A Show Called Fred

GB

Comedy
English     0     1956     GB

Overview

A Show Called Fred was the successor series to The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast only in London area. It was 25 minutes plus adverts. It was predominantly a sketch comedy attempting to translate the audio antics of the The Goon Show into visual antics in bizarre and often surreal comedy sketches which just suddenly ended with a new sketch beginning. Many performers played small parts in the shows like Ernest Clark, Jon Jon Keefe, Patricia Driscoll, etc. Famous people of the day like Hans and Lotte Hass were parodied. Canadian star, Patti Lewis had a singing spot about the middle of the show, and Max Geldray a music spot later on. There were few taboos with sketches showing people in various states of undress, cameramen, behind the scenes workers and the studios. The Ying Tong song was sung for no apparent reason at various times. The series was written by Spike Milligan and produced and directed by Richard Lester. It was followed by Son of Fred later in 1956. A half hour special Best of Fred was broadcast on 18 September 1963 combining surviving sketches from A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred. The 1995 convention of the Goon Show Preservation Society was billed as A Weekend Called Fred.

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