Can Anyone name the chap who can't whistle in this?

[Kitty Whiskers]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmv7b-NQEI[/media]





It's been bugging me for ages!

[cornershop15]

Joe Melia. The others are Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, John Wells and ... the Alan Carr lookalike is Bill Wallis (thanks Google).



Joe is probably best remembered as The Photographer in the film version of Oh! What a Lovely War but I also thought he was great in the Public Eye episode The Comedian's Graveyard, also starring Tessa Wyatt and Leslie Dwyer.

[Kitty Whiskers]

name='cornershop15' timestamp='1281533985' post='463146']

The late John Wells, seen here with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore.

Wow - that was a lightning fast response! Thanks for that, Cornershop!



Don't suppose you know the name of the little chubby chap with the beard as well, do you?

[Number Six]

name='Kitty Whiskers' timestamp='1281533756' post='463143']

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmv7b-NQEI[/media]





It's been bugging me for ages!

The actors performing with Pete and Dud are Joe Melia, Bill Wallis and John Wells.

[Kitty Whiskers]

Isn't one of them Alan Bennett? Good Lord - what have I been thinking all these years??

[cornershop15]

name='Kitty Whiskers' timestamp='1281534160' post='463149']

Wow - that was a lightning fast response! Thanks for that, Cornershop!



Don't suppose you know the name of the little chubby chap with the beard as well, do you?

The "chubby chap with the beard" is Bill Wallis, who has a Wikipedia page and also this profile at The Avengers Forever website:





Guest Actor Biography

Page 120 of 127



Bill Wallis



Tubby Bunn/Lord Ragsland in A Touch of Brimstone

Dr. Charles Grey, AD in The Positive Negative Man









by Pete Stampede

Rotund, stooped Bill Wallis is a real unsung hero of British comedy. He was a Cambridge friend and contemporary of the great Peter Cook, and when Cook and the rest of the Beyond the Fringe team left to do the show on Broadway, Wallis took over Alan Bennett's roles in the West End. (Funnily enough, Cook's stand-in, Terence Brady, was in "Fog".) At around the same time as "A Touch of Brimstone," Wallis appeared on Cook and Dudley Moore's famous series Not Only But Also, in which they all performed a very silly song about Alan A'Dale. He then played Prime Minister Harold Wilson in Mrs. Wilson's Diary (1969), a stage show based on a regular feature in Cook's satirical magazine Private Eye. Wallis also had several roles in Blackadder's various incarnations, notably as a disgusting jailer "Ploppy, son of Ploppy...", and later had a straight role in Dangerfield, a BBC medical drama.



Links (from Mike Cheyne): Ten Lords A-Leaping has Bill reading the audio book, which you can preview via Real Audio.

[Kitty Whiskers]

name='cornershop15' timestamp='1281535362' post='463158']

[center]

Wallis also had several roles in Blackadder's various incarnations, notably as a disgusting jailer "Ploppy, son of Ploppy...", and later had a straight role in Dangerfield, a BBC medical drama.

Ploppy! That's where I know him from! Thanks Cornershop . You're amazing!



Wallis's face is priceless in this sketch when he's watching the non-whistler in action (as is Dudley Moore's).

[TomDaws]

Anyone else remember the BBC2 saturday night arts programme that Joe Melia used to introduce ? A lengthy affair covering several different topics each week. Eric Idle did a spoof version, possibly on Rutland Weekend TV.

[Number Six]

name='TomDaws' timestamp='1281537322' post='463175']

Anyone else remember the BBC2 saturday night arts programme that Joe Melia used to introduce ? A lengthy affair covering several different topics each week. Eric Idle did a spoof version, possibly on Rutland Weekend TV.

I don't remember that one, but I did like him as 'Whisper' in the Terry-Thomas comedy 'Too Many Crooks'

[Nick Dando]

Bill Wallis is probably best known as a member of the cast of Week Ending on Radio Four, and for his work with Peter Tinniswood in the Winston saga.



Nick

[steereomono]

name='TomDaws' timestamp='1281537322' post='463175']

Anyone else remember the BBC2 saturday night arts programme that Joe Melia used to introduce ? A lengthy affair covering several different topics each week. Eric Idle did a spoof version, possibly on Rutland Weekend TV.

The BBC2 show Joe Melia introduced was called Full House



http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/703576?view=synopsis



That's one of my favourite Pete n Dud clips. Great to see it again.



A long-shot but does anyone remember the mid '70s sketch show Bill Wallis was in?

I think it only lasted one series. He was the most famous member of the cast - I think it was a summer filler

type show. All I recall is one sketch he played the manager of a Rollers-type teenybop group

called "The Bent City Danglers!"

[cornershop15]

Sorry I can't help with your query, steereomono (having searched in vain). The only sketch shows that come to mind are Spike Milligan's Q series, Rutland Weekend Television and End of Part One, with Denise Coffey and Sue Holderness. Could it be any of them?

The YouTube clip Kitty Whiskers posted was lost during the recent forum changes,
so I am reposting the video here, as this thread won't make any sense without it:


In case it disappears again, the video is titled 'Alan A'Dale'.

An impressive publicity picture of Joe Melia - in colour - for his role as villain
Mo Liski in The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder episode The Green Mamba (1969):

Later that year, he was a guest in the Public Eye episode The Comedian's Graveyard.

[Arfur Teacake]

Cornershop

The sketch Alan A'Dale comes from is from Peter n Dud's series they did for ATV, which was shown in the summer of 68 called 'Goodbye Again'

Rather confusingly some of it only survives in B/W (like Alan A'Dale) while other parts are in glorious colour like this

[cornershop15]

My apologies for the late response, Arfur. I began to reply but the cold weather affected me yet again (I get 'burning pins and neddles' attacks which are very painful) and I needed to rest for a couple of days. What I wanted to say was that your information about Goodbye Again contradicts what I saw at LostShows.

They have it as surviving complete and make no reference to black-and-white 'telerecordings'. I sure hope the complete series is in the archives as intended. Pete 'n' Dud suffered enough archive tragedy with the loss of most of Not Only But Also. I found this information shortly after your post and feel sad and just as helpless about Peter Cook's attempts to save the series. From his Wikipedia profile:

In the early 1970s the BBC erased most videotapes of the series. This was common television practice at the time, when agreements with actors' and musicians' unions limited the number of repeats. The policy of wiping recordings ceased in 1978. When Cook learned the series was to be destroyed, he offered to buy the tapes but was refused because of copyright issues. He suggested he purchase new tapes so that the BBC would have no need to erase the originals, but this was also turned down.

Of the original programmes, eight of the twenty-two complete episodes survive complete. These comprise the first series with the exception of the fifth and seventh episodes, the first and last episodes of the second series, and the Christmas special. Of the 1970 third series, only the various film inserts (usually of outdoor scenes) survive. The BBC recovered some shows by approaching overseas television networks and buying back copies. A compilation of six half-hour programmes, The Best of What's Left of Not Only...But Also was shown on in 199x, and released on VHS and DVD.

There is an alternative version of Alan A'Dale on YouTube but, in complete contrast to the beautiful print of the colour sequence you posted, that clip is in a terrible state (rather like me at the moment). I can't think why the YouTube uploader bothered as it's actually unwatchable.

[SpecialK]

Bill Wallis is probably best known as a member of the cast of Week Ending on Radio Four, and for his work with Peter Tinniswood in the Winston saga.



Nick

and Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (I think he played the Vogon in the first episode)