The Altar Boy Gang

Sienna Films

Comedy
English     0     2007     Canada

Overview

The Altar Boy Gang was a satirical half hour comedy developed for the Canadian television network CBC Television in 2007. Although two episodes were shot and four more were commissioned to be written, the show was not picked up as a regular series. The two pilot episodes of this series written by Norm Hiscock aired on CBC in 2007. The show drew much angry response from Catholic groups who felt its portrayal of altar boys as drug dealing hooligans was offensive. Also the depiction of a Catholic priest who inadvertently ingests LSD was seen as disrespectful. Others enjoyed the shows and saw them merely as character studies of less-than-perfect people finding their way in the world. Kelly Makin, the director of the two pilot episodes, and David Makin, the director of photography, worked with Norm on the television show The Kids in the Hall. Andy Jones, who played the role of Father Sand, also wrote with Norm on the last season of The Kids in the Hall. Dan Redican was the story editor. The song "Soldiers of Christ" by the Canadian band Blood Meridian was the title music for the show.

Similar

Goodness Gracious Me is a BBC English language sketch comedy show originally aired on BBC Radio 4 from 1996 to 1998 and later televised on BBC Two from 1998 to 2001. The ensemble cast were four British Indian actors, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia. The show explored the conflict and integration between traditional Indian culture and modern British life. Some sketches reversed the roles to view the British from an Indian perspective, and others poked fun at Indian stereotypes. In the television series most of the white characters were played by Dave Lamb and Fiona Allen; in the radio series those parts were played by the cast themselves. The show's title and theme tune is a bhangra rearrangement of a hit comedy song of the same name. The original was performed by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren reprising their characters from the 1960 film The Millionairess. The show's original working title was "Peter Sellers is Dead", but was changed because the cast generally liked Peter Sellers. In her 1996 novel Anita and Me, Syal had referred to British parodies of Asian speech as "a goodness-gracious-me accent". One of the more famous sketches featured the cast "going out for an English" after a few lassis. They mispronounce the waiter's name, order the blandest thing on the menu and ask for twenty-four plates of chips. The sketch parodies often-drunk English people "going out for an Indian", ordering chicken phall and too many papadums. This sketch was voted the 6th Greatest Comedy Sketch on a Channel 4 list show.

More info
Goodness Gracious Me
1996