samkydd

It is quite plausible and before T E Laurence spun his model globe around and and stuck a pin in it and plumped for the title Laurence of Arabia, he'd done a dry run on the London A-Z and come up with Laurence of Muswell Hill! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

arty-dave

Lawrence of Soho would be good - sounds like a barbers, though

smudge

Re-reading the thread has just bought a marvellous image to mind...

Not Sid James as 007, but Kenneth Williams - strapped to the laser table in GOLDFINGER, as the laser approaches his nadgers... [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blushing.gif[/img]

007 : Do you expect me to talk ?

GOLDF : No, Mr Bond....I expect you to die !

007 : 'Ere....stop messin' about !

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]


SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/vampire.gif[/img]

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

djdave

“It is quite plausible and before T E Laurence spun his model globe around and and stuck a pin in it and plumped for the title Laurence of Arabia, he'd done a dry run on the London A-Z and come up with Laurence of Muswell Hill!”


“Lawrence of Soho would be good - sounds like a barbers, though”


Even though I'm the butt of the joke, these are rather funny [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]

theuofc

Hi, Djdave:

It's a very cordial group in here; everyone just sparks off the material, not the person...seriously. All in good fun. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I'm glad your film music FM programme went so well. Good luck next Sunday.

Take care,

Barbara

djdave

No worries, Barbara.

But it's still rather funny...Laurence of Muswell Hill. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img] I ask you.

But wouldn't he use the Internet's MultiMap nowadays?

djdave

My Mum reckons that she saw Sid James being interviewed a day or two before he died. She can't remember what the programme was, but it was probably something like Pebble Mill at One.

Anyway, she reckons that he looked dreadfully tired and unwell and remembers commenting on it at the time.

Apparantly, one of the reasons Tony Hancock ditched Sid was because he was jealous of his many appearances in films. Sid was completely at ease with filming, and rarely needed to do another take....however, Hancock was less skilled as an actor.

I believe that after the Blood Donar episode - in which he needed cue cards because he hadn't learnt his lines - Hancock never again bothered to learn them.

samkydd

Just to correct you on two of your comments if I may, no, that sounds pompous. Whoever told you about Hancock was talking out of their.., I mean they got it way off the mark. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] The reason why Hancock split with Sid was because despite being one of Sid's best friends, Hancock didn't want the public to perceive them as a double act. They'd been working together a few years by then but Hancock wanted to explore more avenues of comedy, and felt that he should be able to carry it off solo. He also got his writers to ditch the Railway Cuttings address for a bedsitter in Earl's Court, and the astrakhan collared coat and Homburg hat for a raincoat and trilby. The solo Hancock was very successful until he split with his writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

Sid apparently was quite hurt by this rebuttal but he was already a regular in films, and the Carry-On era was under way so it didn't affect his career that much because Sid's gambling problems made him accept anything that was going and later he also had a couple of sit-coms himself in the early 60s.

The reason why Hancock used cue cards in The Blood Donor was because he'd been in a car accident with his wife at the wheel, and he'd been heavily concussed and this was shortly before the episode was due to be recorded. Later on he reverted to the use of cue cards on a more regular basis but I'm not sure if the injury left him with a permanent memory problem, or whether it was his growing alcohol dependency which affected him remembering his lines, or even that he got away with it once and thought he could do it all the time. After all, despite still being shaken up after the car crash and his reliance on cue cards, The Blood Donor was one of his most memorable and popular episodes!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

djdave

Thanks for the clarification. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I agree about The Blood Donor. It's hilarious.

theuofc

Very interesting comments, SamK. May I ask (which does sound pompous, but I don't know how to rephrase it in a witty way)...I believe you said you were a comedian or perhaps you were a comedy writer as your sketches in here are quite funny. If you were ever in that line of work, did you have a chance to meet or work with James, Hancock, or any of the others? If so, anecdotes would be a delight. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Best,

Barbara

samkydd

Alas I'm not a writer, despite trying for many years and almost getting there. I also used to do alternative stand-up because it was an alternative way of seeing if my material worked in front of an audience, but unfortunately working in a day job and travelling up to London and Bristol and all over the place to do stand-up was wearing me out. Family responsibilities don't give you the luxury of choosing a career, you just have to go to work every day instead! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

The year I got to the finals of a TV competition at the Edinburgh Festival it was won by Peter Kay, so the standards were high, and I also had near misses with the BBC as well, which can make you feel a little frustrated. I started in my mid-30s which is a bit late, you need to be early 20s, single, preferably based in London, and on the dole or have other private means so that you can write and rehearse all day and perform a couple of gigs every night in order to hone your craft and make a decent living at it.

So basically I've given up, and although I enjoyed writing and performing I think in my 40s I've left it a bit too late in the day! So unfortunately you lot are stuck with my rants and raves, and if it wasn't for this forum my better half would have to listen to me! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rotfl.gif[/img]

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

samkydd

I think you have to be single minded and stick to one thing. I've tried to do lots of things like write sit-coms (nearly accepted by Thames), stand-up, cartoons, serious stories, stage plays etc and you don't really get anywhere. I used to have cartoons published now and again and once had a regular newspaper slot (but I still haven't been paid for that work) , so I could have stuck at that and eventually made a living! Then I drifted into other spare time interests like stand-up etc and eventually you stop doing the cartoons, stop doing the other types of writing, and then you get fed up of the travelling to do stand-up and think you'd be better off writing a novel etc and on top of that you've still got to get up at 5:45 and go to work! Eventually you end up achieving absolutely nothing! It must be the same for many other people and dogged persistence will always be the deciding factor!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

samkydd

Sorry, but that's just not my style! If I haven't got anywhere so far it's probably because I haven't put enough effort in! I would recommend that everyone have a go at writing and performing stand-up, it will change your life! After managing to entertain from 50 up to 400 people at a time there's no better feeling and it does make you feel good (and that's without resorting to taking coke in the dressing room)!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

foha80

Sam,I think some time you also need a bit of luck.Is the enjoyment you get from stand up dependant on you doing your own material,Would you still wish to perform if the material you were doing was written by
someone else.


Terry

samkydd

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"