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What a treat of a day for the comedy nerd, Little Richy Herring. I am curating the Bristol Slapstick Festival this weekend and getting to meet and chat to some of my comedy heroes.
The surreal nature of the day began early as I found myself sitting in one of the boxes of the Bristol Old Vic watching a WC Fields film whilst sitting next to Syd Little. As we sat there my Apple Watch beeped with the news that Windsor Davies had died (I still haven’t heard from Matthew Crosby so can’t definitively say that Windsor was survived by Matthew’s wife, but it’s probably the case). Should I lean over and let Syd know. What if he and Windsor were great friends?
I knew that I had the chance to be the man who told Syd Little that Windsor Davies had died, but I decided not to spoil his enjoyment of the film. Someone else would take the title. But though I had lost out, it was the right thing to do.
I was desperate to get a selfie with Syd, but the film dragged on a bit and he had to dash off before the end for his train, so the double act of Little and Herring is not to be. Not this time.
Then I had lunch with the surviving Goodies (all the Goodies- Hooray) and Sally Phillips (Spam-o) before taking the stage to interview my childhood (and adulthood) heroes. They were everything you’d want on stage and off and have given me permission to put this interview up as a podcast (will be in a few weeks at the end of this series, I think). Sadly this one wasn’t filmed too so it will be audio only, but there’s lots of great stuff in there, though the most gratifying thing was the love in the room for this ground-breaking trio. It’s clear how much influence they had over the Young Ones, the Mighty Boost and definitely Lee and Herring. Anarchy that could be mistaken for a kids’ show, but that is actually subtly and more pervasively transgressive than people realised. There are, it’s true, a few things that wouldn’t be acceptable today, but the great stuff in the Goodies is timeless and the special effects are a lovely mixture of home-made nonsense and extremely impressive Hollywood-style genius.
So the nicest thing about today was for me to be able to tell the Goodies what they mean to me (whilst also being rude about how amazing it is that they’re all alive) and to have a full Old Vic theatre applaud them too. They got a well-deserved standing ovation.
I had dinner with them too and they were full of stories about the old days and the ridiculous talent that sprung out in Cambridge in the 60s and the genius and demons of Peter Cook….
I couldn’t be happier.
And along with this, I was worked very hard by the Festival, as I conducted a 90 minute with the brilliant Tim Vine about his favourite comedy clips and the difficulty of constructing one-liners. We won’t be able to include the clips on the podcast, but I think it will make sense.
And to round things off I talked to Joe Thomas and Damon Beesley from the Inbetweeners in the evening, before heading off to the hotel for a drink (or camomile tea- I am doing well) and more conversation about the state of the country and comedy and the declining health of some of our elder statesmen and women of comedy.
I had ostensibly been working all day, but none of it felt like work.
There’s more Slapstick Festival on Sunday and I am hosting a screening of some Laurel and Hardy shorts at 8pm at the Old Vic if you’re at a loose end in Bristol.
