"Dinsdale was a perfectly normal person in every way...except...except inasmuch as he was convinced that he was being watched by a giant hedgehog he referred to as Spiny Norman." Priceless stuff.
The matter-of-fact dead-pan delivery of the British comedians, while hardly moving their lips, is what I personally find so hilarious and endearing. It's a quality that makes the comedy everlastingly hilarious throughout time.
I do love how they call back to previous sketches, viz the brown coated men from the gas cooker scene earlier, Ministry of Silly Walks, and much later in the series has Spiny Norman randomly turn up calling Dinsdale again.
Thanks. I was born far away and well afterwards but this whole thing rang bells. And now I know why, as I indeed had read about the Krays some hazy number of years ago.
I love how they dance around Dinsdale's (aka, Ronnie Kray) homosexuality: "his work for charity. He took a warm interest in boy's clubs, sailors homes, scouting jamborees," etc. As a teen seeing this for the first time, it all went over my head, so it's even funnier now that I'm older, especially knowing the history of the Krays.
My experience exactly! When I were a lad, we didn't have this internet nonsense, we used carrier pigeons and called it good! I'd never even heard of the Krays, so the joke sailed right over my head, too. But I still laughed like a drain. And the very next day I reduced a classmate and fellow Python fan to helpless giggles by whispering to him that he really knew how to treat a female impersonator! Good times.
This is the result when a madcap but brilliant group are given free rein to do whatever they like. The BBC, and even Python at times, had no idea what they were doing, but it resulted in some of the most sublime comedy in existence.
Palin is great, but Graham has the best part as the criminologist: "After all, he only did what most of us simply dream of doing...I..ghr....I'm sorry!" and so forth. Brilliant.
You gotta love the way in which characters from other sketches make cameo appearances in this sketch, such as all the men from the Gas Board (the New Cooker Sketch) and the Minister of Silly Walks.
I managed to keep a straight face in the beginning, but the criminologist just broke me down. "...a murderer is only an extroverted suicide. Dinsdale was a looney BUT he was a happy looney. Lucky bastard!" ROFLMAO!!!
The sudden close-up of Palin's face when the question of 'Doug' came up is such a brilliant stroke of creativity, as is the whole interview. A lad with a tactical nuclear device being the local constable---Indeed!
And Dinsdale says 'I hear you've been a naughty boy Clement' and he splits me nostrils open and saws me leg off and pulls me liver out and I tell him my name's not Clement and then... he loses his temper and nails me head to the floor.
Absoloutely brilliant sketch of courses it was a spoof about the krays ..my favourite bits were the schoolmaster trying to explain in mime what they were like ...and Stig O Tracey saying what a smashing bloke Dinsdale was even though he nailed his wifes head to a coffee table and obviously nailed his head to the floor on several occaisons Class
Amusingly, Terry Jones later directed and played Toad in a musical adaptation of “The Wind in the Willows” for Disney. (Eric Idle was Ratty, and John and Michael had cameos as well.)
strange how this reminds me of the time michael moore interviewed a soldier in iraq, saying "you cant kill someone without killing a part of yourself" how true....
"Sancho Panza (Mr. Organs) spoilt an otherwise impeccably choreographed rape scene with his unscheduled arrival and persistant cries of 'What's all this then?'.
"As for the performance of Superintendent Harry "Snapper" Organs as Sancho Panza, the audience were bemused by his high-pitched Welsh accent and intimidated by his abusive ad-libs."
Everyone was frightened of Doug.....he used his position of......power....he was the controller of BBC2 and, subject to ratification by Jimmy Saville, errmmm....he could...(swallow nervously).......well, 'e could destroy a public persona wiv one column in The Sun.
OHH-! wait a tick, @5:20- Terry Jones mentions someone named "Blind Pugh". ... John Cleese played a character named Blind Pew in "Yellowbeard" . Coincidence? 😮
“Sancho panzo ruined an otherwise impeccably choreographed rape scene, with his unscheduled appearance, and persistent cries of ‘what’s all this then?’l 😆😆
