to briefly emerge from his shell and interact with his colleagues but he is soon back in the cocoon of his Fiat 500L and heading home to enjoy his own space. Forced by company policy to volunteer for a ‘car share’ scheme, he meets Kayleigh Kitson (Sian Gibson), a more junior staff member but, we find, very much a kindred spirit who manages to stir something in the recesses of John’s veiled ego and bring out the personality in him with a series of music quiz questions, half-forgotten pop songs from the 80’s and stories about eccentric family members. Conversations, reminiscences and office gossip fill the journeys to and from work. Deadpan, bitter-sweet accounts of failed relationships and family dramas are interspersed with musical fantasies recounting simpler times when John and Kayleigh had youth, love and S-Club7.

If romances can sometimes be described as ‘whirlwind’, Car Share is a love story moving at the pace of a glacier. Each layer inevitably peeled away from the veneer of their personalities reveal a new challenge for the couple. When Kayleigh says ‘petrol’, John can’t help correcting it to ‘diesel’, when Kayleigh talks about her “lady time” John winces at the intimacy and the passage of their relationship to another level is delayed by a further 50,000 years. When John reveals that he likes crinkle-cut chips and hanging baskets, you can sense Kayleigh making a mental note to put any romantic intentions back in their box. When, however, ‘One Step Further’ is played on the car radio, you sense that love is bound to blossom one day as they are instantaneously taken back to 1982. The genius of Kay’s writing enables you to instinctively know that this song has not been chosen because it’s just a catchy tune, a quick Google search reveals this was the UK Eurovision entry when the contest was held in Harrogate, of all places, and an image of a 16 year-old John and Kayleigh moving in different orbits whilst staring at the same moon is created without so much as a line written.

That ‘Car Share’ precedes the tribute to Vicky Wood is wholly correct. Peter Kay as warm-up man for one of comedy’s most respected and lamented  icons seems fitting and appropriate. Two people who walk you across the tightrope between real life and fantasy, love and friendship and laughter and tears, ready to push you one way or the other but to never let you fall.          

‘Car Share’ is on BBC1 Tuesday at 9pm               

This review also appears on  https://tellysgonewrong.blogspot.co.uk/

Facebook Goes crazy

I follow a Facebook site called Seventies Time Machine. They often post nostalgic photographs of a more innocent age where buses had conductors, trains had guards and TV personalities had just about anyone they wanted

The other day they posted an image of the 70’s TV show ‘Mind Your Language’ and posed the question, ‘Was this innocent comedy or politically incorrect rubbish?’

I was 17 when this was first broadcast and I thought then, as I do now, that it was poorly written, even more poorly acted and used lazy racial stereotyping for limited comedy effect. When I was 17, nearly everyone I knew agreed with me but, when I clicked through to the comments section of the FB posting I was shocked to find out who I now represented.

Marilyn Dawson It was very innocent . A time when we all 'took the mick' out of every nationality and we didn't take offence at all , the pc brigade need to take a humour pill :-D

So, I now appear to be part of the “PC brigade”. I have, apparently now lost my sense of humour and need to have it restored by a sinister sounding ‘pill’. Did we really ‘take the mick’ out of every nationality? And, if we did, could we say that nobody took offence? My recollection is that those on the receiving end of the mickey taking never really had a voice. However, John, here might give it some perspective,

John Edwards Good natured fun. We made jokes about our differences but nowadays the marxists go ballistic over what they think are racial stereotypes.

Ohh, the bloody Marxists, is it? Hang on, the entire show is based upon racial stereotypes, that’s the one joke. it’s not something that anyone is inventing for the purpose of going ballistic.

Betty Eisner It was not racist at all. It was innocent comedy 'normal' people saw it just as that. All of these politically correct people are not 'normal' and they cause all of the problems and create racism which is not there.

So we have Betty’s interpretation of ‘Normal’. Normal people saw it as innocent comedy and not racist at all. The trouble is, Betty thinks that racial stereotyping is something that should be tolerated by people and if you don’t think like Betty you’re not ‘normal’. I think it’s called a self-perpetuating argument.

Shaun Hopkinson What the PC brigade fail to understand, is that this was actually taking the mick out of English as much as it was the rest of the nationalities. In fact I'd say it was showing stupid we Brits actually are. I loved it as a kid.

Ah, thanks Shaun. Being part of the PC Brigade, I failed to spot that it was self-parody and that it was, in fact, ‘we Brits’ that were being portrayed as stupid. I missed the joke.

What I need is some clarity…

Sue Taylor Those were the days when we all had a sense of humour and didn't take ourselves too seriously. It actually taught tolerance by highlighting our differences yet all really being the same inside.

Sue has poured some much needed common sense onto the choppy waters of this argument and reminded us that there was a moral message behind the humour. But, wait, she goes on..

Unfortunately the government has too much power.

The government? What have they got to do with it?

Richard, who presumably won’t be offended if I point out that he writes like some of the MYL characters speak, adds…something.

Richard Leslie Nutting Brilliant, people of today are just to sensitive people you'll get over it. thats the problem in todays society alway worried about hurting someones feelings the things just laugh it off you will get over it.

Richard has thrown his hat in the ring here with some force. I think the underlying message is that we will get over it. The problem, according to him, in today’s society, is that we are always worried about hurting someone’s feelings. That, essentially, if we stopped worrying about hurting anyone’s feelings and became less sensitive, we would, perhaps produce another Mind Your Language which we would all, ultimately, get over.

Mandy has something to say,

Mandy Stack It was funny and it was ours!

The possessive pronoun in perfect context. It was ‘ours!’ It belonged to ‘Us!’ Any idea who ‘We!’ were? Anybody, presumably, who knows Mandy.

Paul Davis-Cooke Most people were racist at the time, in a general way. It was simply commonplace. My Father always complained about there being too many of 'them' but was polite and friendly to any non white person he met. He would have been surprised and upset to be thought racist. I'm not condoning it but it's just the way things were.

Here comes Paul with the argument racism was commonplace at the time, in a ‘general’ sense. That’s ‘generally’ not ‘specifically’ racist. Most people, that’s MOST people at the time, were racist. Take his father, for instance, who always complained about there being too many non-white people in the world but who, himself, would have been upset if he had been labelled a racist.

Stephen Richard Cockram It was a great comedy,it was not made with prolifically correctness in mind ,but who cared,so wind your neck you idiots ,like comedy because it makes you laugh nothing more !!!!

Sorry, Stephen, I overlooked the fact that it was not meant to be prolifically correct and will wind in my neck. I should, in future, ‘like comedy’ because it makes me laugh. But what if it doesn’t? What if it is badly constructed shite? Should I still like it?

Keith Price Life is being destroyed by the PC brigade & cultural marxists ...

This was, in fact, the last thing Keith ever typed.

Sonia’s reasoning behind ‘Mind Your Language’ being unfunny to the PC Brigade and Marxists is that, nowadays, “parents don’t let their kids do anything” and schools “only teach them how to pass exams”. This is also the reason they “commit suicide” when they get “out there on their own”.

Sonia Jayne Luff Todays world is very different but who's fault is it when parents don't let their kids do anything and wrap them up in cotton wool. Schools only teach them how to pass exams and nothing about the outside world and real life. The PC brigade don't want you to upset anyone .No wonder they commit suicide when they get out there on their own.

Meanwhile, Ian observes,

Ian Spence Nothing wrong with the language 
It's the clowns of today's generation snowflake that can't handle it 
Them who can't see past a screen and see and be exposed to the outside world and have no back bone and go and cry when something is said

I must admit that I do in fact, due to a lack of backbone, have a tendency to cry when something is said. If only I could see beyond that screen.

Paul Jackman we can not judge as different eras,but MOST of the 'comedy' nowadays is banal such as 'jokes' about cancer etc which the 70's /80's never would have countenanced Also do not remember one swear word from the older sitcoms. .

Paul begins by admitting that we CANNOT judge different era’s before going on to judge the present era which, he says, is mostly comedy about cancer (eh?). His observation that he doesn’t remember one swear word from the older sitcoms is an indication that, perhaps there were members of the PC Brigade infiltrating television at the time and rejecting any bad language.

Leighton Derrick Great programme! Should be more like it on tv today. Stuff the pc brigade!

Leighton!

Gary Izard The PC brigade killed our comedy on TV.

Gary!

Paul Carter Made me laugh at the time! And it made the actors money to! To many people telling us why to say and watch!!

Look, we in the PC Brigade will never tell you why to say, nor will we dictate why to watch, nor shall we tell you why to think.

I don’t believe this next person’s name is Andrew Optional…

Andrew Optional It was a funny comedy in its time but sadly todays society is just too eager to claim discrimination and compensation

Excuse me, I just have to deal with Vivien, who looks as if she is about to burst into tears.

Vivien Phillips It was fun. Now we can't have fun anymore we have to be offended instead!

We can, Vivien, we can have fun. Look how much fun I am having. I’m not offended, even though I appear to fit your image of a member of the PC Brigade, I appear to be having more fun than the rest of you put together. You’re all obsessed by the fact that there is an organisation somewhere trying to prevent enjoyment. Mind Your Language wasn’t banned or outlawed, it just stopped being funny, if it ever was.

Oh, and

Sonia Jayne Luff When we had a sense of humour. Shame the young of today and the PC brigade don't know what that is.

I think you will find that there are still some young people who share your sense of humour and are more than capable of mocking those who have a language, culture or religion different from your own.