"Dya watch the quiz games? Eh? You've seen them. The quiz games on TV? Great arent they. The quiz games. On the telly. I love the quiz games, me. I love all the quiz games. All of them . . . .Blankety Blank" Stuart Davro.
Davro's clumsy neo-noir parody is based on an advert For Barclay's bank, made by Ridley Scott himself in Blade Runner style. Scott has a background in advertising and gave us 1973's Hovis advert where a baker's delivery boy pushes a bicycle up a cobbled road to the tune of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 from The New World. Everyone here probably knows that anyway.
Here is Scott's original Barclay's ad: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JnVyANe0ZnE.html It's still relevant in the way customer service is just dead-end menus on a computer screen. It makes more sense than Davro's skit, he's robbing a bank without cash? Something like that?
@@anophelesnow3957 If he was still on TV, perhaps he'd have a sketch where he tries to pay with cash at a cashless Aldi and maybe show how relevant he by still doing impersonations of Alex Higgins and Albert Tatlock.
His legacy is that line in Red Dwarf where it’s implied one of his descendants becomes one of the most renowned geniuses in human history. (And even then, it’s not entirely clear that was meant to be direct reference.)
Another Millard masterpiece! Davro was a case of right place, right time…the only major impressionist on TV was Mike Yarwood, who fell out of favour with audiences Come the 80s, Mike was a middle-aged man doing impressions of out-of-power politicians, film stars from the 40s etc Sure, Bobby Davro is hardly the epitome of great talent...but he was young, he was parodying pop stars and TV shows of the time, and it was fresh. I mean, he did Max Headroom who was big at the time, and said that it took hours of very painful prosthetics just for a 30 second sketch. Meanwhile Yarwood was gurning and still doing Steptoe!
As well as Yarwood falling out of fashion there was also the early passing of Dustin Gee when his and Les Dennis’s laughter show was fairly popular. Dennis could never carry on as a solo comedian so it opened a gap for comedy impressions that Davro was there to fill.
@@Toooldforthis78 a good point! Les was far better as an ensemble player with Dustin, or with Russ Abbott Seems to be a nice enough guy but didn’t quite have enough to carry it by himself Saw him as Uncle Fester in the West End; actually surprised me how good he was
@@tombstoneharrystudios584well, Les "I don't really know Vera" Dennis was a terrible impressionist, I don't remember Dustin Gee being any better but he could pull a brilliant Robert Mitchum face.
Yarwood fell out of favour, but for about a decade afterwards, other impressionists were doing Mike Yarwood impressions every time they did someone he'd already done. What set an impressionist apart was who they could land outside of the Yarwood canon.
Haha you're right, I did think you'd forgotten his faceplant. I was surprised how close his normal stand-up voice was to Jim Davidson's, it was almost like he was doing an impression of Jim. Maybe that's why people don't remember any of Davro's bits, his stage persona is so similar it's all been eclipsed by JD and all that people remember is Davro's name? Great video as usual, cheers!
@@commandingjudgedredd1841 I remember once. I don't recall what show it was and there's no videos of it on YT. Davro once did a brilliant Thomas the Tank Engine sketch which he played Ringo Starr, and it was done on roller-skates and it ended with Davro losing control and accidentally crashing into the camera.
Those of us who lived through those dark TV times of the 80s really suffered. It was a boon that the home computer era started near enough at the same time, that was the only thing that made it worthwhile.
It was also the rise of home video, so increasingly a Saturday night trip to the video store became the norm, but for my family my dad would religiously videotape all the rubbish we were forced to watch on a Saturday night like this then force us all to watch it through again on a Sunday!!!
@@sambwoy3well we had the spectrum, cpc and c64. All cheap devices, and the games were cheap and could be copied. Piracy and cheap games protected the whole industry.
Nice karmic vibe from the final clip now, knowing that Davro was BRUTALLY LAMPOONING both Bowen and Cheggers in his show. I bet he had a Lional Blair impression in his back pocket and all. I reckon the fall was no accident...
Their reactions are very interesting, Cheggars seems genuinely concerned and tries to help, Bowen doesn’t know what to do, Blair remains the consummate professional and calls for calm from the audience with the raise of a finger!
22:21 Jim's revenge for this 12:06 See the sneaky little touch on his leg to knock him off balance? I always knew it was deliberate and now we know why. Had a memory like an elephant did Jim. Funny how after Davro's kamikaze faceplant, he's the only one from that clip still breathing today.
The series 'Bobby Davro On The Box', 'Bobby Davro's TV Weekly/Annual', 'Davro's Sketch Pad' and 'Davro' were all made by TVS (Television South) for ITV. The rights to many TVS programmes over the years have been lost or tangled up in legal framework which may partly go some way to explaining why his own shows are not repeated or have been released on DVD.
In the 80s my mum made stage wigs for theatre and occasionally tv. She made one for Davro too. She hand stiched a big fluffy wig for an Elton John sketch, from the soft white hair from a Yak's belly... yes really 😂 All us kids got to try it on, and eventually see it on TV, a little trimmed and caked in hairspray. She was sent a signed photo from him to thank her for it too. Not my cup of tea though.... and looking back at 80s TV now I can't believe how shit it all was.
As Stuart points out Davro just turns up and says ‘do you remember everyone else is rubbish?’ when he’s rubbish himself. It wasn’t even for kids but has a strikingly unfunny, precocious child at Christmas vibe.
Davro still does stand-up these days, but has rebranded himself as a right wing anti-woke “tells it like it is” act. He played a club near me in Muswell Hill last year. I’d have love to have seen how his pro-Brexit material would’ve fared in a lefty liberal area like N10, but someone uploaded a clip of the gig which mainly consists of him doing musical impressions of Elton John, Macca etc. to backing tapes. He makes one confused comment about how Black Lives Matter is dividing us, before closing with Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me. ( Jessica Martin draws graphic novels these days BTW )
Vivid image of Bobby these days, I might not get tickets. Jessica Martin's graphic novel work is good, in fairness. Stories about Clara Bow and old Hollywood.
That six week stint I spent flipping burgers at Bultins Bogner Regis, Davro was the headline act... ...He really milked that Alex Higgins impression :P
Bloody hell that fall at the end looked very painful. A bit like watching his shows. I do remember the "We got the nose, we got the nose!" bit. Watching your channel is very addictive.
As a teenager then, ITV Saturday evenings were a no-go area, total cringe. It would be on the telly in the front room, with mum and dad dozing in front of it, and you'd catch a sketch here and there between the bouts of embarrassment that made you look away. 35+ years on, while the material is still shite, it is a goldmine of 80s pop culture. It also reminds you that that jokes about adverts and parodies of pop acts just don't exist anymore, can you imagine someone trying to do a popular stand-up about what he saw on Netflix? I will say that "Best of Bobby Davro" was an epic burn!
Also, Postman Pete - such inventive wordplay - while everyone else in the sketch has their mouths closed but obviously their own, why does Pete have that hideous papier mache Chelsea smile of a rictus grin?
Thank you Stuart! Great montage of my early work 🥰 Certainly bought back some wonderful happy memories apart from that last clip of me nearly breaking my neck in those stocks 🤪 Ouch! Excellent work sir! 👏 Oops silly me... apologies for presuming your gender. But once again thank you for all your hard work in putting this together whatever the chosen pronoun you identify as! 🥰
That accident at the end was horrific Bobby. I had to look away. It really shocked me. I hope you made a quick recovery afterwards. It's really bad that you were put in such an unsafe position and whoever was in charge of the stage, they must have taken their eye off the ball there. I bet it sticks in your memory as a really nasty incident. I've made a couple of snarky comments about your comedy but I haven't got anything against you personally. I imagine you're a decent bloke and seeing people make jokes about that accident is really upsetting. No one deserves that.
@@PooperScooperTrooper embarrassingly bad, but not even in the same league as Mike Osman's Del Boy in Stuart's 'When Barrymore Was King Of Summer' video, which I can confidently say is possibly the worst impression I have ever seen, hands down.
It’s easy to mock the past, if you can do the media archaeology to uncover the vhs, it worked at the time, though it was a comedic recession in the 70’s & the 80’s, there was a comedy boom after that era ended, 90’s, 2000,s . Give him his due, he was versatile and worked, if you think the 80’s were a joke, you haven’t looked at britain today, I think it will look shabbier than the 80’s in 20 years time?
I've learned about Bobby Davro for about two years, and I still think there's a likability factor to him. Sure the impressions aren't always the best and the jokes don't always land, but I can't blame a guy for trying. I still enjoy his Max Headroom impression from time to time.
I think THAT was the key to his success as I wrote above - he was young and dynamic and doing impressions of current pop stars & adverts etc The likes of Mike Yarwood were still doing Steptoe and Jimmy Cagney impressions years after they'd fallen from relevance
The master impressionist of the 1990s was Rory bremner. And davro knew his material material was safe. Where as bremner was very savage in comparison. Especially with bremner, bird and fortune. Behind the scenes. Bobby davro was in a battle with his bosses which cost him his mental health and he vanished from TV. He hated his own series. Which he agrees deeply unfunny. And utter rubbish. He was interviewed when he got the role on eastenders. He was he said in that interview straight out of drama school and very keen.
@ottagol1985 A place I worked at back in the eighties used to have a Fed EX driver come everyday to collect things. I'm pretty sure it was '87 when he told me he had been asked to give Davro a lift in his van. I asked what he was like, he said he's a prat. He said he never stopped talking, constant bad jokes and worse impressions, and to make it worse he was laughing at his own "funnies". The driver told me he'd never tried to drive somewhere so fast. Just thought I'd try and shift your opinion of him. It may actually endear you to him more, we all love a tryer after all. You have to admire someone who has that much belief in themself, unless it's Davro of course.
@@tombstoneharrystudios584You are so right. The sheer variety of impressions- even if they are rubbish- in this show is impressive. Yarwood’s downfall was he never upated his act.Couldn’t do Thatcher because she was a woman, and then her most celebrated impressionist wax a man ( Steve Nallon in Spitting Image).
“Well if it isn’t the Davro calling the Kraków’s shit…” 😂 I must admit also that musically a very guilty pleasure back then was the later disgraced predator Jonathan Kings “Ill slap your face” which was the theme tune to Entertainment USA, Great video as always 👍
I don't remember Jessica Martin because I avoided this sort of low comedy back then even as an 80s child. Watching this though, it's clear that she was far more talented than Davro while she was playing second fiddle to him. She's better at impersonations, she has a good singing voice, she's a really good dancer and she's quite hot in that quirky Helen Lederer/Laurel from Emmerdale sort of way. Jessica's no Felicity Kendall but then again, who is?
I realise now the pastel colours and harsh video taped lighting haunt me as much as the imminent threat of nuclear war. Or perhaps they're part of the same phenomenon. Cheers all the same Stuart. I think.
It’s a fine line between innocent nostalgia and Ooh my god what did we laugh at? 😮it was an innocent time where we were no so educated. But at the time it worked. And made people happy. BUT i would be remiss if i didn’t respect the level of attention to detail and fast edit you brought to this hilarious and insightful recap. Kudos. Keep it up. Hope you can do one for me and my 90’s crock of shite i presented and wrote in the 90’s for CBBC. Thank you for this. I love it. Even if it makes me feel slightly uncomfortable 😳 hahaha 😝
I'd call him a better stand-up by far than Robin Williams. Have a look at stuff he's done in the last ten years (here on YT). He's sharp and unpretentious, and never lets go of the audience.
Oh Lord that "Fall"... I remember hearing about that... First time I have ever seen teh clip though... I do remember enjoying Davro back in the day... But it was always when he was on a Variety Show - I feel that is where he worked best, His own show? Or Shows as he appears to have had a few... NAH! I never got to see these back in the day, And I dont feel I missed much... He was one of those acts that was never suited to a "One Man Show"
2:17 That is the most 80s set design I have ever seen. It reminds me of my parents bedroom! Making children's characters do "adult" things, that's new!
There's a few Davro DVDs avaliable, but they have nothing to do with any of his TV series, which either remain in the archives or occasionally appear on YT. With his blacking-up, jokes about asians, and references to Jewish noses, ol'Bob was certainly a Brextremist in waiting even several decades ago with his mate Jim Davidson.
I’d guess that before they did television they were all doing the club circuits where it didn’t matter if you’d stolen bits of everyone else’s act because there was a different audience every night. Suddenly having to come up with three hours of material must have been a massive strain, even with seven writers.
He was in panto about 20 years ago when I saw him last. He seemed really lovely at the end and maybe after seeing this back even a bit repentful for some of these exploits.
I was about 10 or so when he was on. even then, because I was gratefully exposed to the young ones, Saturday / Friday night live on channel 4 and the likes, I was fully tuned in to exactly how awful he was.
I liked watching his shows back in the day. I never had a problem with any of the Saturday night entertainment shows in the 80s & 90s. Helluva lot better than the garbage that's on the box these day's.
Another "impersonator" where you know who it is they're taking off, but it still sounds more like themselves. Davro is only well known because he was always on the TV. Not because of any of his actual work. Although I do remember the one where Davro and Jessica Martin do "Kenneth Williams/Barbara Windsor where they're having food . Davro -"Have some tongue" -JM "I couldn't eat anything that's come out of an animals mouth" Davro, "Well have a boiled egg then, eh." JM "This egg's off", Davro, "Don't blame me , I only laid the table !". All whilst curling his nose but somehow managing to sound more like Zippy than Kenny. Come to think about it, I only remember that episode because I was a massive Queen fan at the time and got my mom to video the episode because Davro did a (terrible) Freddie Mercury impression and I was far too busy enjoying my youth to stay in on a Saturday night to watch it.
He's still working and his live shows are still popular in theatres and comedy clubs. He's a fantastic powerhouse of jokes and impressions. Many a comic could learn from his stagecraft. Not for the ❄️and woke...
It’s from one of Davros shows (oddly I remember through the series he was strangely trying to establish ‘tomatoes’ as his catch phrase). This was an ending sketch that went wrong as the prop stock was too heavy and face planted him with him unable to put his hands out to stop himself. As I recall I think he was quite badly hurt and hospitalised. It was never broadcast, but this clip has done the rounds as it was used in a workplace safety video on how not to build props and what they didn’t do to make it safe.
This was the kind of ITV show that yer mum's werkin' class best friend would rave about, to the embarrassment of all the middle class grown ups stood around in the kitchen…. when you were sat in the living room, head buried in a Ghostbusters comic wanting all the pain to go away...😢
Bang on. He was part of the last scraps of working men's club acts that was already fast falling out of favour by the time he got his first TV vehicle.
@@tonycowin He was arguably usurped by Brian Conely just a few years later.. A kind of gurning, flexible proto-Bradley Walsh, popular among Findus Crispy-housewives. And he did songs.👍
Outrageous! Nowt against Conley but that was a Frank Sidebottom joke! (Of little Frank, incredulous at audience sympathy 'HE's only a puppet!' ). 'Light entertainment' was really that @@tonycowin
Every time I think about the depressing reality of being in my 50s, I seek out Millard's channel to remind me how absolutely abject the 80s were, and to thank my lucky stars that I can turn on Netflix or Amazon, and not have to watch this appalling base level chunder that once passed as comedy.
