AT work, my boss and I suggest writing to the lead singer of Echo And The Bunnymen in these situations. Funny how old TV shows have such a lasting effect!
My Dad wad a manager in BT during this time.... he was so scathing about E Rantzen and this tv program! How they misrepresented what anyone said who was speaking for a utility organisation.
@@MalevEvans-dw3do Yeah, but it was all tongue in cheek, wasn't it? It was a joke. We all know the people are just doing their jobs, that they don't have much power and are doing as they're told. It's not them they're blaming, it's the ridiculous rules. Besides, a lot of time That's Life was making fun of the PUBLIC rather than the organisations.
It was funny, but as an impression it was actually terrible. The voice was not even remotely similar to Cyril Fletcher, and even the mannerisms and facial expressions were completely wrong. It looked and sounded more like a third rate impression of Noel Coward. In contrast Pamela Stephenson’s impression of Esther Rantzen is absolutely spot on.
I remember this when it was broadcast! I've just been trying to contact British Gas for over an hour, and it popped back into my head for obvious reasons!
Absolutely superb. Esther’s dress held down by her pegs, Griff RhysJones as Cyril Fletcher and I think Rowan Atkinson and Mel Smith are supposed to be Glyn Worsnip and Kieran Prendiville! What a fantastic series WTNOCN was.
My wife and I still refer to this sketch and have a damn good laugh over it. Usually when we hear about someone who has demanded something from someone and the response should be 'I'm sorry, but this has nothing to do with us!'
Main reason that NTNoN has never been repeated is that a large chunk of each show was satire related to topical news stories from the week it was broadcast. They've released compilation DVDs of the great sketches that don't fall into that category but if you saw an original episode now, lots of it would go right over your head without the context of being familiar with exactly what was being spoofed.
Ah yes, back in the days when you could only buy your household appliances from the Electricity or Gas Board showrooms and they took weeks/months to be delivered.
And in 40 years nothing much has changed, has it? The only difference is you have to wait for an hour listening to music that makes you want to poke a stick in your eye. Oh, and being told constantly to piss off and do it online.
Fantastic. I'm old enough to remember all the references, but not the consequences. I suspect 'That's Life' had a really hard time keeping any belief in their show after this. Superb lampoon.
Pamela Stevenson was wonderful in this series. They all were, but I loved her versions of Angela Rippon, Jan leaming and Janet Street Porter. A great time for comedy, now sadly gone...
It's a cleverly observed idea for a sketch, where unlike the real That's Life, they're literally contacting no-one who can actually help. Really funny, and enables them to use the "nothing to do with us" jobsworth response from figures of authority as heard so often on the real show. Beautifully performed by them all, as well. :-)
I love the Ask The Family sketch. Mr Smart Arse is a Quantity Surveyor. His wife is also a Quantity Surveyor.And thier two children Nigel and Simon are both Quantity Surveyors.
I have to disagree. Mr Bean is truly awful! The first 10 minutes of the first episode were vaguely funny (if you liked Benny Hill) and then he went on and on, flogging the shit character. Pulling funny faces is only funny for so long.
I'm still watching this video 13 years after my last comment on this video. One other thing to add. The real Cyril Fletcher lived about a mile from my house, on an estate where millionaires live, but only ever saw him once, when he came in to the place I worked at in the mid 80's. Sadly I didn't serve him, but he was like he was on That's Life but without the anecdotes or jokes.
Pam Stevenson was the only Aussie who could swim outside the shark-proof netting; the sharks took one look at those teeth, and realised that she had a superior weapon!
She also appeared in a crap Series 2 episode of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Space:1999’ & an episode of The Professionals’ which concluded with Bodie & Doyle removing a grenade from her character’s bra (some top scriptwriting there…).
So sharply observed. Glynn Worsnip and Kieron Prenderville really did wave their heads about like that and they repeated the punch line just like Rowan does.
A little while ago, I was unfortunate enough to hear "You and Yours" on Radio 4 and thought it was a re-run of this sketch. Now I've seen the original again after xx years, I realise it is nowhere near as ludicrous as "You and Yours".
Rowan and Mel are mimicking the male 'That's Life' presenters of the time (Paul Heiney and Chris Serle) who used to talk that way when doing consumer investigation items like this.
@@chrisst8922 Prendiville and Worsnip had been replaced by Heiney and Serle by the time of this sketch, but it hardly matters for one pair was much like the other.
I remember the real That's Life flipped between presenters even more than in this sketch, when telling a consumer-versus-faceless-organisation story: they really played on it and would switch between the narrator and the "voice of the faceless organisation" for single-word quotes: the poor vision mixer must have cursed being rostered to That's Life ;-) Glyn Worsnip, Gavin Campbell, Maeve Alexander, Kieran Prendiville: a lot of people cut their teeth on That's Life. And Esther (plus prehensile teeth!) remained throughout. Good old Cyril Fletcher and his odd odes. There was something very creepy about how he looked so pleased with himself in his leather chair: G R-J captures that very well.
Griff is more like Nickolas Grace’s Anthony Blanche from Brodeshead Revisited than Cyril. Still funny though. The others are absolutely 100% nailing it!
"His television entertainment is constantly ruined by the appearance of a camp old twat who continuously reads his appalling drivel over the air" Heh. I wonder what the gentleman from Swansea thinks of QI.
