Over on the Blogger Takeover thread Gary laments that the Dad’s Army movie, despite a fine cast, is a laugh-free zone. We’ve just had big screen Ab Fab and now David Brent gazes at me from the side of my bus. The history of Brit TV on film is not glorious, with even a commercial smash like The Inbetweeners Movie resorting to the tired “the characters you love – now abroad!” plot device. I sat down with a pencil for ten minutes and the only Brit TV show makes mighty fine movie I could come up with was Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.
What are the others?
British TV Show Translates Into Excellent Film
by 87 Comments
Of the plethora of 1970s sitcoms transferred to Film, the best were:
Porridge
The Likely Lads
and
Steptoe and Son
All worked equally as longer from films and 30 minute sitcoms
Also from the 1970s, Please Sir and Rising Damp (actually, that was 1980(?)) work as films.
On The Buses – translated perfectly to film. Rubbish on TV, much the same on the big screen (despite it being Hammer’s most successful film)
At what point was On The Buses ever funny.
Apart from the “I hate you Butler” phrase which I still use!
Got to disagree on Rising Damp. It was a huge disappointment just on the basis that it was nothing but copies of scenes from the to episodes, reshot for the film. There was no new material other than possibly linkages between scenes.
And away from the sitcom genre, I enjoyed the Spooks film (The Greater Good)
Yes, Porridge. I thought the Alan Partridge film was pretty awful actually.
Likely Lads does have one of my favourite lines, Terry to Bob, “I’d offer you a beer, but I only have 6….”
When Terry’s fishing, that’s my favourite line!
I could never understand why the Radio Times review was always so down on “The Likely Lads” film, it’s a gem.
I used to go to the library where Bob dropped the dart board on Thelma’s foot.
It was nearer the North East of London than the North East of England…..Boreham Wood…..and though it has changed now, when I used to go there it was exactly the same.
Bolam wasn’t acting in that scene 😉
Also: “Ferris! The hour of doom is at hand!”
Ah I thought I was the only one who thought Alpha Papa was pretty crap. As was I, Partridge. Both seasons of I’m Alan Partridge remain sheer genius
I, Partridge is a work of genius! The audio, read by Coogan, is even better than the text. But Alpha Papa is pretty weak, and the behind the screens extras on the DVD make it clear that the crew making it thought so too.
Holiday On The Buses.
Quietly epic tale of working class rebellion playing out against a brutalising capitalist dialectic. The masterly touch of allowing the viewer to feel sympathy for the authoritarian “Blakey” whose atavistic urge to control is undermined by the spirit sapping mise en scene of regulation issue crockery, the seedy mock militarism of the so-called superior’s uniform and the fallacy of a mechanistic will to power.
Almost incidental, is the subversive feminist agenda suborned to the “dolly bird” stereotypes prevalent of the age, in the parade of “clippies” set against the thwarted and hidden beauty of the Olive character whose simple pleas for affection speak of a longing for a wider emancipation.
With shades of Bresson, De Sica and Ozu, Holiday On The Buses, seems now not just a parable, but as materialist critique of Capital’s ontological implacability, simply put, a masterpiece.
Last Fare to Marienbad
How about Ab Fab? I believe Joanna Lumley is tremendous!
I thought the Ab Fab film was great ie I laughed quite a lot which is of course the idea. It’s thrown together (with a decent budget) and ridiculous, but Saunders and Lumley have been around long enough to watch the quality control. And they are great together.
See it, as I did, with someone Much Younger
I’ve never seen the point of Ab Fab at all. Drunk women have never seemed very funny and the characters simply don’t resonate with me. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone remotely like them in reality.
Jennifer Saunders has said that she was origionally inspired by Bananarama. That she had never seen women getting so drunk so frequently before meeting them.
I expect Bananarama operated on a very different social strata to the characters in Ab Fab though. A band getting pissed might have more TV mileage than, er, whatever the Ab Fab characters are supposed to be. The irresponsible, pissed mother element of the show is especially jarring for me.
I can understand that Ab Fab is a very marmite thing: you love it or loathe it.
SVT has been showing some episodes recently and they’ve aged rather well.
Patsy and Edina may be knocking back Bollinger all the time but some of the funniest scenes are about Edina constantly jumping on every ridiculous trend that comes along and her preposterously fragile ego. June Whitefield and Julia Sawalha are prefect foils to the monstruous excesses of E and P. And Patsy is a magnificently grotesque comic creation who could have walked right out of a Gerald Scarfe cartoon.
I see all that, but for a comedy to work if must have at least some basis in reality. I don’t see anything in Ab Fab that relates to the real world. Those characters don’t speak to me at all.
Clearly I’m a minority though as millions do like and enjoy it. cf: Mrs Brown’s Boys, Michael McIntyre
You stick to your guns, JC. The alchemy of what makes us laugh is a strange and wondrous thing and we should trust in our own funny bones and not laugh bcause everyone else is.
Sometimes Mrs KFD can be crying with laughter about something on TV and I’ll be sitting there completely unamused. Or vice versa.
There’s a Swedish actor called Robert Gustafson who is referred to as Sweden’s funniest man. He’s talented but he doesn’t do much for me and I refuse to follow the crowd.
Not sure about comedy having to relate to the real world.
Red Dwarf, The Goons, The Mighty Boosh: they make me laugh a lot and yet all inhabit their own peculiar universe.
Is that a cultural difference? I had a German girlfriend years ago who had a sense of humour, it just wasn’t anything like what you might think of as the British sense of humour, if such a thing can be said to exist.
With a sit com I like to know what is being lampooned, exaggerated, satirised or having the piss extracted from. With Ab Fab, I have no idea what those drunk women are supposed to be, or represent so I have no reference point for the jokes to make sense.
@Johnny-Concheroo, I’m sure you’ve met the type, without recognizing the parallel.
Imagine a couple of middle-aged men who used to be cool in the 60s – hanging with rock stars, but not actually interested in the music, just wanting to be a part of the in-crowd. And as the years pass they keep jumping onto every trend, getting jobs in the music business through contacts – but still not interested in the music, just wanting to be “friends” with the latest big stars, get invited to parties, score with young chicks by exaggerating their power in the industry.
They’ve had every cutting edge haircut and facial hair through the years (not necessarily at the right time), they bought checked shirts in the 90s (or went full Ali G), they chucked their (mostly unplayed) vinyl for CDs, their CDs for downloads, and now they’re buying lots of vinly again (for the most expensive turntable, natch). They’ve switched mp3-players and smart phones too many times to mention, always getting the latest gizmo.
Switch Patsy and Edina’s Bolly and red wine for weed and party pills and the prim daughter for a son who refuses to play in a band, et voila!
Hey, I’ve got an idea Locust. Maybe Hepworth and Ellen could star in a sitcom version of this?
I’ve certainly met two or three people of the kind Loki so brilliantly describes!
One of my sisters best friends really is a Patsy, and I have seen the Eddie stereotype frequently, not least with the straighter daughter bemoaning the maternal behaviour. All entirely recognisable caricatures to me. Clearly different circles, eh. (Grammar school boy were you?)
“Clearly I’m a minority” – AW t-shirt.
Sub-text: “… as millions do like and enjoy it.”
Should be “I’m an oppressed minority”
It has been speculated that Saunders’ character is partly based on Lynne Franks who ran a PR company in the 80s and was a colorful character. I worked on an event for Lynne Franks PR, probably around 1990 (no idea who the end client was.) My recollection is that Franks was pleasant but breezed in, full of unrealistic ideas, rather like a toned down Edina, as you might expect.
I’m no expert but I see Ab Fab as being about priveliged women who have inherited their money and pass their time writing for a fashion magazine. Their jobs are not *important*, not even to them, but their egos are. Consequently, they spend all day bitching, getting drunk and trying to be noticed.
Hilarious description @Locust. And @davebigpicture‘s idea for a Hepworth/Ellen sitcom was an absolute winner too.
The Thick of It and it’s film equivalent, In The Loop
Loved The Thick of It but found In The Loop very disappointing, taking it out of its natural environment to Washington just didn’t work for me.
I really like In The Loop – has a different dynamic than the series. Tom Hollander is fab and it’s not The Malcolm Show, great cameo by Coogan.
The only off bit for me was the Royal Festival Hall used for the UN HQ. That carpet is just far too recogniseable for a London gig goer.
That is brilliant. The only review ever I’ve read where a film is docked points for inappropriate floor covering 🙂
the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film is quite watchable. Pedants will say that it’s based on the book, rather than the TV series. They’d be wrong though.
It is indeed vey watchable.
I think it works best for those with no knowledge of the book, radio or TV series.
My step daughter absolutely loves it, I just felt it was missing “something” (maybe I was being overly critical and pedantic about it).
The Hitchhikers film was like some of your favourite jokes being told very slowly by someone who didn’t really understand English. Appalling
The best way to enjoy Hitchhikers is to go back to the original radio series. No subsequent adaptation comes close. The film is particularly bad. The TV series is better, despite the terrible FX (especially Zaphod’s second head) and the presence of the totally miscast Sandra Dickinson.
Yep. I listened to the second series again recently. It’s still a wonderful production.
Valentine Dyall as the Custodian of the Total Perspective Vortex. Sinister and laconic, pitched brilliantly. John Le Mesurier as the Leader of the Birds in the 16 mile high statue. All presented precisely in your imagination by the background sounds alone.
I’ve never heard the HHG radio series, but I don’t doubt you’re right. Radio 4 made a 26 part series of the Lord of the Rings around the same time, dramatised by Brian Sibley – it’s magnificent. Also features the great John Le Mesurier (as Bilbo).
The first series is currently being broadcast on Radio 4Extra – episodes so far available on iPlayer.
Magnificent is right @colin-h! Le Mesurier as Bilbo, Ian Holm as Frodo, Robert Stephens as Aragorn, Michael Hordern as Gandalf (a definitive performance, in my book)…
The original radio series is truly a thing of beauty.
It could be my Desert Island Discs item of choice.
No, a real pedant would say it started as a radio series and they’d be right
The same pedant would also be right in saying no one who enjoyed the radio series could possibly enjoy that awful film.
Thunderbirds Are Go! I loved it when I was 6.
Great scene in an interstellar nightclub with Cliff and The Shadows.
How times change, eh? Despite the Tracy family’s obvious American-ness (Starring Shane Rimmer as Scott!) and what seemed like Lew Grade’s need to appeal to the transatlantic audience, the musical interlude is provided by The Shads. In contrast, decades later when Brendan O Carroll was making his film of Agnes Brown, the only major change was to sub her heartthrob of Sir Cliff with Sir Tom Jones because the (hoped for) American audience wouldn’t know the Power To All Our Friends hit maker from Adam Ant…
Gerry Anderson and Cliff Richard had adjoining holiday properties in Portugal – probably easier to pop over the fence and ask the neighbour instead of trekking across the Atlantic to try scouting up some talent.
And really, who would he have signed up? Probably someone like Gary Lewis and the Playboys or some other third division act (Cliff would have at least been familiar with Thunderbirds, as opposed to some clueless Yank).
Tony Hancock’s The Rebel is technically not a film version of his Half Hour, but it’s in essence the same thing (loosely based on a radio episode called the The Poetry Society, fact fans). And it’s one of my all-time favourite films, quite possibly the film I’ve watched more times than any other. Not just any other comedy film, but *any* other film.
I assumed someone was going to mention the Are You Being Served film, which was on the tellybox tonight – I seem to remember it was more than averagely watchable, but I will report back once I’ve given it a viewing.
Good point. I love it too. Falls apart a bit in the last half hour but pretty flawless up until then.
I adore “The Rebel.” Again, my memory says that whenever it got a showing, the “Radio Times” would give it a miserly 2 out of 5.
Its less than respectful points on the modern art world were, and still are, absolutely spot on.
‘What’s that?’
‘That, madam, is a self-portrait’
‘Who of?’
‘Laurel an’ ‘Ardy! Who of…?’
Oh wondrous moon with silvery sheen
That doth cast it’s light upon East Cheam
Through golden sun and morning mist
2 o’clock, Friday, chiropodist
‘Ere where’s the last line of me poem?
– oh I rubbed it out to remind you about your corns. You know you can’t get your boots on if you leave it more than a month
That is women as I see them.
– oh, you poor man
‘Wot kind of women ‘ave yew been knockin’ about wiv?’
“… and there is the third lot of paintings, which for the purposes of this discussion we shall hereafter refer to as ‘the rubbish’ ”
“Who painted the rubbish?”
“I did.”
Surprised no one’s mentioned Monty Python yet….
Whilst not exactly based on the original TV series, Holy Grail and Life of Brian are two of the funniest movies full stop.
Yeah I thought someone might mention the Python movies. Another kind of “cheaty” one is Shaun Of The Dead, which is often referred to as a movie of Spaced, having a similar vibe and cineliterate humour. Not all tv -> films are just feature length episodes relocated to Benidorm/Ibiza, there is also the “Al Pacino as Arthur Scargill”-style Hollywoodisation of a British property e.g. the Mel Gibson fronted movie of Edge Of Darkness from a few years back..
There was of course an original Dad’s Army with the TV cast back in he day. That worked pretty well as I recall. There was also a West End show which I remember my folks taking me to see. (The soundtrack is on Spotify).
A Till Death Us Do Part film also tracked Alf Garnet through the war years.
Fascinating idea. I’ve not seen much of the character but I thought his whole schtick was giving out about immigrants. Not so much material there during “the war years”..?
We saw a Steptoe and Son stage play in Brighton a few years ago called Murder in Oil Drum Lane which was very good. The two actors reprising the roles really had it nailed and the story was pretty good too.
I have a vague memory of Morecambe and Wise’s The Intelligence Men (?) being very funny. But I was a child when I saw it and I adored anything with Eric and Ern. Having said that there was another movie, That Riviera Touch, which wasn’t good.
There was also “The Magnificent Two” (the South American revolution one)… all of these were bank holiday staples back in the day, and I have a soft spot for That Riviera Touch, though empirically it’s far from great…
The M&W movies were the work of their original scriptwriters Dick (Hills) & Sid (Green), and was towards the end of their working relationship – soon after, M & W moved from ITV to BBC, and though Dick & Sid wrote the first BBC series, for the 2nd, M & W were teamed up with Eddie Braben and the rest is comedy history…
… and Eddie Braben’s final gig before his death was writing for Ant & Dec, though he had nothing to do with their bloody awful venture into film-making…
They were all awful, but some of their natural charm comes through and seeing them removed from their usual comfort zone is interesting.
Does Monty Python count? Technically speaking TV stars after all…
Failing that, obviously Cannon and Ball’s seminal The Boys In Blue is THE great lost classic.
I also dimly recall Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones (and Jimmy Nail I think) in something called Morons From Outer Space…
I can’t decide if Morons is brilliant or rubbish.
Seen it several times, always enjoyed it, and has some very good bits in it.
I think it just goes on too long – could’ve been done and dusted in an hour.
Still better than the Smith and Jones adaption (attempt) at Tom Sharpe’s Wilt
Semenal Boys in Blue more likely… Load of old toss.
They always go on holiday, don’t they? From Are You being Served? to The Inbetweeners there is often travel involved.
I guess this is because TV companies own the sets for the familiar shows and so alternatives have to be found by the film productions, but it’s often unsettling to take characters from a sitcom and place them in an entirely different ‘sit’.
This is why so many of these film adaptations of sitcoms fail
The comedy comes from the tension between a set of characters being stuck together in an environment/situation they want to escape but can’t.
Remove them from the situation (i.e. put them on holiday, make them rich, release them from prison etc) and most of the tension goes, and so does the comedy.
I wonder if they make a movie of the excellent “Benidorm” it will be set in a suburban street in Croydon?
Bedding-dorm? (Worth a try).
Or Benidormitory Town? Located near Staines
The film Sweeney 2 turns this familiar device on its head, with the villains being British expat gangsters returning to Blighty for targeted raids. The earthier second film adheres to the truism that movies of tv shows work better when the characters stick to what they did best on the parent show, but I’ve always preferred Sweeney! in which Regan and Carter get mixed up with OPEC and diplomats and the Secret Service. It may be relevant that I first saw this film at “a certain age” when the presence of not-entirely-clothed Lynda Bellingham and Diane Keen had quite an effect…
Incidentally, all these posts down, no real consensus on any single film being top dollar. The love-in for real contender “In The Loop” lasting exactly one post and failing over a carpet. Only by stretching the definition to allow The Rebel and Life Of Brian do we get AW thumbs up.
One I’ve just thought of is the Shaun The a Sheep Movie which I think is amazeballs. However, I wonder whether this is also cheating as the Aardman peeps are accomplished film-makers and Shaun himself began as a film star…?
I seem to recall reading that there were no less than five On The Buses film – along with 170-odd TV episodes. Bl**dy hell… Somehow, everything went really, really crap in Britain in the 70s, didn’t it? The British film industry became a threadbare no-budget load of sleazy Mick-Jagger-lookalike-comedy window cleaners in extended Benny Hill romps around overcast suburban housing estates while over on TV somebody thought 50-year-old Reg Varney and his greasy quiff in a never-ending series of similarly seaside postcard excapades with Anthea Redfern-ish ‘birds’ was where it was at. Either that or a load of 30-something second-raters pretending to be schoolboys in ‘Please Sir’ or whatever it was called. I’m just old enough to remember all that rubbish on TV. From the 60s to that… what happened?
You had me at “sleazy”.
Sketch group The Trap, who do the brilliant podcast POTOm, have done audio commentaries on a few films from 70’s sitcoms: here’s their ‘On The Buses’. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/potom/id572269467?mt=2&i=355887304
Whilst you’re at it, as an introduction to their admittedly esoteric shtick, this had me in tears the first few times I heard it. https://youtu.be/GlLw9jXT-Gc
I gave the “Are You Being Served” film a go, but had to give up after half an hour.
Just two minutes in we had Mrs Slocombe asking Captain Peacock, “would you mind holding my pussy?”.
Then it had the obligatory trip to a Spanish hotel managed by Andrew Sachs, complete with German tourists: the word “Bosch” was used. We also have had liberal uses of the words “crumpet”, “fairy”, “bit of spare” … it’s political incorrectness gone mad.
I have to say that after reading the OP, the ryhthm and the tenure not to mention the texture was pure Frost.
Can you imagine piss poor transgender comedy Boy Meets Girl as scripted by On The Buses creators Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney? In the words of Peter and the Test Tube Babies immortal ditty Transvestite. “Is this some kind of joke, she’s a bloke”.
I have recently read a book about Yes Minister and their pilot episode was directed by someone who had done lots of On the Buses stuff. His approach was totally at odds with the gentle subtlety of the writing and couldn’t understand it when the writers didn’t appreciate knob gags, dolly birds and reaction shots.
The ‘Man about the House’ movie is always watchable, if no classic: has that ‘meta-TV’ bit where the gang visit LWT studios and meet celebrities, including Spike Milligan.