[Afamilyatwar-list] The Wisdom of Comedy

[Brian Renforth]

Tend not to see much of Norman Wisdom on TV nowadays.

One film which really stands out is, "On The Beat" where he impersonates a police officer! I can thoroughly recommend that, even if you're not a fan of him.

He did a series for ATV Network (an ITV region like Granada) called, "Nobody Is Norman Wisdom" in the '70s. I have memories of it but cannot be seen today as ATV wiped all the videotapes of the  series!

Laurel and Hardy remain my personal comedy favourites.

Got Network's "Armchair Cinema" to view (this includes the pilot of, "The Sweeney"). I'll be adding their release of, "The Spoils of War" in due course.

Much of, "When The Boat Comes In" was filmed in North Shields in NE England. Not far from where I live.

Cheers
Brian

Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Scott Filderman via Afamilyatwar-list<mailto:afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>
Sent: ‎26/‎03/‎2018 19:01
To: afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu<mailto:afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>; Bryan<mailto:bry at nhooton.plus.com>
Subject: [Afamilyatwar-list] The Wisdom of Comedy

Reading through these links suggested that I ask: just how popular IS Norman Wisdom these days? I know he was fabulously popular (otherwise how explain all the movies, etc), but my American radar can’t quite “get” him. He seems a combination Charlie Chaplin/Jerry Lewis (given sheer history, I’m guessing he was a huge influence on Jerry Lewis, who stole left and right). I love Buster Keaton; he never asked you to feel sorry for him. There is a quality of sentiment in Wisdom’s scrappy little guy that happens not to work for me. Oh, well, back to my chocolate ....

BTW, I am waiting for my purchase of The Spoils of War. I don’t think I can make it through Sam after a season of When the Boat Comes In. Maybe a Norman Wisdom film to break up the intensity?...



On Thursday, February 22, 2018, 4:35 PM, Bryan via Afamilyatwar-list <afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu> wrote:

Hello all
  Here is a link to today's edition of The Times which Tim mentioned.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/racist-70s-tv-falls-foul-of-censors-talking-pictures-tv-a-family-at-war-jlxt6ck5n



Over the past 40 years there have been many excellent series on UK TV. Scott is obviously enjoying one of them - The Onedin Line. But I hope all members of our group have watched the two other series by John Finch, which were as popular as AFAW. For those who have missed them they are
SAM                               https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_(1973_TV_series)    and
THE SPOILS OF WAR http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373622/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

Both are really excellent, as is everything written by John Finch.

Happy viewing

Bryan
_______________________________________________
Afamilyatwar-list mailing list
Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu<mailto:Afamilyatwar-list at baylor.edu>
https://mailman.baylor.edu/mailman/listinfo/afamilyatwar-list
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.baylor.edu/pipermail/afamilyatwar-list/attachments/20180326/46feb441/attachment.html>