The memories, the memories..
What a hoot! For those of you interested in a little bit of 'did you know'...
AYBS was THE best comedy show of the mid seventies. As far as I can recall, it was on a Sat night at 6pm on BBC1 in the days of 3 channel tv. Thats right America, 3 TV channels! There was BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV. The BBC was, and still is, state run. (In Ireland, we also had our own national TV station called RTE 1, thus giving us a whopping choice of 4 to choose from!).
As the BBC was, and still is commercial free, it derived its funding from the proceeds of the TV licence that is still compulsory purchase by anybody who happens to own a tv set today. Not having to please paying advertisers gave the BBC a certain freedom to try and spread its appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Sure there were a lot of documentaries and current affairs programs and other stuff that kids like me considered boring at the time, but in hindsight, you actually learned something during the hour or two that you were allowed watch the box before going to bed. There was a regular routine to it all..thurs was 'Tomorrows World' followed by 'Top of the Pops'...Sat was 'Doctor Who' and 'AYBS'. This was quality TV, bourne out of the fact that, despite our maturing tastes, we still find shows such as this just as hilarious today.
John Inmans character was the first (and only) example of a 'supposedly' gay man on popular peak time tv for many years. Just like Mrs Slocombe and her famous pet, the humour was very much nudge nudge, wink wink. There were some boundries that were never broken, and we certainly never heard mention of Mr Humphries would be boyfriends, or anything that pointed to him being nothing more than an effeminate straight man. Every Saturday night, my brothers and I were dragged upstairs for a bath, and afterwards were allowed downstairs in our pygamas to watch the show. We would sit by the fire and laugh our heads off at the very mention of Mr Humphries being 'big in the trouser dept' or 'handy with a measuring tape', and we loved to see him camping it up with his 'I'm free' catchphrase. If truth be known, we were only joining in with the laughter of our parents and the audience, and still half expecting to see a funny looking feeline making a surprise tv appearance!! Innocence days indeed....
Thanks for the laughs John, you live on in the memories of youth for so many of us.
What a hoot! For those of you interested in a little bit of 'did you know'...
AYBS was THE best comedy show of the mid seventies. As far as I can recall, it was on a Sat night at 6pm on BBC1 in the days of 3 channel tv. Thats right America, 3 TV channels! There was BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV. The BBC was, and still is, state run. (In Ireland, we also had our own national TV station called RTE 1, thus giving us a whopping choice of 4 to choose from!).
As the BBC was, and still is commercial free, it derived its funding from the proceeds of the TV licence that is still compulsory purchase by anybody who happens to own a tv set today. Not having to please paying advertisers gave the BBC a certain freedom to try and spread its appeal to as wide an audience as possible. Sure there were a lot of documentaries and current affairs programs and other stuff that kids like me considered boring at the time, but in hindsight, you actually learned something during the hour or two that you were allowed watch the box before going to bed. There was a regular routine to it all..thurs was 'Tomorrows World' followed by 'Top of the Pops'...Sat was 'Doctor Who' and 'AYBS'. This was quality TV, bourne out of the fact that, despite our maturing tastes, we still find shows such as this just as hilarious today.
John Inmans character was the first (and only) example of a 'supposedly' gay man on popular peak time tv for many years. Just like Mrs Slocombe and her famous pet, the humour was very much nudge nudge, wink wink. There were some boundries that were never broken, and we certainly never heard mention of Mr Humphries would be boyfriends, or anything that pointed to him being nothing more than an effeminate straight man. Every Saturday night, my brothers and I were dragged upstairs for a bath, and afterwards were allowed downstairs in our pygamas to watch the show. We would sit by the fire and laugh our heads off at the very mention of Mr Humphries being 'big in the trouser dept' or 'handy with a measuring tape', and we loved to see him camping it up with his 'I'm free' catchphrase. If truth be known, we were only joining in with the laughter of our parents and the audience, and still half expecting to see a funny looking feeline making a surprise tv appearance!! Innocence days indeed....
Thanks for the laughs John, you live on in the memories of youth for so many of us.
