Screaming Lord Sutch

[George Hutchinson]

Hi Limehouse - yeah, I've got a copy of it. It's awful in many respects but quite charming in a way. It was an England that probably never existed in a time certainly before I did. I met Heinz Burt once and spent a couple of hours sat next to him in a car. He was obnoxious. Odd to think that three of the boys in the 'band' all died within a few years of each other (Steve Marriott, Heinz Burt and David Hemmings) when they were the youngest ones in the movie. Mind you, thinking of it I think most of the people in that film have since died. It was 1963.

PHILIP

[Limehouse]

Phillip,

Yes, Con O'Neill was terrific in Telstar. I didn't know that story about the rent boy being found dead. I knew Joe was homosexual (of course, the show made that perfectly clear but I knew it anyway) and his temper was legendary but obviously much worse than most could have imagined. He seemed a bit of a tortured soul, as geniuses often are.

Do you remember the film 'Live it Up" starring Heinz?

Limehouse

[Steve]

Infamy, infamy ..... they've all got it in for me !

[Limehouse]

Hi Limehouse

I don't find the Carry On films the least bit embarrassing - I have the entire collection on DVD - I love watching them and find them very funny. Earlier today there was an 'On The Buses' film on tv which the Radio Times reviewer described as truly awful. I watched it and enjoyed it.

In fact I enjoy these films so much that I make sure the door is closed when I watch them, so that I cannot be disturbed, the window too. I keep the volume down low because I know that not everyone shares my love of these films .....

You'd get on well with my son Steve! He's 21 and loves the Carry Ons and the On the Buses films.

There are some great one-liners in the Carry Ons:


"Oh no Matron! Be careful, remember i was once a weak man"

"That's alright. Once a week is enough for any man"

And:

A young woman's mother to Sid James just before they go off on holiday in Carry On Camping:

"She migh trust you, but frankly, I've got sore misgivings"

"Well, you'd better put some talcolm powder on them then!!"



As for On the Buses, all my daughter and I can think of is 'how on EARTH did any woman fancy that bus conductor. He was VILE! And Reg Varney - he was about 45! Thank goodness modern women have more taste!

[George Hutchinson]

Limehouse - I saw TELSTAR twice when it had it's pre-West End run here in Guildford. It was magnificent (except for Linda Robson who was terrible). The big surprise was Adam Ricketts. Dumb blond from Emmerdale, bit of a David Beckham of the soap world, turns out to actually be a very good actor. Star of the show was, of course, Con O'Neil. I had a chat to him and he was a nice guy. I also managed to speak to Nick Moran a couple of times (he wrote the play) as I have VHS copies of Joe's old ciné films including the actual Outlaws event in London when they were forced to go through the city in cowboy gear on a stagecoach as a promotional gimmick (as referred to in the play).

Yep, Joe was a genius but over the years I met loads of people who worked for him - the list is huge; I met literally dozens of them between 1991-3 - and the over-riding thing they all talked about was his temper. He could be extremely violent and snap in an instant. Another thing that is always hushed up was that he was involved in his final days with a rent boy called Bernard Oliver whose body was found dismembered in a suitcase not long before Meek shot his landlady and then killed himself. I've been in the actual building where he worked and died. It was most unusual, especially as it was so hard to picture what it had been like (it was empty at the time).

Oh, and Chris - uploaded to the net just for you...



PHILIP

[Robert]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmSezwugtd8

[Robert]

Hi Steve

On one show involving Neil Innes, I remember he introduced a clip of Jake Thackray singing "On again" or something like that. It was the first time I heard it. It's hilarious, but decidedly un-PC!

[Steve]

... Confessions of a Pop Performer is one of my favourites, it has Jill Gasgoigne with no clothes ... hang on a minute, who's that woman in a white coat? Oh, my wife - now I'm in trouble!

[Steve]

.... sorry for the abrupt end to the last post, there was someone knocking at my closed door. I have to go now, there is a man in a white coat wanting to show me something along the corridor.

The Confessions Of films are also really, really good ... I just wish those men in the white coats didn't plug my chair into the mains when I start to watch one ...

[Steve]

I remember thinking that Carry On films were hilarious and yet today you can only laugh with embarrassment!

Hi Limehouse

I don't find the Carry On films the least bit embarrassing - I have the entire collection on DVD - I love watching them and find them very funny. Earlier today there was an 'On The Buses' film on tv which the Radio Times reviewer described as truly awful. I watched it and enjoyed it.

In fact I enjoy these films so much that I make sure the door is closed when I watch them, so that I cannot be disturbed, the window too. I keep the volume down low because I know that not everyone shares my love of these films .....

[Steve]

Hello Robert

I remember Rutland Weekend Television, it was a very funny Monty Python-esque spin-off. Most people just wont remember Rutland, that smallest of counties that only existed for a few years, and now has quite of bit of itself submerged under Rutland Water!

Steve

[Robert]

Neil Innes appeared in Eric Idle's "Rutland Weekend Television" which no one seems to remember but which was quite funny.

[Chris George]

I'm a huge Bonzos fan as I used to be in a band that was always being compared to them in terms of silliness.

I knew Dave Sutch a little and it was such a shame when he died. I first met him at a public event and he was, frankly, a total arse. Awful. However, I met him again two years later at a film showing and we both arrived early and went for a coffee. The real man was lovely. He was quiet, friendly, chatty and clearly lacking in confidence. I really took to him and retrospectively it's not all that surprising to understand why he took his own life after his mum died.

I've got a photo of me and him with Honey Lantree of The Honeycombs from 1991. I used to be a huge Joe Meek fan once upon a time (their producer, the English Phil Spector to those who don't know the name).

PHILIP

Hi Philip

The photo of you with Dave Sutch and Honey Lantree of The Honeycombs sounds great. Would you be able to put it here in this thread? I hope so.

Chris

[Limehouse]

Oh dear, am I a rabid??

I don't remember the Bonzos doing anything too offensive but I suppose the world has moved on quite a lot. I mean, I remember thinking that Carry On films were hilarious and yet today you can only laugh with embarrassment!

[Graham]

[QUOTE=Limehouse;23719]Oh please Graham, you're a lovely bloke, don't turn into one of those PC-bashing rabids. There are too many of them on the Obama thread over in Pub Talk! [/QUOTE

OK, I promise - but there's rabids on both sides, Limehouse. What I meant to imply was that in 2008 the Bonzos would be run in if they performed their 1968 act.

Cheers,

Graham